Office Document Scrubber

A free Remove Hidden Data add-in enables permanent removal of comments and other sensitive data from Office files, including data that cannot otherwise be removed by users, such as a list of the last 10 users who modified the file. The add-in will help organizations avoid inadvertent leaks of internal discussions and document authorship and could also quiet some privacy advocates who have criticized Office’s retention of personally identifiable information in its files.

The add-in works with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files and removes all comments, tracked changes, and the aforementioned user list. Users can also choose to eliminate Visual Basic projects, Smart Tags, hidden worksheets in spreadsheets, and a variety of other hard-to-see data. The add-in supports Office XP and Office 2003 files. However, it does not work with files protected by document passwords or Windows Rights Management Services.

The add-in includes a command-line interface that enables scripts to use its functions. For example, a script that posts content to a Web site could use the add-in to clean Office files before posting. However, the add-in is only supported on Windows XP, not on the server OSs where such a script would typically run. Nor is the add-in supported on Windows 2000, and it will not install on Windows 98 or Me.