Remove Hidden Data from Word Templates

Removing hidden data is supported in Microsoft Word RTF and DOCX templates only.

As you work in Microsoft Word templates, some personal information as well as some hidden document properties are stored in the template. This information may compromise the security of the template as well as affect the size of the template. 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 the template. You can remove this data from a single template or from multiple templates at a time.

You can also remove hidden data from assembled Word documents. See Remove Hidden Data from Assembled Documents for details.

To remove hidden data from Word templates

  1. Open a template library. (See Open a Library.)
  2. Select the templates from which you want to remove the data.
  3. Choose Hidden Data Remover (Tools menu). The Hidden Data Remover dialog box appears.
  4. Optionally, click Analyze. HotDocs analyzes the templates you have selected and reports how much space in the file each option listed in this dialog box is using. (This information appears in parentheses next to each option.)
  5. In the Document Data group, select any of the following options:
    • 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 template file.
    • 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 RTF template.

Once you remove this data from a template, continued editing of the template may reintroduce the extra data back into the template. You can prevent Word from adding this data to the template. Click here for details.  

  1. In the Document Properties group, select which properties you want to remove from the template. (This includes information stored in the Properties dialog box for a given template. It usually represents information about who created the template.)
  2. In the Document Markup group, select any of the following options:
    • Accept all tracked changes updates the template with any additions or corrections made with Word's Track Changes feature.
    • Turn off change tracking disables the Track Changes option.
    • Remove all comments removes comments made in the template using Word's Comment feature.
  3. Once you've selected which data you want to remove, click Remove Data. HotDocs removes the data from the selected templates.