The Document Inspector in Word – Instructions

The Document Inspector in Word: Overview

            The Document Inspector in Word lets you remove hidden document data. Accepting or rejecting tracked changes in a document most often removes all tracked changes. However, the Document Inspector in Word lets you review and inspect legal documents for hidden data and hidden tracked changes. It also finds other metadata within your document that you will not want to send to a client.

            Before using the Document Inspector to remove hidden or personal data from a document, ensure you save a copy of it. You do this because the data removed by the Document Inspector is not always possible to restore. This is very important to note.

            To run the Document Inspector in Word after saving a copy of the original document, open the document to inspect. Then click the “File” tab in the Ribbon. Then click the “Info” command at the left side of the Backstage view. To the right, click the “Check for Issues” drop-down button. Then click the “Inspect Document” command in the drop-down menu that appears.

            In the “Document Inspector” dialog box that appears, select the checkboxes for the types of data you want the Document Inspector to find and remove from the document. Then click the “Inspect” button. Word then shows any hidden information for the selected categories in a results page.

The Document Inspector in Word – Instructions: A picture of the results shown in the Document Inspector in Word.

            To remove all the data for the results shown in each category, click the “Remove All” button in that category. When finished, click the “Close” button in the “Document Inspector” dialog box. On a technical note, be aware if you choose to save your documents into the “OpenDocument Text” (.odf) format, you must run the document inspector every time you save the document into that format to remove all the hidden data.

The Document Inspector in Word: Instructions

1. Before using the Document Inspector in Word, save a copy of the document. You do this because the data removed by the Document Inspector is not always possible to restore. This is very important to note.
2. To use the Document Inspector in Word after saving a copy of the original document, open the document to inspect.
3. Then click the “File” tab in the Ribbon.
4. Then click the “Info” command at the left side of the Backstage view.
5. To the right, click the “Check for Issues” drop-down button.
6. Then click the “Inspect Document” command in the drop-down menu that appears.
7. In the “Document Inspector” dialog box that appears, select the checkboxes for the types of data you want the Document Inspector to find and remove from the document.
8. Then click the “Inspect” button.
9. Word then shows any hidden information for the selected categories in a results page.
10. To remove all the data for the results shown in each category, click the “Remove All” button in that category.
11. When finished, click the “Close” button in the “Document Inspector” dialog box.
12. On a technical note, be aware if you choose to save your documents into the “OpenDocument Text” (.odf) format, you must run the document inspector every time you save the document into that format to remove all the hidden data.

The Document Inspector in Word: Video Lesson

            The following video lesson, titled “Using the Document Inspector,” shows you how to use the Document Inspector in Word. This video lesson is from our complete Word tutorial for lawyers, titled “Mastering Word Made Easy for Lawyers v.2019 and 365.”