Remove hidden metadata from Word, Excel and PowerPoint files

Document properties (author, last modified by, title, subject, keywords, comments, category, created, modified and last printed dates, revision number, language); the company, manager, template name, total editing time and hyperlink base; every custom property; the names on comments, tracked changes and Excel notes, which become Author with the initial A (the signature Excel types at the start of a note is taken away too); the preview picture of the first page that some programs save; the folder a workbook was last saved in; and the path of an attached Word template. Word also repeats the title in a list of part titles, and that copy is blanked with the title.

Everything that is content: text, tables, formulas, slides, pictures, headers and footers, speaker notes, and the comments and tracked changes themselves with their dates, so only the names change. The file keeps its format: only the parts that hold the metadata above are rewritten, and every other part of the file is copied through byte for byte.

Names or details typed into the content itself, pictures' own metadata (use Remove EXIF and metadata first for photos you insert), printer settings, macros, custom XML data parts such as SharePoint or bibliography data, and Word's revision save IDs. Opening and saving the file again in Office writes the current user's name back into it.

Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in the Office Open XML format: .docx, .xlsx and .pptx, their macro-enabled versions (.docm, .xlsm, .pptm), templates (.dotx, .xltx, .potx) and shows (.ppsx). Older .doc, .xls and .ppt files and password-protected files use a different format and are refused with a message; save them as .docx, .xlsx or .pptx without a password first. OpenDocument files (.odt, .ods, .odp) are not supported yet.

Yes: untick any group before cleaning, and tick "but keep the title" to keep the title while the other document properties go. Custom properties can include a sensitivity label your organisation set; removing it may go against your organisation's rules, so untick that group if in doubt.

No. The page loads a small script into your browser and every operation runs on your device. You can check this yourself in the browser's network panel: after the page has loaded there are no upload requests. Closing the tab discards the file.

No. These basic tools are free, have no limits set by us and store nothing on our servers. The practical limit is your device's memory for very large files.

Nothing you open or type. While the tab is open, the tool pages keep a short list of the steps taken in it, in the tab's session storage: the step (page opened, started, succeeded, first success, used again or failed), the tool's name, the time, how many files were used and, for a failure, an error code; never a file name, the contents of a file or your text. It holds at most the latest 200 steps, and the browser deletes it when the tab closes. The page never sends it. Where a Report a problem button is shown, you can attach the last 20 steps to your report; nothing is attached unless you tick that box. In local storage the page keeps only choices you made: a Light or Dark theme until you choose System again, the language you picked with the EN / 中文 switch if it differs from your browser's language, and this tool in your recently used list if you switched that list on at the tools page.