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From Corel's Support site, Answer
ID 753605:
NOTE
- WordPerfect X3/X4 can remove various metadata directly from a choice
on the File menu ("Save without metadata"). For an
explanation, see Corel's Answer
ID 759035.
- Drummond Wilson, a Corel employee, also posted
this information on the WordPerfect 9 public newsgroup on 4/5/2001.
The original article is also cached on Google Groups.
Minimizing Metadata Content
in Corel WordPerfect Documents
Whenever a WordPerfect document is created,
opened or saved, the document may contain content that you do
not wish to share with others when the document is distributed
electronically. This information is known as metadata. Metadata
is used for a variety of purposes to enhance the editing, viewing,
filing, and retrieval of electronic documents. Metadata can be
described as structured data about data, increasingly the term
refers to any data that is used to aid the identification, description,
and location of networked electronic resources.
Some metadata is readily accessible through
the WordPerfect user interface, other metadata is only accessible
through extraordinary means, such as opening a document in a
low-level binary file editor.
Below are some examples of metadata that may
be stored in WordPerfect documents:
- Username
- Initials
- Company or organization name
- The name of your computer
- Other file properties and summary information
- Non-visible portions of embedded OLE objects
- Document revisions
- Hidden text
- Comments
This article explains various methods that
can be used to minimize the amount of metadata that is contained
within WordPerfect documents.
Metadata is created in a variety of ways within
WordPerfect documents. As a result, there is no single method
that can be used to eliminate all such content from a document.
The following sections describe areas where metadata may be saved
within WordPerfect documents.
How to prevent the Username
from being used
To view or change your username by performing
the following steps:
1. Click Tools, Settings and select the environment icon
2. Select the General tab.
The following edit boxes should be visible:
- Name
- Initials
If this information is not to appear in a
WordPerfect document, enter non-identifying strings or spaces
in the appropriate edit boxes, and then click OK to accept the
changes. Any new documents that are created will contain this
information, rather than the default values that may have been
present after the installation of WordPerfect. However, existing
documents may already contain this information.
How to remove Summary information
When creating or saving a document in WordPerfect,
summary information may be saved within the document. By default
the following information (if input) may be present in the summary
information of a WordPerfect document:
- Abstract
- Account
- Author
- Creation Date
- Descriptive Name
- Descriptive Type
- Keywords
- Revision Date
- Subject
- Typist
There are several methods that can be used
to access this information:
Method 1:
1. Launch WordPerfect 9
2. Click File, Open and select the document.
3. Click File, Properties.
4. Select the Summary tab.
Method 2:
1. Click on Start, Programs, Windows Explorer.
2. Navigate to the document, and right-click on the document.
3. Select Properties from the context senstive menu.
4. Select the Summary
It may be possible to use a Visual Basic for
Applications macro or other program code to read the properties
shown under the Summary tab.
To clear summary information from an existing
document or template by perform
the following steps:
1. Launch WordPerfect 9.
2. Click on File, Open and select the desired document or template.
3. Click on File, Properties.
4. Select the Summary tab, and clear the Author, Typist, and
any other edit
boxes that should not be distributed with the document. To clear
all
information from the summary, click the Options button, and select
to Delete
Summary from Document.
5. When finished, click OK.
6. Click File, Save on the File menu.
7. Click File, and Close from the File menu.
8. After completing these steps, the document should not contain
any summary
properties.
How to remove Comments
from WordPerfect documents
WordPerfect has the ability to add comments
to documents. Typically, comments contain the name of the person
who created them or additional information about the document
such as time and date it was created. Comments are typically
indicated in the left margin next to the line where the comment
was inserted.
To remove comments:
1. Right-click and select delete from the
menu.
2. Click View, reveal codes and drag the Comment tag out of the
window.
If you add new comments and you do not wish
them to contain your username or initials, make sure that these
values are not entered in the environment settings for WordPerfect.
How to remove information
in Headers and Footers
Headers and footers in documents may contain
identifying information. To remove information from headers and
footers:
1. Click Insert, Header/Footer from the menu.
2. Select to edit the Header or Footer.
3. Remove any information that should not be sent with the document.
How to remove document
Revision Annotations
WordPerfect documents may contain revision
marks when a document has been reviewed by an individual other
than the author. When you accept or reject the suggested annotations,
the revised text is saved in the document, and the annotation
marks are removed.
Steps to accept annotations:
1. Launch WordPerfect
2. Click File, Open and select the document that has been reviewed.
A Review Document dialog box will be displayed if the document
has been reviewed.
3. Click the Author button.
4. On the document review toolbar, select the button to accept
the current annotation or select to accept all annotations in
the document.
5. Click on the Close button, and then save the document.
Note: This should remove any revision annotation
from the document. Alternatively, saving the document in another
file format, such as RTF will remove the revision annotations
from the document.
How to disable Slow Save
in WordPerfect
The Slow Save feature speeds up the process
of saving a document by saving only the changes that are made
to a document. This feature has been renamed in WordPerfect Office
2000 [WordPerfect 9] to "Format Document before Saving".
Because of the design of this feature, text
that is deleted from a document may remain in the document, even
after saving the document. If there is concern about deleted
text remaining in a WordPerfect document, enable the formatting
of the document before saving:
1. Click on the Tools, settings, and click
the Environment icon.
2. Ensure there is a check in the box to "Format Document
before Saving".
3. Click OK.
Note: In earlier DOS versions, WordPerfect
had a feature called "Fast Save". The feature was reintroduced
in Service Pack 4 of Suite 8 but was called "Slow Save".
In WordPerfect Office 2000 it was changed to "Format Document
before Saving".
How to search for and remove
Text Formatted As Hidden
In WordPerfect documents, it is possible to
format text as hidden. Hidden text may contain information that
should not be distributed, the author of the document may want
to unhide or remove it from the document.
To selectively remove hidden text in a document,
perform the following steps:
1. Click on View, and select Reveal Codes.
2. Click on Edit, Find and Replace.
3. Click on Match from the menu, and select Codes.
4. Select the [Hidden On] code from the list and select the Insert&Close
button.
5. Click on the Find Next button.
6. When a Hidden text code is found, it can be removed by clicking
and dragging it out of the Reveal Codes window.
To remove all the hidden text from the document,
perform the following steps:
1. Click on View, and select Reveal Codes.
2. Click on Edit, Find and Replace.
3. Click on Match from the menu, and select Codes.
4. Select the [Hidden On] code from the list and select the Insert&Close
button.
5. Make sure the Replace with windows says <Nothing>.
6. Click on the Replace All button.
How to remove Hyperlinks
from documents
WordPerfect documents may contain hyperlinks
to other documents or Web pages on an intranet or the Internet.
Hyperlinks typically appear as blue underlined text strings.
To manually delete a single hyperlink from
a document:
1. Click on View, and select Reveal Codes.
2. Click on Edit, Find and Replace.
3. Click on Match from the menu, and select Codes.
4. Select the [HyperLink Begin] code from the list and select
the Insert&Close button.
5. Click on the Find Next button.
6. When a HyperLink code is found, it can be removed by clicking
and dragging it out of the Reveal Codes window.
To remove all hyperlinks in a document:
1. Click on View, and select Reveal Codes.
2. Click on Edit, Find and Replace.
3. Click on Match from the menu, and select Codes.
4. Select the [HyperLink Begin] code from the list and select
the Insert&Close button.
5. Make sure the Replace with windows says <Nothing>.
6. Click on the Replace All button.
How to remove Styles from
documents
WordPerfect documents may include styles that
contain metadata. You can remove these styles and leave the formatting
in the document. This will not affect how the document is viewed
or printed.
To remove styles:
1. Launch WordPerfect and open the document that contains the
styles to be removed.
2. Click on Format, and select Styles.
3. Click on the Options button, and select settings.
4. In the Style Settings dialog box, under Available Styles list
make sure only the box Styles in current document is checked
off.
5. In the Styles dialog box, select one of the document styles.
6. Click on the Options button, and select Delete from the menu.
7. Under the Delete Style from Document, make sure to enable
the radio-button "Leave formatting codes in document".
8. Select all the styles to be removed from the document, and
click OK.
How to remove Undo/Redo
information from a document
In WordPerfect 8, the option to save undo/redo
information to the document was on by default. However, in WordPerfect
9 the option is not on by default. If a document was created
with the UNDO/REDO history enabled then that information may
be contained in the document.
To disable the UNDO/REDO history:
1. Click on Edit, Undo/Redo history.
2. Click on the Options button.
3. Disable the check box next to Save undo/redo items with document.
Note: The WordPerfect Software Development
Kit contains a utility called WPLOOK. [Also available on Corel's
FTP site.]
It can remove the UNDO/REDO history from a WordPerfect document.
It may be a prudent business practice to ensure that all sensitive
documents are screened with WPLOOK to ensure the removal of the
UNDO/REDO history if it is present.
How to remove Links from
OLE linked objects
OLE Linked images and other objects in WordPerfect
documents may contain linking information, such as the path to
the linked image or object. This information can be removed from
the document by terminating the link.
To remove the OLE link:
1. Launch WordPerfect
2. Click on File, Open and select the document with the linked
object.
3. Click on Edit, and select Links.
4. Select the objects from the list.
5. Click Break Link button.
6. When prompted, click YES to break the OLE link.
This will terminate the OLE link between the
object and the associated application. Removing the link from
an image or object may cause it to be uneditable.
Embedded objects within
documents may contain metadata
If an object is embedded within a document,
the object still retains its own properties, regardless of what
is done to the document. This includes any information not visible
in the OLE box window in the document.
Publishing documents to
PDF
You can eliminate metadata in WordPerfect
documents by publishing the document in Portable Document Format
(PDF). PDF documents can be shared across platforms and office
suites, without the need to develop multiple documents. Before
saving a document as a PDF, however, you still have to remove
potential metadata.
To save a document as a PDF:
1. Click File, Publish to PDF
2. Click the General tab
3. Remove any text from the Author and Keywords boxes |
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