How to anonymize a Word document: comments, author and tracked changes
To anonymize a Word document is to remove from the .docx file the personal data visible in the text, but also the data it keeps in the background: the author's name in the properties, the names of the people who wrote comments and revisions, and deleted text still held by Track Changes. A document whose names have been erased from the body can therefore still point to its writer, its reviewers and the person it is about.
The situation is common. A legal counsel sends a draft contract reviewed by three colleagues: each comment balloon shows its author's name and initials. An HR department shares interview notes in which a deleted sentence, still present in Track Changes, names the employee. A consultant sends a report whose properties show the client's name in the Company field. None of this is visible on a normal read.
The questions people ask on the subject range from the specific to the general: how to anonymize comments in Word, how to remove your name from a comment, how to anonymize a Word document on a Mac, how to redact one. They all call for the same three-step approach: know what Word stores, use its tools for hidden content, then treat the text itself.
This article follows that order. The general method, valid for every format, is in the article how to anonymize a document, and the choice between alias, mask and deletion on the page anonymize a document.
What Word stores in a file without showing it
A .docx file is an archive that bundles several XML files: the body text, headers and footers, notes, comments, properties. Each of them can contain personal data.
- Document properties: author, "last saved by", company, manager, title, subject, keywords. Word often fills them in from your account or from the template used.
- Comments: each one carries its author's name, initials and date, as well as the text of the remark.
- Track Changes: every insertion and deletion is attributed to a person. Deleted text stays in the file until the change has been accepted.
- Secondary areas: headers, footers, footnotes and endnotes, hidden text, text boxes.
- Inserted objects: a screenshot, a pasted scan or an image of a signature contain text that Word's search cannot see.
- The file name: "Contract John Smith v3.docx" announces the content before the file is even opened.
The risk is not theoretical: renaming the file to .zip is enough to read these XML files in a plain text editor. Under the GDPR, all of this information is personal data as soon as it refers to a person, and the data minimisation principle in article 5 calls for passing on only what is necessary. A document anonymized in its body but not behind the scenes is only anonymized in appearance, even if it is marked confidential.
Anonymize comments and tracked changes in Word
Word has three useful tools, to be used on a copy of the document.
1. The Document Inspector
On Windows, go to File, Info, Check for Issues, then Inspect Document. The tool looks for comments, revisions, versions and annotations, document properties and personal information, headers, footers and watermarks, hidden text and invisible content, then offers to remove each category. As Microsoft's documentation points out, this removal cannot always be undone.
2. Keep the comments, without the names
To keep the remarks while hiding their authors, turn on "Remove personal information from file properties on save" in the Privacy Options of the Trust Center; depending on your version of Word, it becomes available after running the Inspector. When you save, the authors' names are replaced by the generic label "Author". On a Mac, an equivalent option sits in Word's preferences, under Security. Changing your user name, on the other hand, only affects future comments.
3. Accept the changes and delete the comments
On the Review tab, "Accept All Changes" removes deleted text from the file, and "Delete All Comments in Document" removes the balloons.
These tools deal with what lies behind the file, not with its content: none of them removes the employee's name cited on page 3. Nor does Word offer a true redaction tool, and black highlighting leaves the text intact under the color.
Anonymize the text of a Word document with Biffer
For the text itself, Find and Replace quickly reaches its limits: you must know every value in advance, think of the variants ("Mr Smith", "John Smith", "J. Smith"), and miss nothing among numbers, addresses and dates.
Biffer, the software we publish, processes the .docx file on your computer, offline. It reads the body text, headers and footers, footnotes and endnotes, comments, and the deleted text kept by Track Changes. It detects people, contact details, dates, French social security numbers, IBANs, French company numbers (SIREN and SIRET) and the fields of 18 professions; you review the preview, add anything missed (handled in all its occurrences), then choose alias, mask or keep. The output is still a Word document with its formatting, the redacted values appearing by default in white on a black background.
When it clears the metadata, Biffer erases the author, the last person to modify the file, the company and the manager, and replaces the authors of comments and revisions with a generic label. On export, an option also anonymizes the file name. Two points remain for you to check: the Title field in the properties, and images pasted into the document, which need to be processed separately as image files. The full workflow is on the page features. If you then export to PDF, the article how to remove text from a PDF covers the pitfalls of that format, and the page pricing presents the plans.
Anonymize your Word documents, comments and revisions included
Biffer, published by Opcadia and designed by Romain Rissoan, trainer and consultant, runs on Mac and PC, entirely offline. Try it free on 5 files per month, then switch to unlimited use for €10 excl. VAT (€12 incl. VAT) per computer, paid once.
Frequently asked questions
How do I anonymize comments in Word?
Turn on the option that removes personal information from file properties on save: the authors become "Author". To remove the comments themselves as well, use the Document Inspector or "Delete All Comments in Document" on the Review tab.
How do I redact a Word document?
Word has no redaction tool: highlighting or a black shape leaves the text in place. Each value has to be truly replaced, for example by [PERSONNE] or an alias, in all its occurrences. Biffer does this automatically and can display the redacted value in white on a black background.
Is anonymizing a Word document on a Mac any different?
The principle is the same; only the menus change. The option that removes personal information on save is in Word's preferences, under Security. Biffer works the same way on Mac and PC.
Your business documents anonymized, ready to be published or handed to an AI tool.
Biffer runs on your computer without sending a single file. Free for five files a month, unlimited for €10 excl. VAT per computer.
100% offline · Free: 5 files a month · No file sent