# Remove Metadata Before Sending a Document

> Download a copy of a Word, Excel, PowerPoint or PDF file without its authors, dates, network paths, hidden text and, when you choose, its comments and tracked changes.

## Overview

A document carries more than its text: who wrote and edited it, the firm's document management
properties, the template's path on your network, hidden text, and every reviewer's comments and
tracked changes. Metadata Clean downloads a copy without it, and tells you what it found. What
it removes under each preset is on [Metadata Removal](/product/capabilities/metadata-removal).

## Clean documents you drop in

1. Click the **Metadata Clean** button (the broom) beside **Selective Compare**: between the
   Original and Modified columns on the home page, in the header of an open document, or in
   Quick Compare's toolbar.
2. Choose a **Preset**:
   - **Standard** removes what nobody sees on the page and keeps tracked changes, comments and
     authors' names.
   - **Strict** also accepts tracked changes, removes comments and anonymizes authors.
3. Change **Tracked changes**, **Comments** or **Authors** if this document needs something
   different from the preset.
4. Drop Word, Excel, PowerPoint or PDF files, or a zip of them, into the panel, or click
   **browse**.
5. Each file shows how many kinds of hidden data were removed. Click the arrow beside a file to
   see each kind, how many were found, and what was done, with any warnings to read before you
   send it.
6. Click **Download**. Each file downloads under its own name.

Changing an option cleans every file in the panel again. Closing the panel deletes the files
you dropped in and their cleaned copies.

## Clean everything you download

Open any **Download** menu and turn on **Clean metadata** under **Preferences**. From then on,
every document you download is cleaned with the standard preset first, including every file
inside a zip. A document that cannot be cleaned does not download, so the original never goes
out by mistake. The setting stays on in your browser until you turn it off.

## In Claude or ChatGPT

With Version Story connected, ask for a clean copy: "Give me the NDA without its metadata", or
"Send me a strict clean copy with the comments removed". The assistant downloads the cleaned
file and tells you what was removed.

## Read the warnings

Some things cannot be removed without changing the page, so they are left in place and listed
as warnings: a document number in a footer, text under a black box in a PDF that is not really
redacted, or white text over a picture. A signed PDF is cleaned, but its signature no longer
verifies, so clean a document before it is signed.

## Related

- [Metadata Removal](/product/capabilities/metadata-removal): what each preset removes
- [Compare Privileged Documents in Claude or ChatGPT](/help/compare-privileged-documents)
- [Files API: clean metadata](/developers/rest/files#clean-metadata)