Revealing Your Identity in M/S Word

It was suggested to me that I should clear out the Tools>Options>User Information tab to protect my identity as a document's author. I did that (Word 2002, on my "template" called Document 1), clicked OK, and closed Word. But when I open Word again, the information is back! How do I get rid of it permanently?

 

Steve....it's maybe because I don't understand how to "standardize" Document 1 (that's what Word calls the "template" that appears everytime I open Word2002).. The removal change doesn't stick for me and neither does the removal of "embed smart tags" ...I am asked if I want to save the changes re smart tags (but that requires using Save As and creating another Document 1), but I don't even get asked that re identity. [I write a lot of corporate confidential stuff, and the lawyers don't want it known yet that I'm working on certain material.]

 

Hi chrisw. Try this to change the user info:

Do a search for "normal.dot" from the Start>Search (or Find).

Make a note of what directory the "normal.dot" file is in. Or if you already know where the normal.dot template is you can skip the search.

Open Word click on File>Open, navigate to the directory the normal.dot file resides in then click on the Files of type" box, click the down arrow and select "Document templates (*.dot).

Select the "normal.dot" file and click on "Open ".

This should open the normal.dot template for editing.

From here click on Tools>Options>User Information and delete or change the info you want.

OK back out from Tools>Options and save the normal.dot template.

Close and restart Word. Check Tools>Options>User Information to see if the unwanted stuff is gone.

Sorry this sounds so complicated but is easier to do than write.

Post back if this works.

Another possible solution is to delete the "normal.dot" file then when Word restarts it will rebuild it. The downside of this is that any macros, special formatting, custom toolbar buttons you have created in the normal.dot template will be lost.

 

There is another route altogether. Write the documents in Word. Publish them in PDF format. There are a number of programs around that will convert Word documents to PDF.

I use OpenOffice to do it. Open source, easy to use, gives me a chance to tweak the output for PDF. You may even find that you like OpenOffice for the writing stage too, but it's not as polished as Word so maybe not.

 

JohnB,

I appreciate your input, with your good instructions I finally figured out what normal.dot is! I find the whole thing very perplexing and far more complicated than originally thought. I'm sure much is my fault, Word has become so feature-rich that it's impossible for the occasional user to use it.

As best I can tell, stripping the User Info out of the tab (as per your instructions) doesn't work.....if blank spaces are left, the Administrator's info gets filled in by default. Since I'm also the Administrator, my ID thus isn't hidden. All I have figured out so far is that you can insert "garbage" (eg, 53G**//) on the tab and that "solves" the problem (it wants to see something there, no matter what it is).

It's also complicated by exactly what document you're trying to save. I'm trying to change the normal.dot template so everything is permanent (as best I can tell, it's called Document 1 when Word is first opened). Another reference I found (see URL below) suggests clicking a box that "Remove personal information from this file on save ", but that doesn't stick if you're trying to change normal.dot, but does stick if you're saving one specific document. But the User Info on the tab doesn't go away....I guess it just can't be read, I haven't been able to validate that, however.

So right now, I think this is where I am:

1. You can never remove the User Info, substitute garbage instead.

2. If you don't plug in garbage, then use Remove personal information from this file on save......but this will only apply to the specific document you're working on, and can't be used to permanently alter normal.dot

So chew on that for awhile........

Thanks, Chris


http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnword2k2/html/odc_ProtectWord.asp

 

Hi Chris. Yes I see what you mean.

What I just tried and it seemed to work was I opened the "normal.dot" template and deleted the User Information. Then saved the normal.dot, closed, exited Word and then restarted Word. I then open a "New" document (document1) and was promted for User Name and Initial....in fact by default it fills in "user" for name and "u" for intial and leaves the address box blank. I just left it as is and it seemed to "stick" and becomes the default in the normal.dot template.

This may be another way around your situation. At least it is non-specific and does not reveal any personal info.

 

JohnB...yep, that's what happens.......you get "user" and "u ", I get "ChrisW" and "C ". If I got "user ", that would be OK. ChrisW is my administrator name (XP). I think I'll take the "garbage" route. Thanks, Chris