Long List of Reviewers

[harvey]

All of my documents - even a new one - show thousands of reviewers'
names. I have checked the "remove personal info on save" option under
preferences/security, but that does not work. How can I fix this?
Thanks.

 

[CyberTaz]

I have no idea where all the reviewer names are coming from, but it
sounds like Track Changes may be turned on in your Normal template
and/or you may be the victim of a macro virus.

If you have antivirus software you might try running it. Also,
(assuming Office 2004) you can go to ~UserName>Documents>Microsoft User
Data, rename the Normal file (to oldnormal, for example), then launch
Word & see if the problem persists. If that fixes it, you can delete
the renamed file.

If this doesn't help, make sure to include any additional details -
including Word & OS versions - in order to enable someone to help you
further.

HTH |:>)

 

[harvey]

I use the "track changes" command frequently. I was able to eliminate
the long list of reviewers by checking the "remove personal info on
save" option under preferences/security only after rebooting, so that a
new document opens up clean. But each time I open a previously edited
document - even to "save as" to a new file - the list of reviewers
contained in the older document gets added to any new document I open -
even a brand new document. The list grows and grows as I open previous
documents.

Your suggestion - let word create a new normal template - worked. But
it got rid of all my customizations, of course. But I have tried this
before, and eventually, once I start opening/reviewing in other docs,
the reviewers' names appear - thousands, some in Russia fonts.

I'm using Word 2004, Mac OSX 10.4.5

Thank you for any further suggestions.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Harvey:

I don't want to sound alarmist, but that sounds so suspiciously like a virus
to me that I would strongly suggest that you run a deep scan with a
commercial antivirus program.

The Remove personal info" command should definitively remove this
information from any document you apply it to. Unless you copy tracked
changes into that document, those names should go away and stay away.

If they are coming back, they are being written to a common file: presumably
Normal template. However, they should stay there, not infect new documents.
So if they are getting into new documents without you copying text in, that
HAS to be a virus trying to harvest user names...

Sorry

I use the "track changes" command frequently. I was able to eliminate
the long list of reviewers by checking the "remove personal info on
save" option under preferences/security only after rebooting, so that a
new document opens up clean. But each time I open a previously edited
document - even to "save as" to a new file - the list of reviewers
contained in the older document gets added to any new document I open -
even a brand new document. The list grows and grows as I open previous
documents.

Your suggestion - let word create a new normal template - worked. But
it got rid of all my customizations, of course. But I have tried this
before, and eventually, once I start opening/reviewing in other docs,
the reviewers' names appear - thousands, some in Russia fonts.

I'm using Word 2004, Mac OSX 10.4.5

Thank you for any further suggestions.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[harvey]

John, Daiya, thank you for these suggestions. I have a commercial virus
program operational at all times, and I am running it again. I will
report back to you. Thought that the program would have alerted me...
also, thought that Mac viriuses are very rare. I have had this problem
since the Office 04 came out. Meanwhile, wouldn't an infection of the
Normal template automatically infect every new document based on it?

 

[Shawn Larson]

Are you seeing the long list of reviewers from the Show drop-down on the
Reviewing toolbar? Mac Word 2004 caches reviewer names from documents that
have been reviewed at some point. That cache should be cleared out when you
quit Word. Are the reviewers listed right after you have launched Word?
This cache is internal to Word and is not any type of temporary file that
you could manually delete.


--
Shawn Larson
Mac: Word Test
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Find out everything about Microsoft Mac Newsgroups at:
[http://www.microsoft.com/mac/community/community.aspx?pid=newsgroups]
Check out product updates and news & info at:
[http://www.microsoft.com//mac]

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Shawn:

Why, on earth?? I would say that's a bug ... I can't imagine why a
user would want reviewer names cached from document to document (and what
else is being cached in there?).

Can you imagine the impact this would have in Word invoked as a background
application on a server? The security implications of having these names
harvestable by a rogue application?

Let's not do this any more

Cheers

Are you seeing the long list of reviewers from the Show drop-down on the
Reviewing toolbar? Mac Word 2004 caches reviewer names from documents that
have been reviewed at some point. That cache should be cleared out when you
quit Word. Are the reviewers listed right after you have launched Word?
This cache is internal to Word and is not any type of temporary file that
you could manually delete.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[harvey]

That is exactly where they are appearing. Trashing the normal.doc has
stopped the problem for now. I will post again when it recurs. Thanks.

Are you seeing the long list of reviewers from the Show drop-down on the
Reviewing toolbar? Mac Word 2004 caches reviewer names from documents that
have been reviewed at some point. That cache should be cleared out when you
quit Word. Are the reviewers listed right after you have launched Word?
This cache is internal to Word and is not any type of temporary file that
you could manually delete.


--
Shawn Larson
Mac: Word Test
Macintosh Business Unit
Microsoft

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Find out everything about Microsoft Mac Newsgroups at:
[http://www.microsoft.com/mac/community/community.aspx?pid=newsgroups]
Check out product updates and news & info at:
[http://www.microsoft.com//mac]

I use the "track changes" command frequently. I was able to eliminate
the long list of reviewers by checking the "remove personal info on
save" option under preferences/security only after rebooting, so that a
new document opens up clean. But each time I open a previously edited
document - even to "save as" to a new file - the list of reviewers
contained in the older document gets added to any new document I open -
even a brand new document. The list grows and grows as I open previous
documents.

Your suggestion - let word create a new normal template - worked. But
it got rid of all my customizations, of course. But I have tried this
before, and eventually, once I start opening/reviewing in other docs,
the reviewers' names appear - thousands, some in Russia fonts.

I'm using Word 2004, Mac OSX 10.4.5

Thank you for any further suggestions.