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Removing the Tracks

JoanShear | 24 March, 2006 14:44

Question:
If one creates a document in MS Word and then modifies it using the *track changes* option is it possible to send the document to someone else WITHOUT:
(1) having it automatically open with all the changes showing and
(2) without the possibility of their backtracking through all of the changes that were made.

Answer:
You raise a good question, because even without using track changes, there is a lot of invisible "metadata" that is automatically included in word-processing documents that cannot easily be removed. One easy way to send a document without the changes showing is to send it as a PDF. This doesn’t remove all the metadata, but at least it makes the editing process invisible to the naked eye. To learn more about other methods of removing metadata from documents, check out this article by David Hricik, Mercer University School of Law, and Robert R. Jueneman, Jueneman Consulting, LLC, "The Transmission and Receipt of Invisible Confidential Information," which is available on the web at http://www.hricik.com/eethics/Metadata1103.doc


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