Office Document Inspector vs ScrubDrop: what each one actually removes
Last updated: 13 October 2026
Short answer: For comments and document properties in Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and tracked changes in Word, Document Inspector does the job. The differences are elsewhere. Document Inspector removes headers, footers and watermarks, which ScrubDrop keeps. In Excel, Document Inspector only reports several kinds — external links, embedded objects, pivot caches, hidden names — and ScrubDrop Pro removes them; in PowerPoint it only reports embedded objects and macros. Each tool leaves some things alone, and ScrubDrop refuses a file rather than guess when it cannot be sure. The tables below go item by item.
Where the two lists come from
Document Inspector's side is Microsoft's page Remove hidden data and personal information by inspecting documents, presentations, or workbooks, which has a tab each for Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Each tab lists the inspectors, what each one "finds and removes", and — for Excel and PowerPoint — "information the Document Inspector finds but can't remove". Where the page says nothing about an item, the table says not stated; we have not filled the gaps from memory or by testing Office.
ScrubDrop's side is our own what we remove page, which is generated from the same list the engine uses, and its sections on what it does not handle and what may still remain. Where that list does not mention an item, the table says not stated as well.
What Document Inspector does well
It is part of Word, Excel and PowerPoint in the versions Microsoft's page applies to: File › Info › Check for Issues › Inspect Document. You tick the inspectors you want, read the results and choose Remove All per inspector. Comments, revision marks from tracked changes and document properties are all on its "finds and removes" list for Word, and comments and properties are on it for Excel and PowerPoint. It also covers PowerPoint's presentation notes and off-slide content, and Microsoft's page also covers files saved in the OpenDocument formats, which ScrubDrop does not take.
Microsoft's page carries its own warnings, which apply to any tool that removes things: use it on a copy, because "it is not always possible to restore the data that the Document Inspector removes", and removed content may not come back with Undo. In Excel, removing hidden rows, columns or sheets that contain data "might change the results of the calculations or formulas". In an Excel shared workbook, the inspectors for comments, properties and headers and footers cannot be used until sharing is turned off on a copy, and an earlier version of PowerPoint may not detect revision tracking data added by a newer one. This page does not cover the Mac; Document Inspector on Mac does, from another Microsoft page.
Item by item
Document Inspector: removes, finds only (reported, left in the file), leaves (Microsoft says it is not detected or not removed), or not stated. ScrubDrop: removes (Free or Pro), refuses (the removal you chose is not done, and the message says what to change first; unticking that kind lets the rest be cleaned, except for files refused as a whole, such as macro-enabled ones), points out (listed, not removed), keeps, or not stated. ScrubDrop lists every kind it knows for free. “Not stated” means its list does not cover the item, not that the item was checked.
Word
| Item | Document Inspector | ScrubDrop |
|---|---|---|
| Comments | Removes | Removes (Free) |
| Revision marks from tracked changes | Removes; whether by accepting or rejecting is not stated | Removes: Free accepts them; Pro can reject them or choose by author |
| Document version information | Removes | Not stated |
| Ink annotations | Removes | Removes (Pro), keeping the picture of the ink |
| Document properties and personal information | Removes | Removes (Free); fields that showed a property keep the text they showed |
| Headers, footers and watermarks | Removes | Keeps; removes hidden text and picture metadata inside them (Pro) |
| Text formatted as hidden | Removes | Removes (Pro); with hidden content being removed, refuses text hidden through a style |
| Text hidden by other means, such as white on white | Leaves: “cannot detect” | Points out white or tiny text |
| Custom XML data | Removes | Removes (Pro), with document variables and content-control bindings |
| Objects formatted as invisible | Removes; objects covered by other objects are not detected | Removes hidden pictures and shapes (Pro); refuses one inside a group or beside a visible one in the same drawing |
Excel
| Item | Document Inspector | ScrubDrop |
|---|---|---|
| Comments and ink annotations | Removes | Notes and threaded comments: removes (Free); ink: removes (Pro) |
| Document properties and personal information | Removes, including printer path, scenario comments and inactive external data connections | Properties and scenario comments: removes (Free); printer settings: always removed; data connections: removes with links to other files (Pro) |
| Headers and footers | Removes | Keeps |
| Hidden rows and columns | Removes hidden rows, hidden columns that contain data, and empty hidden columns between columns that do; shapes, charts, pictures and some other objects in hidden columns are not detected. Rows or columns in a table header, list header or PivotTable are not removed (the English page says they are unhidden, the Japanese page that they are not). Results of formulas may change | Empties their cells (Pro), keeping the rows and columns; formulas on the sheets that stay become their last values. When hidden cells with contents are emptied, refuses if any sheet that stays has conditional formatting, data validation, sparklines or scenarios; refuses a sheet with hidden rows or columns that has a table or a filter set to values, a custom filter or date groups, even if the hidden cells are empty |
| Hidden worksheets | Removes; results of formulas may change | Removes hidden and very hidden sheets (Pro); formulas on the sheets that stay become their last values |
| Custom XML data | Removes | Removes (Pro); XML maps, and tables’ links to them, are always removed |
| Objects formatted as invisible | Removes; objects covered by other objects are not detected | Removes hidden objects (Pro); with hidden content being removed, refuses a hidden button or shape (not a comment box) in an old-style drawing |
| External links | Finds only | Removes (Pro); every cell formula on the sheets that stay becomes its last value, not only those that used them |
| Embedded files or objects | Finds only | Removes (Pro); its preview picture can go with it, unless a drawing that stays still uses that picture |
| Macros or VBA code | Finds only | Refuses macro-enabled files |
| PivotTables, PivotCharts, slicers and timelines (cached data) | Finds only | Removes pivot tables and their caches (Pro); refuses while a pivot chart, slicer, timeline or GETPIVOTDATA depends on them |
| Cube formulas | Finds only | Not stated |
| Excel Surveys | Finds only | Not stated |
| Scenario Manager scenarios | Finds only | Keeps the scenarios. When hidden cells with contents are emptied, refuses if any sheet that stays has scenarios; with hidden content being removed, refuses a scenario that holds a value for a hidden cell, even an empty one |
| Filters | Finds only | Keeps; with hidden content being removed, refuses a sheet with hidden rows or columns whose filter is set to values, a custom filter or date groups, even if the hidden cells are empty |
| Hidden names | Finds only | Removes (Pro); every cell formula on the sheets that stay becomes its last value, not only those that used them |
PowerPoint
| Item | Document Inspector | ScrubDrop |
|---|---|---|
| Comments and ink annotations | Removes | Comments and replies: removes (Free); ink: removes (Pro) |
| Document properties and personal information | Removes | Removes (Free) |
| Revision tracking data (who edited, and when) | Removes; an earlier PowerPoint may not detect it | Always removed |
| Invisible on-slide content | Removes; objects covered by other objects are not detected | Removes hidden shapes, on layouts too (Pro) |
| Off-slide content | Removes; off-slide objects with animation effects are neither detected nor removed | Removes objects off the slide, on layouts too (Pro); refuses a shape turned by rotation or flipping (its own or a group’s) whose box before turning is wholly outside the slide, such a group whose box is partly outside, and off-slide placeholders on layouts and masters |
| Presentation notes | Removes the text; pictures in the notes are left | Removes the notes, pictures included (Pro) |
| Custom XML data | Removes | Removes (Pro), with tags and Designer tags |
| Embedded files or objects | Finds only | Removes (Pro), keeping the picture that was showing |
| Macros or VBA code | Finds only | Refuses macro-enabled files |
Not on Microsoft's list
| Item | Document Inspector | ScrubDrop |
|---|---|---|
| Editing-session ids (Word rsid, workbook revision ids, PowerPoint creation ids) | Not stated | Removes (Pro) |
| Image metadata (camera, GPS, software) | Not stated | Removes (Pro); refuses a picture it cannot clean field by field; points out formats it does not clean |
| Links to other files in Word and PowerPoint (attached template, mail merge source, linked pictures) | Not stated | Removes (Pro) |
| Embedded files in Word | Not stated | Removes (Pro) |
| Hidden slides | Not stated | Removes (Pro) |
| Cells outside the print area | Not stated | Points out |
Where they really differ
Items Document Inspector only reports. Microsoft says it cannot remove these because doing so "might cause the workbook to not work properly", and suggests removing each by hand or replacing it with "a static picture". ScrubDrop Pro removes links to other workbooks, embedded objects, pivot tables with their caches, and hidden names. When names or links go, every cell formula on the sheets that stay becomes its last value, not only the formulas that used them; an embedded object can take its preview picture with it, unless a drawing that stays still uses that picture. The values stay; whether the result looks the same in Excel is for you to check there. Where it cannot do this without guessing — a pivot chart over a removed pivot table, for example — it refuses. It keeps scenarios and filters, and refuses macro-enabled files.
Things neither one decides for you. Document Inspector says it cannot detect white-on-white text or objects covered by other objects. ScrubDrop points out white or tiny text but does not remove it, because whether it matters is your call. ScrubDrop does not read text inside pictures; Microsoft's page does not say whether Document Inspector does.
What ScrubDrop refuses, and what may still remain
ScrubDrop refuses macro-enabled, old binary, signed and encrypted files, and, for the kinds you chose to remove, it refuses when it cannot be sure: text hidden through a style, fields it cannot take apart that read properties or other files being removed, charts over hidden cells it cannot take apart. The full list is on what we remove. Before release, the engine was reviewed in rounds with files built to get past it. Each case found was fixed or turned into a refusal, but the last rounds kept finding new cases in a few areas — inside pictures, old-style drawings, Word fields and workbook formulas — and the newest fixes have not been through another round. What may still remain says where, and how to look for yourself.
After removing, ScrubDrop reads the new file again with three separate readers, counting the one that wrote it, and does not offer a file that fails. That check is not done by Word, Excel or PowerPoint, so open the result in the program you will send it from.
Using them together
- With Document Inspector, work on a copy, as Microsoft advises: what it removes may not come back. ScrubDrop leaves your file as it is and offers a new one.
- Clean the file with one tool. If you only need comments and properties gone (and tracked changes in Word), either will do it; ScrubDrop does those one file at a time in the free version, in the browser, on any computer.
- Open the result with the other tool as a second look. Where your Office has it, that can be Document Inspector; anywhere, ScrubDrop lists every kind it knows without removing anything.
Questions
Is Document Inspector enough for comments, tracked changes and properties?
For those three, Microsoft's page lists them as found and removed in Word, and comments and properties in Excel and PowerPoint as well. If they are all you need to remove and your Office has Document Inspector, it does that job. Run it on a copy: Microsoft warns that removed data cannot always be restored. In an Excel shared workbook, turn sharing off first.
Why does ScrubDrop keep headers and footers when Document Inspector removes them?
Because a reader sees them on every page or printout, so they are visible content rather than hidden data. ScrubDrop keeps them and removes hidden text and picture metadata inside them (in ScrubDrop Pro). If you want them gone, delete them in Word or Excel, or use Document Inspector.
What does Document Inspector find but not remove?
In Excel: external links, embedded files or objects, macros or VBA code, PivotTables and other features with cached data, Excel Surveys, Scenario Manager scenarios, filters and hidden names. In PowerPoint: embedded files or objects, and macros or VBA code. Microsoft says removing them might stop the file working properly, so you remove or replace them by hand.
Should I use both?
If your Office has Document Inspector, a second look with another tool is the most direct check. Clean the file with one, then open the result with the other and with the program you will send it from. Finding nothing does not show that nothing is there, but two different tools miss different things.
See what a file holds, item by item, before you send it. Free: one file at a time; every kind ScrubDrop knows is listed, and properties, comments and tracked changes are removed. The file is read in your browser and not uploaded. Check a file.