LibreOffice and Microsoft Office: what each records in a .docx, .xlsx or .pptx, and how each removes it
Last updated: 19 October 2026
Short answer: a file saved by LibreOffice is not free of metadata. LibreOffice's help describes what its File Properties record: who created and last saved the file, the total editing time, the revision number, who printed it last and, if chosen, a preview picture. It does not say which of these are written into each Office format, and we have not tested those exports, so check the saved file. LibreOffice's option Remove personal information on saving removes user data from the file properties, replaces the authors' names in comments and tracked changes with generic ones such as Author1, and resets times; it does not delete the comments and changes. Microsoft's Document Inspector removes comments and revision marks instead. Whichever program saved the file, check its properties and parts before sending it.
What LibreOffice records
LibreOffice's help page General (File properties) lists what File › Properties shows and records:
- Created: "the date and time and author when the file was first saved".
- Modified: "the date and time and author when the file was last saved in a LibreOffice file format".
- Last printed: "the date and time and user name when the file was last printed".
- Total editing time, "the amount of time that the file has been open for editing since the file was created", and the revision number, "the number of times that the file has been saved".
- Template: the template used to create the file.
- Apply user data, an option that "saves the user's full name with the file".
- Save preview image with this document, which "saves a thumbnail preview in PNG format inside the document"; see thumbnails and preview images.
The same page describes Reset Properties, which "resets the editing time to zero, the creation date to the current date and time, and the version number to 1", and deletes the modification and printing dates. How each of these is written into a .docx, .xlsx or .pptx is up to LibreOffice's export, and its help does not say. Some of them have matching core or extended properties in the Office formats, in docProps/core.xml and docProps/app.xml; a thumbnail, if there is one, is a separate part of the package; and the standard lastPrinted property holds a date and time, not who printed the file (ECMA-376).
LibreOffice's Remove personal information on saving
LibreOffice's help page Security Options and Warnings describes the option under Tools › Options › LibreOffice › Security › Options:
Select to remove user data from file properties, comments and tracked changes when saving. The names of authors in comments and changes will be replaced by generic values as "Author1", "Author2" and so forth. Time values will also be reset to a single standard value. No personal metadata will be exported.
Two things follow. The comments and tracked changes stay, with what they say; only who wrote them, and when, is replaced. And the option covers user data in properties, comments and changes, not hidden sheets, notes, hidden slides, links to other files or embedded objects.
How Microsoft's Document Inspector differs
Microsoft's Document Inspector page lists, for Word, comments and revision marks from tracked changes among what it finds and removes, along with the document properties, and has inspectors for hidden content, headers and footers, and custom XML. So Document Inspector takes comments and changes out, where LibreOffice's option keeps them with generic names. Word also has its own setting to remove personal information when saving; Microsoft's reference for it, Document.RemovePersonalInformation, says it removes user information from comments, revisions and the Properties dialog box when the document is saved, which is closer to LibreOffice's option.
| Approach | Comments and tracked changes | Properties |
|---|---|---|
| LibreOffice: Remove personal information on saving | Kept; authors replaced by generic names, times reset | User data removed |
| Microsoft Document Inspector (Windows) | Removed (whether changes are accepted or rejected is not stated) | Removed |
Files that move between the two
A file often passes through both: created in Word, edited in LibreOffice, sent from Word. Each program writes its own details when it saves, and each may keep or drop what the other wrote. We found no LibreOffice or Microsoft page that says, for a file the other program created, which properties, editing-session ids or other details survive a save. So check the file as it is when you send it, not as you think it should be.
How to check this yourself
- Make a copy of the file, rename it to .zip and unzip it.
- In
docProps/app.xml, theApplicationelement, where present, names the program that wrote the file;TotalTimeis the editing time andTemplatethe template. - In
docProps/core.xml, read the creator, last modified by, revision, the dates andlastPrinted. - Look for
docProps/thumbnail.*and open it. - Open the comments and look at their authors: generic names such as Author1 mean names were replaced, not that the comments are gone.
What ScrubDrop does with these files
ScrubDrop reads any .docx, .xlsx or .pptx file the same way, in your browser; the file is not uploaded. For free, it lists the supported kinds of hidden data it finds and removes properties (including the editing time, revision number and thumbnail), comments and tracked changes from one file at a time, removing the comments rather than renaming their authors; ScrubDrop Pro removes the structural kinds as well. It rebuilds the file from what it recognises: parts and markup it does not recognise are taken out, and where it cannot tell whether such markup may be dropped, it refuses the file rather than guess.
Questions
Does LibreOffice's Remove personal information on saving delete comments?
No. LibreOffice's help says it removes user data from file properties, replaces the authors' names in comments and tracked changes with generic values such as Author1, and resets time values. The comments and changes themselves stay; delete the comments (resolved ones stay in the file too) and accept or reject the changes separately.
Is a file saved by LibreOffice cleaner than one saved by Word?
Not by itself. LibreOffice's help describes properties of its own, such as the author when a file was first saved, the total editing time, the revision number and, if printed, who printed it last; it does not say which of them go into each Office format, so check the saved file. Which program saved the file changes what to look for, not whether to look.
Does ScrubDrop handle files saved by LibreOffice?
Yes, the same way as any .docx, .xlsx or .pptx. Parts or markup it does not recognise are taken out under its allow-list, or the file is refused if it cannot tell whether that markup may be dropped.
Sources: the LibreOffice and Microsoft pages linked on this page were checked on 19 October 2026. ScrubDrop is not affiliated with The Document Foundation or Microsoft.
Check a file whichever program saved it, in your browser. Free: one file at a time; the supported kinds of hidden data it finds are listed, and properties, comments and tracked changes are removed. Check a file.