Hiding and displaying text in Word

Microsoft Office Word Editor has an interesting feature that not all users know about. You can hide and re-display snippets of text to protect it from being viewed by other users. This can also be done at the printing stage in order not to transfer certain text fragments to paper.

In some cases, users need to hide personal data in a document.

Please note that this feature is not a complete data protection. Each user who has text editing rights can enable the display of hidden data and read them.

Another useful feature with invisible characters in Word is to delete personal data when sending a file to another person. By default, the document contains a large number of temporary and permanent personal information, such as handwritten notes, transmission routes and elements of a markup system. Any user who has the right to change the media file can view them. In some cases, this is unacceptable, so you need a special way to prepare the text before sending.

What hidden data exist in Word

There are several types of invisible characters in Word. They are not shown in normal viewing, but they can be displayed by any user. Here they are:

  • Manual notes, notes, corrections and other personal data. If you made the text in conjunction with other users, it may be marked editing mode, comments, and more. Having learned this information, any user will be able to understand who worked on the creation of the document. So you can not preserve anonymity - this may bring colleagues.
  • File properties, also known as metadata. They include the name of the owner of the account from which the editing was made, as well as the title of the text. This includes creation time information that Microsoft Office stores. When using certain tools, you can find e-mail headers, data sent for validation and template names.
  • Watermarks and data tables.
  • Manually hidden user text. It, as well as other invisible characters, can be restored.
  • Data on the document server. If the media file was saved on the management server or in the library from Microsoft, it will have information about its location.
  • Personal XML data.

How to hide text

In order to manually make the signs in the Word invisible, you need:

  1. Select the desired part;
  2. Click on it with the right mouse button and click "Font" in the context menu;
  3. In the "Modify" select "Hidden";
  4. Confirm on "ok".

If the user reading the modified text does not know where the invisible part is located, then he probably will not be able to see this data. However, the probability of viewing remains - it can cancel the hide.

How to display hidden text

In order to make the signs visible, you need to cancel the hide:

  1. Select the entire document by pressing Ctrl + “A”;
  2. Right-click to bring up the context menu;
  3. Select “Modify” and uncheck “Hidden”;
  4. Save the changes.

How to find hidden text and delete personal data

If you are not sure that there are invisible characters in the media file, you can check it. This action is also needed if you need to prepare a document for shipment. It is performed using a special program inspector:

  1. Open the required media file;
  2. To write a copy of it (recommended, as it is not always possible to restore the elements), click on “Save As” and enter the name in the appropriate field in the window;
  3. Select a directory and write it down;
  4. In the copy go to the "File" - "Preparation" - "Check Document";

  5. In the "Inspector" window, check the required items - the information you want to investigate;
  6. Click "Check";
  7. See the result in the "Document Inspector";
  8. Delete those values ​​that you want to permanently hide from the recipient during transmission (you can return them as long as the text is open and the undo buffer is not filled with new ones);
  9. Write down the copy and transfer it.

Total

In Word, you can work not only with visible elements, but also with hidden ones. It also includes information that is desirable to delete before sending to a third-party user. Do this in order to not advertise the data on the storage server, manual notes and other personal items.