Office files as portfolio samples: the past client's data a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file can still carry

Last updated: 27 October 2026

Short answer: changing the client's name, logo and figures on the page changes only what is shown. The file can still hold the old name in tracked changes, the client's staff on comments and in the properties, their server in a template path or a link, the whole of a picture you cropped, and the client's data behind a chart or on a hidden sheet. For a sample anyone can download, build it again from invented content where you can; otherwise clean a copy and check it before you post it.

This page is for freelancers and small studios who show past work as Office files: a report, a financial model, a pitch deck, a form or a template, posted on a profile page or a freelance marketplace, or sent to prospects. It is about what the file carries besides what you meant to show. Whether you may show the work at all is a question for your agreement with the client, and is outside it. Reusing someone else's file as a starting point is a different case, covered in inherited Office files. The examples here are typical cases, not reports of real ones.

Why a sample is different from a file sent to one person

A file sent to a client goes to people who already know what is in it. A portfolio sample goes to strangers, and often stays online for years where anyone can download it. Whatever the file holds, every one of them can read, with ordinary tools: Office itself, a file viewer, or the .zip that every .docx, .xlsx and .pptx is. Microsoft's page Crop a picture in Office puts it in a warning about cropped pictures: the cropped parts "can potentially be seen by others; including search engines if the cropped image is posted online."

Where the client can still be after you change the visible text

Places in a delivered file where the past client can remain
Where	What it can hold
Tracked changes	The client's name, figures and wording, as deleted text, if Track Changes was on while you replaced them; the client's own edits, with their names
Comments	The client's feedback, with the names of the people who gave it, resolved comments included
Properties	Author and Last Modified By (yours or the client's staff), Company, Manager, Title, the template name, custom properties from the client's document system
Pictures	The parts you cropped away; camera and location details in a photo's metadata
Charts and embedded objects	The workbook behind a chart in Word or PowerPoint, with every row of the client's data
Workbooks	Hidden sheets, rows and columns; pivot caches; defined names; links that name the client's folders
Presentations	Speaker notes, hidden slides, the client's logo on a slide master or layout, section names

The old wording, and the client's people

If you replaced the client's name and figures with Track Changes on, the originals are still in the file as deleted text. Microsoft's page Accept or reject tracked changes in Word says: "To remove tracked changes, you must accept or reject them. Choosing the No Markup view only temporarily hides changes." A delivered file also tends to carry the client's side of the work: their reviewers' tracked changes and comments. Microsoft's page Change the author name says the User name "also provides the name and initials that are displayed in comments and tracked changes", so each of those carries the name of the person at the client who wrote it. Resolved comments are hidden in Word's default view; Microsoft's page Using modern comments in Word says the list view "includes all active and resolved comments". More in what remains after Accept All.

The properties, and the client's systems

The same author-name page says Word sets the Author "based on the User name setting" when a document is created; if the file began on the client's side, the Author is someone there. Microsoft's Document Inspector page adds "the name of the person who most recently saved a document", "template names", and, for a file saved to "a document management server", "additional document properties or information related to this server location". Microsoft's page View or change the properties for an Office file lists Company and Manager on the Summary tab, and custom properties as "properties that you define": a project code or the client's department can be there. A Word document attached to the client's template can also keep that template's full path, which can name the client's server. One by one, these are in Word's company, manager, template and custom properties, and a template made for a client is covered in template and master slide data.

Pictures, charts and the data behind them

Cropped pictures. The crop page says: "By default, after you crop a picture, the cropped areas remain part of the file, hidden from view." A screenshot of the client's system cropped down to one panel still holds the whole screen. The page has you delete the cropped areas (Picture Format › Compress Pictures, then Delete cropped areas of pictures) and save the file (more in press kits and releases); it also says "Only the Microsoft 365 desktop apps have the ability to remove cropped areas from the underlying image file."
Photo metadata. A photo taken at the client's site can carry the camera, the date and sometimes a location in its metadata; replace it with a picture of your own, or see what ScrubDrop removes below.
Charts. A chart in Word or PowerPoint usually keeps its data in an embedded workbook. Retyping the labels on the chart does not change that workbook, which can hold every row of the client's figures, and its own hidden sheets. See charts and embedded Excel in PowerPoint.
Workbooks. A model posted to show your Excel work can keep the client's data on hidden sheets, rows and columns, in a pivot table's cache, and in links that name the folders where the client's files were. The Document Inspector page says: "If you distribute a copy of a workbook that has hidden rows, columns, or worksheets, other people might unhide them to view the data that they contain." See hidden sheets, defined names and personal information, pivot caches and full paths in Excel links.
Presentations. Speaker notes written for the client's presenter, hidden backup slides, and the client's logo on a layout no slide shows. See speaker notes and hidden slides.

Rebuild, or clean a copy

A sample rebuilt from invented content has nothing of the client to clean. Where the point is to show structure, layout or formulas, start a new file from your own template, rebuild the pages, and fill it with invented names and figures. If you copy text across, show the hidden text first and leave out what does not belong.

Where rebuilding is too much work, clean a copy of the delivered file, replace the visible content, and then go through every place in the table above. Many prospects only need to see the work, not edit it. Microsoft's page Save or convert to PDF or XPS says that in Word, "To include tracked changes in the PDF, under Publish what, select Document showing markup. Otherwise, make sure Document is selected", and "If you want to include document properties in the PDF, make sure Document properties is selected"; if you do not want them, find that box in the Options and clear it. A PDF of the pages still shows everything visible on them, and carries properties of its own; see .docx or PDF: which carries less.

Before you post a sample

Check that your agreement with the client lets you show the work.
Make a copy of the delivered file, or rebuild the sample in a new file.
Replace the client's name, logo, people, figures and addresses on every page, in headers, footers and watermarks, in chart labels and in file names. Search for each one.
In Word, accept or reject every tracked change and delete every comment. In PowerPoint, delete the comments, and remove the notes and hidden slides you are not showing; look at the slide masters and layouts (View › Slide Master). In Excel, unhide the sheets, rows and columns, and delete what is not part of the sample (a very hidden sheet is not in the Unhide list; look for state="veryHidden" in xl/workbook.xml, as in hidden sheets in Excel); check pivot tables, Formulas › Name Manager and Data › Queries and Connections › Workbook Links.
For each chart, open its data (Chart Design › Edit Data) and replace or delete the client's rows. Delete the cropped areas of pictures, and replace photos taken at the client's site.
On Windows, go to File › Info and change the Author (right-click the name, Edit Property); in Properties › Advanced Properties, clear Company, Manager, Title, Subject, Keywords, Comments and the Custom tab. On a Mac, see Document Inspector on a Mac.
On Windows, Document Inspector (File › Info › Check for Issues › Inspect Document) can then remove several of these in one pass. Microsoft recommends using it on a copy, "because it is not always possible to restore the data that the Document Inspector removes"; its page lists what it cannot remove, and what Document Inspector misses covers the rest.

How to check the copy yourself

Open the copy and look at File › Info and Advanced Properties.
Make another copy, rename it to .zip and unzip it. Search every part, including the files in the _rels folders, for the client's name, the names of their staff, their domain and their server names.
Look in particular at docProps/core.xml (author, last saved by), docProps/app.xml (company, manager, template), docProps/custom.xml and the customXml folder; word/comments.xml and word/people.xml; word/_rels/settings.xml.rels for a template path; the embeddings folder in word, ppt or xl for chart workbooks and other embedded files; docProps/thumbnail.jpeg or a similar picture, if there is one; and the pictures in the media folder, opened at full size.
Open each embedded workbook as a workbook and check it the same way.

What ScrubDrop does

ScrubDrop reads a .docx, .xlsx or .pptx in your browser; the file is not uploaded. It lists what it finds: the properties, with the template name and custom properties among them, the comments and tracked changes with their authors, hidden text, slides, sheets, rows and columns, speaker notes, pivot caches, defined names, links to other files, embedded objects and chart data workbooks, custom XML, image metadata, and the other kinds it supports. For free, one file at a time, it removes the properties (and the preview picture saved with them), removes the comments and accepts the tracked changes. Server properties that a document system keeps as custom XML data stay with the custom XML, which only Pro removes. If you replaced the client's name with Track Changes on, accepting keeps your replacement and drops the old name. ScrubDrop Pro can instead reject all tracked changes, or accept or reject them author by author.

ScrubDrop Pro also removes the structural kinds: hidden content, speaker notes, pivot caches, defined names, links to other files (including the path of an attached Word template), embedded objects and chart data workbooks, custom XML, and image metadata in JPEG, PNG, GIF and SVG pictures (other picture formats are listed as not checked). It cleans several files at once and gives them back as a ZIP, which suits a set of samples. When Pro removes hidden sheets, rows or columns, defined names or links, the formulas on the sheets that stay are replaced by their last calculated values. With chart data workbooks removed, a chart keeps the values and labels saved in the chart itself, which are the client's figures unless you replaced them, and its references to sheet names and ranges stay as text. We tried this on a hand-written synthetic deck, not one saved by PowerPoint, and did not check how PowerPoint opens the result; see the charts guide linked above. White or tiny text and cells outside the print area are listed but not removed, in either version.

ScrubDrop does not delete the cropped areas of pictures: it keeps each picture as it is apart from its metadata, so use Delete cropped areas of pictures in Office. It does not change the visible content, such as the client's name on a page, a logo, a chart's labels or a layout no slide uses, because only you can tell what belongs in the sample. It reads the cleaned file again with separate parsers before it offers it.

Questions

Is replacing the client's name on the page enough?

No. If Track Changes was on, the old name is still in the file as deleted text, and the client's staff can remain on comments, in Author and Last Modified By, in custom properties, and in the data behind a chart. Clean those too, or rebuild the sample from invented content.

Can people see the parts of a picture I cropped out?

They can. Microsoft's page says the cropped areas remain part of the file by default and can potentially be seen by others, including search engines if the image is posted online. Delete the cropped areas in Office before you save the sample.

Should I post the sample as a PDF instead?

If prospects only need to see the work, a PDF made with Document rather than Document showing markup leaves out the tracked changes; clear Document properties in the Options unless you want them in the PDF. It still shows everything visible on the pages, so the visible content must be replaced first.

Sources: the Microsoft pages linked on this page were checked on 27 October 2026. ScrubDrop is not affiliated with Microsoft.

Check a sample before you post it, in your browser. Free: one file at a time; every supported kind of hidden data it finds is listed, and properties, comments and tracked changes are removed. Check a file.