Document X-Ray

How to use Document X-Ray

1. Press Choose a document or drop a Word (DOCX), Excel (XLSX), PowerPoint (PPTX) or PDF file onto the box, up to 50 MB.
2. Read the summary (Looks safe, Be careful or High risk) and the list of what’s hidden inside: names, comments, tracked changes, hidden sheets or slides, speaker notes, file paths, photos with location data and more.
3. Press Wipe hidden data to download a clean copy. Your original file isn’t changed. The clean copy is checked again before you get it, and anything that couldn’t be removed is listed.
4. Open the clean copy and check it still looks right before you send it.
5. No document to hand? Try the Word with comments, Excel with hidden sheet or PDF with author examples, made in your browser.

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What your documents give away

Office files and PDFs carry far more than the words on the page. Word and Excel save the name of whoever created the file and who last edited it, often your company name, and how long it was open for editing. Comments keep the name of whoever wrote them. Tracked changes keep text you thought you’d deleted, and anyone can bring it back with a couple of clicks.

This is how a CV reveals the employer you’re trying to leave, how a quote shows the discount you nearly offered, or how a “final” contract still holds a colleague’s note saying what you’d really accept. Hidden sheets, speaker notes and photos with GPS coordinates travel with the file too. Document X-Ray shows you all of it in one place, so you can decide what to share.

What it checks

• Document properties: author, last modified by, company, manager, title and dates, plus total editing time and the app that made the file.
• Comments and notes: review comments and threaded replies with the reviewer’s name, and PDF sticky notes and highlights.
• Tracked changes: insertions, deletions and formatting changes that haven’t been accepted. Deleted text in an unaccepted change can still be read.
• People list: Word keeps a list of everyone who commented or edited, sometimes with an account ID.
• Hidden content: hidden and “very hidden” Excel sheets, hidden PowerPoint slides, speaker notes and text formatted as hidden in Word.
• File paths and printer settings: links and settings that can show your computer user name, server names or folder layout.
• Photos with camera data: pictures pasted into a document often keep their camera details and sometimes the GPS location where they were taken.
• PDF extras: the document information and XMP metadata, earlier saved versions still inside the file, attached files and form values.

Looks safe means none of these turned up in the places we check. Be careful means the file holds names, dates or other details you may not want to pass on. High risk means it carries something anyone you send it to can read and that you may not expect: comments, tracked changes, hidden text, hidden sheets, custom properties or a photo’s GPS location.

What “Wipe hidden data” does

For Word, Excel and PowerPoint files it blanks the document properties, removes custom properties, comments and the people list, accepts tracked changes so deleted text is really gone, and strips camera data from JPEG photos. For PDFs it makes a fresh copy without the document information or XMP metadata, which also drops older saved versions. Encrypted PDFs can’t be wiped here. Some things, such as hidden sheets or speaker notes, are part of your content, so Document X-Ray tells you where they are rather than deleting them for you.

Privacy

Your document is read on your device and never uploaded, logged or stored. The clean copy is made in your browser too. The first time you check a file, the free JSZip and pdf-lib readers load from jsDelivr, but your file never leaves your device. Refresh the page and it’s gone.

FAQ

Does it work with old .doc and .xls files?

No. It reads the modern formats: DOCX, XLSX, PPTX and PDF. Open an older file in Word, Excel or PowerPoint, save it in the newer format and check that copy instead.

Will the clean copy look different?

It shouldn’t. Your text, layout and pictures stay as they were. Tracked changes are accepted, so the copy shows the final version without the markup, and comments are removed. Always open the clean copy and check it before you send it.

Is sending a PDF safer than a Word file?

Usually it shares less, because comments and tracked changes aren’t carried over in the same way. But PDFs still keep an author, the app that made them and sometimes earlier versions, so it’s worth checking those too.

Can it remove the location from photos?

Inside Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, yes: it strips camera data from JPEG photos when it makes the clean copy. For photo files on their own, use Photo X-Ray.

Related: Catpool home, Security, Photo X-Ray, File X-Ray, Text Encrypt and Decrypt, Email X-Ray.