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OT Tech-Tip: Metadata & Track Changes
Hi all,
I'm forwarding this email I received on another listserv that I think is
very interesting--especially for those of you who use Word. I had heard of
metadata before and I always save documents without the metadata, and send
pdfs instead of writable documents, but I had never heard of Track Changes.
Datachasers and Rick Albee have been around for awhile and in the email
below he talks about ridding documents of Metadata and Track Changes.
Daniela
I have received several queries concerning this since the subject started
been going around on a couple attorney listservs. It is very important, and
worth the few minutes it takes to understand (1) the difference between
Metadata and Track Changes, and (2) how to rid a document of both.
Of the two, we feel that Track Changes is potentially more damaging in your
day-to-day operation than is Metadata.
Metadata is simply data about datait is the hidden information about the
document, etc. In Word and Excel, the metadata is embedded by the MS
(Microsoft) program, and is very different from what is recorded by the OS
(Operating System). Metadata records a couple dozen stats about the item,
including all date codes (which are unchanged), authors, revision numbers,
last printing, etc. An attorney may not want this information remaining on
a document created within the office; however, it is for the most part
insignificant. We have found the best way to clean metadata is by the use
of a 3rd-party application. DataChasers uses a specific product for
examinations, which is somewhat costly, but if you Google metadata cleanup
(sans quote marks) you will find several choices.
Track Changes is potentially much more damaging to an attorneys practice.
Track Changes is the MS markup that does just what the name suggests, it
tracks changes, comments, or revisions through the life of the document.
For example, a brief that is edited by several attorneys will contain each
attorneys edit, and any comments that they felt inclined to attach as a
balloon on the document. At the least this information could be
embarrassing; at the worst it could jeopardize the case.
When we give classes on computer forensics, we routinely suggest that Track
Changes is always turned off unless needed for a specific purpose, and then
the changes are cleaned from the document.
There is excellent information available about Track Changes on the web.
Google what is track changes word 2007 or what is track changes word
2003 (sans quote marks) depending on the version you are using. Pay
special attention to the tutorials offered by MS; they only take a couple
minutes and are very helpful.
As always, if you have any questions you can feel free to give us a call.
Good luck.
All the best,
~ Rick
The post was migrated from Yahoo.