Remove Hidden Data from Assembled Documents

Removing hidden data from an assembled document is supported in Microsoft Word only.

As you work in Microsoft Word templates or documents, some personal information as well as some hidden document properties are stored in the document. This information may compromise the security of the assembled document as well as affect the size of the document file. To keep others from reviewing this information, or to reduce the size of the file, you can choose which of these Word properties should be removed from an assembled document.

Properties you select at the Hidden Data tab of the Component File Properties dialog box will be removed from the assembled document when users send the document to Microsoft Word.

In addition to removing hidden data from assembled documents, you can also remove hidden data from Word templates you're automating. See Remove Hidden Data from Word Templates for details.

To choose which properties will be removed from an assembled Word document

1. Open Component Manager. (See Open and Close Component Manager.)
2. Click the Component File Properties button. The Component File Properties dialog box appears.
3. Click the Hidden Data (Word) tab. The view changes to show the properties you can remove.
4. Select the types of data you want removed from the assembled document. You can remove content as well as properties from the assembled document. Specifically:
   • Options in the Document Data to Remove group include marks or other types of data Word uses to manage information in the document:
     • Invisible merge ID marks: Word merges revision ID numbers in the template each time you edit the template text. (Word uses these numbers to improve accuracy when merging or comparing related documents.) Each time you edit the text of a template, more IDs are added to the template and the size of the file increases. Removing these IDs reduces the size of the document.
     • Redundant metafile graphics: When you insert a graphic image in an RTF template, Word merges a Windows Metafile copy of the graphic in the template as well. This means there are two versions of the graphic in the template. Removing the metafile version can significantly reduce the size of the document.
     • Unused property codes: When you apply formatting properties (such as bold, underline, alignment, etc.) to text in a template, these codes are stored in the template. Selecting this property removes any codes that may be left in the assembled document after the section of text to which the property was applied has been removed through the use of IF instructions.
   • Options in the Document Properties to Remove group include information stored about the document, including information about who created the document. (Document properties typically appear on the Properties dialog box for a given document.)
   • Options in the HotDocs Fields to Remove group include the bookmarks HotDocs merges in a document to indicate editable answers and text.
   • Options in the Document Markup group include reviewer's comments, such as annotations or change-tracking suggestions.

Now, when the document is assembled and sent to the word processor, the data associated with each option you've selected will be removed from the document.