Excel saves a lot of meta data in your Workbooks by default. Even personal information (like your name!) is stored, which may not always be desirable.

Start by right-clicking the Excel file, then click Properties Right-click Excel file, click Properties In the Properties pane, click the Details tab, then Remove Properties and Personal Information File Property Details – remove properties and personal info. The TRIM function in Excel removes leading spaces, extra spaces and trailing spaces. Use the SUBSTITUTE function to remove all spaces or non-breaking spaces. The TRIM function below removes 2 leading spaces, 3 extra spaces and 2 trailing spaces. Note: the TRIM function does not remove single spaces between words.

The best way to remove your name and other info from a workbook is not from within Excel, but from its containing folder in Windows:

Start by right-clicking the Excel file, then click Properties…

Remove Metadata From Excel 2016

In the Properties pane, click the Details tab, then Remove Properties and Personal Information…

Next, in the Remove Properties pane, click Remove the following properties from this file, uncheck the box next to Authors and Last saved by (and any other info you want), and click OK…

The items you selected are now removed from the file. That is, until you open the file again! Unfortunately, you’ll have to do this each time you open and close the file, as there is no way to prevent the automatic storing of this information.

Remove Metadata From Excel 2016 File

Additionally, and annoyingly, Excel (and other software) does not allow removal of certain meta data like Date created, Date modified, and Date acessed (notice below, no check boxes next to these items). The Computer name, however, only looks like its being stored; this is actually just showing the computer currently viewing the file properties…