Word (DOCX) Metadata

Runs in browser Office Documents

Word files carry more than their text: author and last-modified-by names, company and manager, revision number, total editing time, template name, custom properties, a preview thumbnail and the names on every comment and tracked change. This tool lists them, lets you change them, or strips them the way Word’s Document Inspector does — replacing comment and revision authors with "Author" — without touching the text. Nothing is uploaded.

Privacy: Processed locally in your browser. Your file is not uploaded.

What is inside a DOCX or XLSX file?

A .docx, .xlsx or .pptx file is a ZIP package of XML parts defined by ECMA-376 / ISO/IEC 29500 (Office Open XML): document text and styles, worksheets and shared strings, slides and layouts, plus relationships, media and a core-properties part with author, dates and revision metadata. That is why such files can be read, previewed and converted in the browser without Office installed — and why their metadata deserves a look before they are shared.

Remove rewrites the property parts and drops custom properties and the thumbnail; by default, author names on comments and changes are anonymised, but their text stays.
Part of the .docxHoldsAfter “Remove properties and personal information”
core.xmlCore properties: title, author, last modified by, dates, keywords and the restRewritten from scratch: empty, or the title only with “Keep the title”
app.xmlCompany, manager, template, editing time and HyperlinkBaseThose fields removed; the part is edited in place
custom.xmlAll custom propertiesRemoved
thumbnail.*The preview thumbnailRemoved
word/*.xmlThe document text, comments and tracked changes; comments and changes carry w:author and w:initialsNames become Author, initials A; the text, comments and changes always stay
people.xmlThe list of people in the documentEmptied: its w15:person entries are removed
  • Only with “Anonymise comment and revision authors” (the default)

core.xml, app.xml, custom.xml and the thumbnail sit in docProps/; people.xml sits in word/.

How to use Word (DOCX) Metadata

  1. Drop a .docx file.
  2. Choose View, Edit or Remove.
  3. For Edit, fill in the fields to change; for Remove, decide whether to keep the title.
  4. Click "Apply" and download the new file.

Word (DOCX) Metadata features

  • View core, application and custom properties
  • Comment and revision authors listed
  • Edit title, subject, author, keywords, comments, company, manager, category
  • Remove all properties and personal information
  • Comment/revision authors anonymised to "Author"
  • Thumbnail and custom properties dropped
  • Document text untouched; output is a valid .docx
  • Nothing uploaded

Word (DOCX) Metadata example

Clean a document before sending it out

Input:

proposal.docx — author "J. Smith", company "Acme", 14 tracked changes by two people

Output:

proposal-clean.docx — no author, company or dates; change authors read "Author"; the text and changes are intact

Frequently asked questions about Word (DOCX) Metadata

What does "Remove properties and personal information" delete?

The core properties (author, last modified by, subject, keywords, comments, revision, dates, category, status), the company, manager, template and editing-time fields, all custom properties, the preview thumbnail, and — with "Anonymise comment and revision authors" ticked (the default) — the author names on comments and tracked changes, which become "Author" (initials become "A" and the list of people in the document is emptied). The document text, comments and changes themselves stay.

Does it remove the text of comments or tracked changes?

No — it anonymises who made them. Accept or reject changes and delete comments in Word if you want them gone.

Can I keep the title?

Yes, tick "Keep the title" before removing. In edit mode you can set any of the main properties and leave the rest unchanged.

Does it work for .xlsx or .pptx?

This tool reads and writes Word documents. Excel and PowerPoint files use the same property parts, but their author names on comments live elsewhere, so they are not supported here.

Is my PDF uploaded to a server?

No. The file is opened and processed by your browser with WebAssembly and JavaScript; nothing is sent to Mutqan Soft or anyone else. Close the tab and the file is gone. Downloading the result needs a free account — no subscription, no payment.

Technical notes

The package is unzipped with fflate; docProps/core.xml is rewritten from scratch with the OpenXML core-properties schema, docProps/app.xml is edited in place (Company, Manager, Template, TotalTime, HyperlinkBase), docProps/custom.xml and the thumbnail part are removed together with their content-type overrides and package relationships, and, when anonymisation is on (the default), every w:author / w:initials attribute in word/*.xml (comments, ins/del, property changes) becomes "Author" / "A" and the w15:person entries of word/people.xml are removed. Entries are re-zipped with [Content_Types].xml first.

References