I wrote a docx file containing 'Hello, this is my-super-secret-password' then ran: $ unzip -p ~/my_document.docx | grep -i super-secret-password This example uses UNIX utilities, but there are similar utilities in Windows such as FINDSTR or PowerShell's select-string (please refer to the Windows documentation). It helps to be comfortable with the command line. To be on the safer side, you can even search through all the files. If you open that file you can search for your deleted content to verify it isn't there. The main content of the document is in word/document.xml. If you unzip the file you will get directories that look something like this. docx format is simply a zip file containing the document text and meta-data. If this is the newer 'docx' format, and not the older format, you can easily verify whether the deleted content exists. There's also an option to add a digital signature, which I think would let you verify later whether it had been changed, but I'm afraid I've never tried that feature. The Protect Document tool lets you restrict what people can do with the document (like make it read-only), though I'm not sure if it could prevent them from just saving a copy to then edit. So if you've run the Document Inspector and it does find this stuff, you may want to close and go back to manually resolve the revisions (accept/reject) to make sure you end up with the version you want.

I think clicking to remove revision marks, will 'solidify' the current version of the document and remove the 'Track changes' marks showing previous versions. Once the Document Inspector has run it'll give you the option to remove anything it finds:Īny tracked changes will be in that top category. If you click on Check for Issues -> Inspect Document, you can choose to check the document for various types of content. (This means you don't have to rely on going through the tracked changes choosing accept/reject, and just hope you don't miss any - the Document Inspector can tell you for certain.) This lets you check for (and then optionally remove) things like unresolved tracked changes, along with various other types of content you might not want to share with other users. One thing that I don't think anyone's mentioned yet is the Inspect Document tool. You can also print to PDF, after you accepted all changes (or selected No Markup in the tracking menu).

If track changes was on, accept all changes, turn off track changes and save your file.If formatting is of no concern you can copy-paste the text into a plain text file, the e-mail itself or a new document.Several options, but it depends on what your requirements are. How do I make sure others cannot see my changes? If you send your document as a link to the document hosted online instead as an attachment it could very well be that the receiver can see the full history. There's no uniform answer for all the different cloud providers, but often they keep a history of your file for 30-90 days. Hosted online in Google Docs, OneDrive, Sharepoint, the cloud ☁ Here's a list of large serious organizations that made the same mistake, disclosing draft versions of their document unintentionally. Yet it is! If you would send a Word document by e-mail while you've made changes with Track Changes enabled, someone could easily find what changes you've made.Īnd you wouldn't be the first to fall for it. However, if I set it to No Markup it looks as if the old text is not there anymore: I can make changes, and then it looks like this if I enable All Markup in the tracking settings: In case it's enabled and my original text looks like this: If track changes is enabled, people can see what you've changed. In this case you can safely edit the document, save it, and send it as an attachment without anyone finding out what you've changed. You can check in the Review panel if Track Changes is on or off (here it's off): Track changes allows you to make changes, while the old text remains available. Hosted online in Google Docs, OneDrive, Sharepoint, the cloud (❗ people might see your edit history).Track changes enabled (❗ people might see your edit history).Track changes disabled (✔: nobody can see your edit history).I think there are a couple cases with Word files (tl dr conclusion in parenthesis): It's not as straightforward as the initial revision of the answer of Guest suggests.

Google docs turn off track changes