Information in Summary Tab

[W]

Does anyone know when you delete the information in the Summary tab of an
Excel file, does that information remain inside the file in a human readable
form? Is there some utility available that would read that information?

 

[GS]

W expressed precisely :

Does anyone know when you delete the information in the Summary tab of an
Excel file, does that information remain inside the file in a human readable
form? Is there some utility available that would read that information?

If you are speaking of the SummaryProperties info that appear on the
file's Summary tab on NT/XP OSs, you can use DSOFile.dll to read/write
these streams on closed files. They are stored as text (ergo in
readable format). You can write them directly in the dialog on any open
file.

I don't know how it behaves on Vista/Win7 because these properties are
not supported on Vista/Win7 in the same context as they are for NT/XP,
and so I don't use them on those OSs. (My implementation is only with
plain text files, NOT compound document files)

On Vista/Win7 these are treated as DocumentSummaryProperties such as
would be found on the 'Detail' tab of the Properties dialog for a
compound file. Note that in Excel 2007 and later the same property
headings appear in the 'Summary Properties' window
(Home>Prepare>Properties), but the 'Keyword' field is stored in the
'Tag' field on the 'Detail' tab in Vista/Win7 OSs.

 

[GS]

Here's where you can get DSOFile.dll ActiveX component...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/224351

 

[W]

W expressed precisely :

If you are speaking of the SummaryProperties info that appear on the
file's Summary tab on NT/XP OSs, you can use DSOFile.dll to read/write
these streams on closed files. They are stored as text (ergo in
readable format). You can write them directly in the dialog on any open
file.

I don't know how it behaves on Vista/Win7 because these properties are
not supported on Vista/Win7 in the same context as they are for NT/XP,
and so I don't use them on those OSs. (My implementation is only with
plain text files, NOT compound document files)

On Vista/Win7 these are treated as DocumentSummaryProperties such as
would be found on the 'Detail' tab of the Properties dialog for a
compound file. Note that in Excel 2007 and later the same property
headings appear in the 'Summary Properties' window
(Home>Prepare>Properties), but the 'Keyword' field is stored in the
'Tag' field on the 'Detail' tab in Vista/Win7 OSs.

I'm not asking how to retrieve stored values, perse. I am asking if the
user *deletes* those values, do they actually get *removed from the file*.

When you "delete" a file from the file system, it doesn't actually get
removed from the disk. The directory entry is just made available. So
with the right utility you can retrieve a deleted file.

Likewise, I am wondering if you delete information from the Information tab
of an Excel file, is the information actually being wiped from the file, or
is the information still there but just not presented? If the information
is still there, some utility would be able to read it outside of a formal
API.

 

[GS]

W formulated the question :

I'm not asking how to retrieve stored values, perse. I am asking if the
user *deletes* those values, do they actually get *removed from the file*.

Yes, they are removed when deleted.

When you "delete" a file from the file system, it doesn't actually get
removed from the disk. The directory entry is just made available. So
with the right utility you can retrieve a deleted file.

Deleted files are normally moved to the Recycle Bin, from where they
can be restored using the Recycle Bin's right-click menu.

If users did a 'Shift+Delete' then the file is no longer retrievable
with any means provided by Windows. A 3rd party utility may be able to
salvage some remnants of a deleted file but I doubt it will be enough
to work with.

Likewise, I am wondering if you delete information from the Information tab
of an Excel file, is the information actually being wiped from the file, or
is the information still there but just not presented? If the information
is still there, some utility would be able to read it outside of a formal
API.

All file utilities use some form of Windows API. I don't see a tab
named 'Information' in the Properties dialog. Where are you looking
that you see a tab with this name?