[Solved] Strip documents of meta information

[mizzenmist]

Hi there & hallo,

I am a long-term OOo/LibreOffice user but certain things I have no idea about, such as this one:

I have kind permission to use some documents, however the authors would like me to remove their personal info if it goes beyond naming the author in the text. How can I remove all author metadata from an OASIS document, including currently invisible text and revision data?

I use Debian 11 Linux and can handle scripts.

[Hagar Delest]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

There is an option in the menu File > Properties, in the General tab: uncheck the apply user data and then click the Reset properties button.
For the revisions and so on, accept all changes.
For the invisible text, you've to delete manually it if you're taking about the special effect of fonts. Else, you need to tell what kind of invisible text you're talking about.

Else, export as PDF the final document.

Perhaps you could explain what you want to do. If you use other documents to make a paper, if it's just copy and paste for citation for example, then, no meta data imported.

Please add [Solved] at the beginning of the title in your first post (top of the topic) with the *EDIT button if your issue has been fixed.

[Lupp]

Meta information in the full sense is only stored
-1- in the DocumentProperties: You can use the >File>Properties...>>Reset. It will set metadata as if the docunment is new.
-2- with tracked changes: Use >Edit>Track Changes>Manage. Also decide consciously about future tracking changes.
Save the document.

Additional information may be stored
-1- under different tabs of the >File>Properties... dialog.
-2- In Textfields of type Set Variable, Date(fix)...., e.g. There you can also find the DocumentProperties already mentioned.
-3- in many places in UserDefinedAttributes of objects supporting this property if user code was applied to set/edit it.
-4- In the RDF repository.

Information you may want to edit/delete may also be excluded from ordinary display or printing
-1- using hidden sections.
-2- using Conditional Text depending on a variable.
-3- using non-printable frames.
-4- resorting to tricks like frames without borders, set to Wrap Through and using white text on white background.
-5- ... ??? ... (Your ideas?)
Inspect the document with the help of the navigator to find out if such things may be contained.

See also: https://help.libreoffice.org/7.1/en-US/ ... PAR=WRITER

[Lupp]

Somebody with the needed rights may move this topic to a more appropriate place. It's not exactly an Install, Setup, Troubleshooting subject, imo.
Thanks to whom it may concern.

[John_Ha]

1. Edit > Select all
2. Copy
3. Open Notepad > Paste

This strips everything - tables, images, sections, etc - and leaves only unformatted text.

Now copy the text into a new Writer document.

Edit: Sorry - it copies the hidden text too ... However, I did notice that the hidden section is greyed out in Navigator so, by looking at Navigator, you can see if there are any hidden items.

[Hagar Delest]

Somebody with the needed rights may move this topic to a more appropriate place. It's not exactly an Install, Setup, Troubleshooting subject, imo.
Thanks to whom it may concern.

Had moved from Beginner to Install & troubleshooting since it could apply to any document.
But Writer is the most likely case, I agree.

[John_Ha]

1. Edit > Select all
2. Copy
3. Open Notepad > Paste

This strips everything - tables, images, sections, etc - and leaves only unformatted text.

Now copy the text into a new Writer document.

I thought you might be able just to highlight the visible text and copy it but that also copies all the hidden text within the highlighted range. Another bright idea bites the dust ...

[RoryOF]

I think (not checked) that editing meta.xml will remove any sensitive information.