Getting Rid of Sensitive Information

As you create a workbook in Excel, there is a lot of information that is stored with the workbook that can identify you as the author. Most of this information is stored in the workbook's file properties. Excel 2007 provides a handy tool that allows you to remove the personal information you don't want others to see. This tool is called the Document Inspector.

To use the Document Inspector, open the workbook you want to evaluate and then click the Office button | Prepare | Inspect Document. Excel displays the Document Inspector dialog box, which is just a series of check boxes. You use these check boxes to indicate the items you want the inspector to look for. When you click Inspect, Excel tries to find them and then displays a dialog box showing the findings. (Click here to see a related figure.)

When presented with the Document Inspector's findings, you can choose which items you want removed from the workbook.