Help with Metadata Needed FAST (Thanks in Advance)

F

Fleshy Brunhilde

I have tried to teach myself and master every aspect of Word metadata
in order to "scrub" the file of my full name as the owner of a Word
2000 file. The commands on Windows 7 do not work: i.e., whether I
choose to "create another version" of the file with no personal
information (metadata) at all attached--in preparation to send it to
someone from whom for benign reasons I need to conceal this
information--or whether I choose to "remove" only certain items--OWNER
and COMPUTER--the Windows 7 Home Edition I use does not remove either.

At one in the morning, I finally renamed the computer, so that problem
is solved. With no knowledge whatsoever of fields or operands or
anything remotely related to higher or more technical levels of Word
than a non-IT person would have, I "scrubbed" the actual document's
properties (i.e., the metadata contained not in the "file"--as "file"
is defined by Microsoft--but in the "document"--as "document" is
defined by Word). I changed the Last Saved By in Properties/
Statistics, and I changed the Author there, manually, as well.

Please please please, someone help. The party to whom I am emailing
the document is aware I am not using my real name--this was a non-
negotiable with which I began our transactions and to which the
recipient of the document that needs to be sent has consented. This is
not cloak-and-dagger; it has nothing to do with anything but
maintaining scrupulous privacy in a venture whose potential failure
would cause embarrassment to me and me alone.

Finally, I have tried both to rename "Documents," to which my full
name somehow became attached and which I cannot rename, and to make a
full copy of Documents under another name. For some reason, this has
failed. I created a new User Account as well, but no new subfolder
appears in Documents that would allow the Word file I need to send to
be identified in the "path" of this new account. I'm posting at 7 a.m.
EST after three hours sleep and need to master this problem before the
end of the day. If I went to a public library, emailed myself the file
(to a pseudonymous address), and then forwarded it to the recipient
from a "foreign" PC, would the OWNER finally be removed? Thank you in
advance--please, someone answer.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Have you changed the information in Tools | Options | User Information? That
is the only place that *Word* puts information that will appear in your
document.

As for the file path, that applies, surely, only to the file on your own
computer. Once the recipient saves the file on his/her computer, the file
path in Word's Properties will represent where s/he has chosen to save the
file. If I open a .doc file sent to me in email and look at the Properties,
the file path will show either a temporary folder such as C:\Documents and
Settings\Suzanne\Local Settings\Temporary Internet
Files\Content.IE5\XM20ELTD (if I have opened it directly) or the place it
is stored on my computer (if I have saved it to my hard drive).

"Last saved by" will reflect your username in User Information. The only
thing you can't change easily is the Company Name, but see "OFF2000: How to
Change Company Name and User Name After Setup" at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=233499

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
 

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