Forum Discussion
Untick trust center setting to "remove personal information from file properties on save"
NackasBV That box becomes checked when someone runs the Document Inspector (either from the Trust Center or from the File > Info > Check for Issues button) and lets it remove "Document Properties and Personal Information".
It's not clear what you mean by "centrally". If you mean you want to disable it for all documents that are ever saved on your PC, the answer is that you can't. All you can do is never use the "Document Properties and Personal Information" remover in the Document Inspector. But that won't prevent someone else from removing personal information and then sending the document to you.
In our environment it seems that this tickbox is ticked by default on all new documents. And this makes all names on comments and such to be removed which is very annoying when collaborating on a file. There must be a way to stop this behavior, and that is really what i am after.
- LauraStovallJan 11, 2024Copper Contributor
Did you ever figure this out? My computer is doing this all of a sudden and I didn't set anything, it is driving me crazy. I found the setting but it won't let me uncheck it.
- Stefan_BlomJan 11, 2024MVP
If "Remove personal information from file properties on save" is grayed out, then some other setting is causing the loss of personal info in your document.
What happens, exactly, as you reopen a document in Word?
- LauraStovallJan 11, 2024Copper Contributor
Stefan_Blom I'm trying to insert a photo but I can't get that to work. Jesus what a day.
- Jay FreedmanJul 02, 2019MVP
Because every new document begins with that box checked, it's likely that it's checked in the Normal.dotm template (the base template for new documents that aren't based on some other template).
To remedy this, open the Normal.dotm template "as a document" for direct editing. The simplest way to do this is to open the macro editor (Alt+F11), open the Immediate Window (Ctrl+G), enter the command
NormalTemplate.OpenAsDocument
and press Enter. Close the macro editor, and verify that the title bar of Word says "Normal.dotm". Go to the Trust Center and uncheck the box. Close Word; if you're prompted to save changes to the Normal template, click Save.
- amz1950Dec 05, 2019Copper Contributor
- Jay FreedmanDec 09, 2019MVP
amz1950 When the setting is grayed out, is the check box checked or empty?
When I look at it, the box is grayed out only when it's empty, meaning that personal information will not be removed from documents based on the template. Whenever the box is checked, I find that it isn't grayed out, and clicking it will clear it.