Remove the author from a Word document.
A .docx file names whoever created it and whoever saved it last, and comments and tracked changes name their authors too. Here is how to remove each of them in Word, and how to stop your name going into the next file.
See the names
Choose File > Info. Related People on the right shows Author and Last Modified By; Show All Properties adds Company and Manager (Microsoft's page on the Info tab). Those are the document's properties. Separately, every comment and every tracked change records the name of the person who made it, and the recipient sees those with Review > Show Markup.
Remove them: Document Inspector
From Microsoft's support page:
- Save a copy first (File > Save As, new name). What the inspector removes may not come back with Undo.
- In the copy, choose File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document and choose Inspect.
- Choose Remove All next to Document Properties and Personal Information.
- If Comments, Revisions and Versions has results, decide which tracked changes you want to keep before you choose Remove All there: removing tracked changes before sending covers it.
- Save the copy and check File > Info again.
Change the author, or the name Word uses
To replace the author on this document: File > Info, right-click the name under Related People, Edit Property, type the new name (Microsoft's steps). To change the name Word writes into every new document and every save: File > Options, set User name, and tick Always use these values regardless of sign-in to Office (Microsoft's page). Changing the author of one document does not change that setting.
Word for Mac
Document Inspector is not in the File menu of current Word for Mac. A Microsoft Q&A answer points to Tools > Protect Document and the option to remove personal information on save. A Q&A answer is not official documentation, so check File > Properties after saving.
Or clean it here
FileSanity's document cleaner reads a .docx in your browser, shows the author, last modified by, company, manager and editing time, and downloads a copy with them emptied. It also removes comments, with their authors' names, and accepts tracked changes, so deleted words leave the file. The text is copied as it was, and the document is never uploaded. Older .doc files are not read; save them as .docx first.
Checked
Menu paths checked on 28 October 2026 against the pages linked above. Menus move between versions; when yours differs, the vendor's page is the authority. Found a mistake? Tell us.