Quick answer
Drop the .docx into Doc Scrubber on this page, leave the options ticked, and download the clean copy. If you would rather stay inside Word, run Document Inspector on a copy of the file. The tool runs in your browser and shows what it found and what is still in the clean copy. A Word file can carry author names, comments, tracked changes and file properties that are easy to miss on screen.
Microsoft’s route, as its Document Inspector page words it for Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2021, 2019 and 2016: save a copy first (File, Save As). In the copy, on the File tab select Info, Check for Issues, then Inspect Document. Tick the types of hidden content to check, select Inspect, and select Remove All next to the types you want gone.
What Word says it can find and remove
Microsoft’s Document Inspector page lists these checks for Word, each described as finding and removing the items named: Comments, Revisions, Versions, and Annotations (comments, revision marks from tracked changes, version information, ink annotations); Document Properties and Personal Information (including the Summary, Statistics and Custom tabs of the Document Properties dialog box, username and template name); and one check each for Headers, Footers, and Watermarks, Hidden Text, Custom XML Data and Invisible Content.
The same page gives limits. The Hidden Text check cannot detect text hidden by other methods, for example white text on a white background, and the Invisible Content check cannot detect objects covered by other objects. It also warns that “it is not always possible to restore the data that the Document Inspector removes”, so work on a copy.
Microsoft’s file properties page says document properties, also known as metadata, are “details about a file that describe or identify it”, such as title, author name, subject and keywords. Its page on privacy options (Windows versions of Microsoft 365, Office 2021, 2019 and 2016) describes a setting, “Remove personal information from file properties on Save”, and says it is turned off in Word. That page does not list which properties the setting clears.
Hiding is not removing. On its tracked changes page Microsoft says the No Markup view “only temporarily hides changes” and that “They will be visible again the next time someone opens the document.” Microsoft Learn’s Word comment reference, which quotes ISO/IEC 29500, shows a comment stored with an author name and initials.
Clean the file with Doc Scrubber
- Keep your original file; you get a separate copy.
- Above the drop zone, leave these ticked: Document properties and personal info, Comments (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and annotations (PDF), Replace author names on remaining Word comments and tracked changes with “Author”, Revision ids in Word files and Camera and GPS data in photos embedded in Office files.
- Set Tracked changes in Word files. The default is Leave them in the file; the other choices are Accept all changes and Reject all changes. Accepting or rejecting edits the text of your document, so pick one on purpose. The guide on removing tracked changes and comments covers that choice.
- Drop your .docx on the drop zone or select Choose files. Old .doc files and password-protected files are not supported. Up to 5 files at a time are free, and no file is uploaded (check the Network tab in your browser).
- Read the Found in your file table, then select Download clean copy.
- Read the Still in the clean copy table, which is re-read from the new file, and open the copy in Word before you send it.
With those options ticked, the tool removes from a .docx: author, last modified by, title, subject, keywords, description, category and the dates; company, manager, template, total editing time and hyperlink base; custom properties; the preview thumbnail; custom XML parts (unless a Word content control is bound to them); comments and the reviewer list; the attached-template path; revision ids; and camera and GPS data in embedded JPG, PNG and WebP photos.
What this does not remove
Doc Scrubber reports these but leaves them in, because they are content and the choice is yours: hidden text in Word, document variables and links to local file paths. Word’s Document Inspector has a Hidden Text check for text formatted as hidden. Digital signatures stay in the file but stop validating, because cleaning changes the file; the report warns you first.
With the default tracked changes setting, Leave them in the file, the tracked changes themselves stay in the document. The replace-author-names option swaps the names on them for “Author”, but their dates stay. Choose accept or reject to remove them.
It does not touch names written into the text itself: body text, headers, footers, signature blocks and watermarks. It also leaves text inside images, the file name, macros, embedded files and objects, photos in formats other than JPG, PNG and WebP, and any copy stored elsewhere, such as an email you already sent. This is a practical checklist, not legal advice; read the clean copy before it leaves.
Lawyers sending a draft to the other side, consultants sending proposals, and recruiters, HR and procurement teams should all check before a file leaves. For one field at a time, see removing the author name and removing last modified by. To look at what a file carries without Word, see inspecting a document for hidden data.