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Question

How to determine the author of a Microsoft Word document?

by Oct 8, 2014 11:41PM PDT

Hello everyone! I have a somewhat unusual question and I hope someone will be able to help me.

I have received a *.docx file and I am trying to determine its author. I tried checking the properties of the document and clicking on the "Details" button. This way I could see that the author is listed as being "Microsoft account". I have also tried to open the document with Editor since sometimes this allegedly reveals some additional info, but I was not successful.

What I am trying to figure out is whether it is possible for me to determine the author of this document somehow (legally ofc). Does anybody have any experience on this topic?

Discussion is locked

2 Posts
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Answer
Re: author of a document
by Forum moderator Oct 8, 2014 11:48PM PDT

If you can't see it in File>Info it's just unknown of deliberately cleaned by the author.

And if you can see it, it's not reliable, if the document is copied from another document or based on another document while the new author forgot to change the meta-data.

Kees

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Answer
This used to be a fun area.
by Forum moderator Oct 9, 2014 12:51AM PDT

Before folk noticed the META DATA in Word documents we used to use the author and other fields for inside jokes. Who would notice S'chn T'gai Spock wrote a paper? And who would argue with that author?

Anyhow, later as folk figured out it was a source of leaking data, it became common to clear/clean such areas.

As to the legal angles, your lawyer would know best how to proceed on legal issues.
Bob

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