Quick answer
In Word, go to File, Info, Check for Issues, Inspect Document, run the inspection, and select Remove All on the document properties and personal information result. Or drop the .docx into the tool above, which lists the Author field and gives you a copy without it. Work on a copy, because Microsoft warns that removed data may not come back. Microsoft says Word for Mac has no document inspector, so on a Mac use the tool or the manual route below.
Names also hide in comments and tracked changes. Those are covered further down.
What Microsoft says about the Author property
Microsoft’s page on Office file properties (Word for Microsoft 365, 2024 and 2021, among others) says you view properties from File, then Info. In its Word steps it says: “for some metadata, such as Author, you’ll have to right-click on the property and choose Remove or Edit.”
The Document Inspector page (Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2021, 2019 and 2016) gives the route: “On the File tab, select Info, choose Check for Issues and select Inspect Document”, then select Remove All next to the results you want gone. For Word it lists the Summary, Statistics and Custom tabs of the Document Properties dialog box, plus Username, as document properties and personal information, and it describes document properties as including details such as author, subject and title. It says to use it on a copy, “because it is not always possible to restore the data that the Document Inspector removes”, and also says “There is some information that the Document Inspector cannot remove”.
Microsoft’s separate Inspect Document page says “Word for Mac doesn’t have a document inspector.” For Mac it says to view or change properties manually from the File menu, Properties.
New documents get their Author from a setting. Microsoft’s page on changing the author name (Office 2016 to 2024 and Microsoft 365) says to select File, Options, then under “Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office” type a new name in the User name box, with “Always use these values regardless of sign-in to Office” selected. That applies to documents you create from then on, and the same page says the User name setting also provides the name and initials shown in comments and tracked changes. To change the Author in one existing file, it says to open File, Info, right-click the author name under Related People and select Edit Property. That does not change the User name setting.
Microsoft’s privacy options page (Windows versions of Microsoft 365, Office 2021, 2019 and 2016) describes a setting called “Remove personal information from file properties on Save” under File, Options, Trust Center, Trust Center Settings, Privacy Options. It says the setting is turned off in Word and does not list which properties it clears. The same page says privacy options have moved in Office version 1904 or newer, and that you can still remove personal information on demand by running the Document Inspector.
Clean the file with Doc Scrubber
- Keep your original. The tool handles .docx files, not the old .doc format and not password-protected files.
- Leave Document properties and personal info ticked. This is the option that removes the Author field, along with last modified by, company and dates.
- Choose what happens to comments and tracked changes. Leave Comments (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and annotations (PDF) ticked to remove comments. Under Tracked changes in Word files pick Leave them in the file, Accept all changes or Reject all changes (accepting or rejecting edits your text).
- Keep Replace author names on remaining Word comments and tracked changes with “Author” ticked. It replaces author names on any comments and tracked changes that stay with “Author”.
- Drop the file on the drop zone, or select Choose files.
- Read Found in your file, select Download clean copy, then read Still in the clean copy, which is re-read from the new file. Open the copy before you send it.
The file is read in your browser and never uploaded. You can confirm that in the Network tab.
What this does not remove
- Names you can see: body text, headers, footers, signature blocks, watermarks, and text inside images.
- The file name.
- Hidden text and document variables. The report lists them, and they stay.
- Embedded objects and macros. A digital signature stays in the file but stops validating.
- Copies stored elsewhere: emails already sent, cloud folders, backups.
- Tracked changes themselves, unless you choose accept or reject. With the default Leave them in the file, the changes stay but their author names become “Author”, and their dates stay.
Who should do this before sending
- Lawyers sending a draft to the other side.
- Consultants and freelancers sending a proposal.
- Recruiters, HR and procurement teams, and journalists sharing documents.
Related guides: remove Last modified by from a .docx, remove tracked changes and comments from Word, and remove hidden data from a Word document.