View, Edit & Remove Office Metadata

Office Metadata inventories supported document properties, comments, tracked changes, hidden items, external relationships and technical findings in modern Microsoft Office files. It lets you stage supported edits or removals, review their effect and download a validated copy without silently changing review-only items.

Before you start

A signed-in account is required. Keep the original file and use a valid non-macro DOCX, XLSX or PPTX within current limits.

Best for

• Checking a file before external sharing.
• Reviewing author and document properties.
• Finding comments, notes or tracked changes.
• Reviewing hidden sheets, slides, document variables or external links where supported.
• Preparing a controlled metadata-edited copy.

How to use it

1. Sign in and add one or more supported Office files.
2. Wait for inspection to complete and read every warning group.
3. Review properties, comments/changes, hidden content/links and technical findings.
4. Choose only supported edits or removals you intend to make.
5. Review the complete change summary, especially actions that alter visible content.
6. Run the validated transformation and download the new file.
7. Reopen it in the relevant Office application and inspect content and behavior.

Important options

Property values can be kept, replaced or cleared only where the field contract allows it. Comments can be preserved, anonymized or removed where supported. Tracked changes can be preserved, accepted or rejected as a whole; accepting or rejecting can alter visible content. Review-only findings have no automatic removal control.

Processing and queue

What you receive

Inspection produces an inventory and warnings. A transformation produces a separate validated DOCX, XLSX or PPTX with an _metadata-edited filename. The original remains unchanged.

What to check before relying on the result

Reopen the result and verify visible text, formulas, sheets, slides, images, comments, tracked changes and intended links. Reinspect metadata if the disclosure risk matters.

Limitations

• The tool does not prove that every conceivable hidden or recoverable trace is gone.
• Macro-enabled extensions are not accepted.
• Some technical or unsupported findings remain review-only.
• Counts do not explain the business significance of each item.
• Removing or accepting review content can change visible document meaning.

Privacy and file handling

Office processing uses a local native Open XML worker and temporary files. Downloadable results and job metadata follow current retention controls.

Troubleshooting

If a file is rejected, verify that it is a real DOCX, XLSX or PPTX rather than a renamed or macro-enabled file. Read protected-document and structural warnings. If transformation fails, keep the original and reduce the staged changes to supported operations before retrying.

Examples

• Remove supported author properties before publishing a template.
• Review comments and tracked changes before sending a contract externally.
• Inspect hidden sheets and external links in a received workbook.

Related

• /guides/check-office-document-metadata
• /guides/remove-document-metadata-before-sharing
• /help/document-compare