Office files from a template vendor, a previous employer or a predecessor: what they still carry

Last updated: 25 October 2026

Short answer: a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file you did not start keeps traces of whoever did. The author and company in the properties, custom properties, comments and tracked changes, custom XML data, links to other workbooks with their paths, and the folder it was last saved in can all still name the template's maker, your old employer or the colleague who had the job before you. Opening and saving the file does not reset them; Office records you as the person who last saved it. Before you reuse the file, or a template you will reuse many times, inspect a copy, remove what is not yours, set your own properties, and check the result.

Whether you may reuse a file from a previous employer at all is a separate question, for your contract and your old and new employers; this page is only about what the file carries. Slide masters and layouts that come with a PowerPoint template are in what a PowerPoint template leaves in a deck, and Word's company, manager and custom properties in Word's company, manager, template and custom properties. Files you send to your own clients, by kind of work, are in before you send an Office file to a client.

Why the old details stay

Microsoft's page Change the author name says that "every time you create a new document, Word sets the Author property based on the User name setting", and that Excel and PowerPoint do the same for new workbooks and presentations. To change the author of an existing file, the page has you edit the property yourself. So a file you inherited keeps the author of whoever created it, or created the file it was copied from, until someone changes it; saving it records you as the person who last saved it, and the author stays. The same holds for the other properties anyone typed in, such as the company, and for the custom properties a document system added.

Templates pass their content on: Microsoft's page Create a template describes starting new files from one (File › New › Personal). So it matters whether you were given a template or a finished file. A new file made from a template gets its author from your User name, but it starts from the template's content; a vendor's or a colleague's .docx, .xlsx or .pptx that you edit directly keeps everything, the author included. Other properties, the company included, can arrive from a template; we found no Microsoft page that lists which, so create a new file from it and check. More on this is in Word's company, manager, template and custom properties.

What each source tends to leave

What an inherited Office file can still carry, by where it came from
Where the file came from	What it can still carry
A template vendor or a free template site	In a file you edit directly, the maker's name in the properties; in a file you edit directly or, depending on the template, a new file made from it, the company, the template's name, custom properties, sample content on slide layouts no slide uses, hidden sheets with sample data or lookup tables, defined names
A previous employer	Your old employer as company, colleagues as authors, custom properties and server properties from its document system, custom XML data, comments and tracked changes, links to workbooks on its network, the folder it was saved in, the path of its Word template
A predecessor in the same job	Their name as author, their comments and those of the people they worked with, tracked changes, hidden sheets and rows they kept for themselves, links to their own folders

Microsoft's Document Inspector page explains two of these. A document "saved to a location on a document management server" might contain "additional document properties or information related to this server location". And a workbook with links to other workbooks keeps "the names of the worksheets containing that data", which are not visible. Microsoft's page Manage workbook links shows such a link as C:\Reports\[Budget.xlsx], and Microsoft's specification of the absPath element ([MS-XLSX]) records "the absolute path to the workbook". Both can name a server or folder at the place the file came from. More on custom XML is in custom XML, embedded objects and template paths.

Cleaning a file before you reuse it

Work on a copy. Keep the file as you received it until you are sure what you need from it. The Document Inspector page recommends running it on a copy, "because it is not always possible to restore the data that the Document Inspector removes".
Comments and tracked changes. Read them, then delete the comments and accept or reject every change. They are often the clearest trace of the people who worked on the file before you.
Hidden content. In Excel, unhide every sheet, row and column and look at what was hidden; very hidden sheets are not in the Unhide list (hidden sheets, names and personal information). Check Formulas › Name Manager for names you do not need. In PowerPoint, go through Slide Master view.
Links. In Excel, open Data › Workbook Links. A link to a workbook you cannot reach any more should be changed to a workbook you have, or broken; breaking it turns the formulas that use it into their current values (full paths in Excel links).
Properties. On Windows, run Document Inspector (File › Info › Check for Issues › Inspect Document). For Word, its Document Properties and Personal Information inspector removes the properties on the Summary, Statistics and Custom tabs, the template name and the server properties, and its Custom XML Data inspector removes custom XML data. Then set your own author and company in File › Info. In PowerPoint, Microsoft's page says that after Document Inspector removes personal information, PowerPoint "will continue to automatically remove the personal information when saving this file"; to keep an author you set, first select Change setting in the Personal Information Removal Enabled notification.
Search the text. Search the body, headers and footers, notes and every sheet for the old organisation's name and the names of people there. What is visible is content; no inspector decides whether it belongs.

For a template you will use again and again, clean the template file itself, not only one file made from it: open the template, make these changes and save it. Then create a new file from it and read its properties and its Custom tab, to see what it still brings with it.

How to check a file yourself

Make a copy, rename it to .zip and unzip it.
Open docProps/core.xml for the author (dc:creator) and the person who last saved it (cp:lastModifiedBy); docProps/app.xml for Company, Manager and Template; and docProps/custom.xml, if there is one, for custom properties.
Look for a customXml folder, and in a workbook for xl/externalLinks; these are the usual names, and [Content_Types].xml lists each part with its type.
Search every part for absPath, C:\, \\ and attachedTemplate, then for the old organisation's name and the names of people there.

What ScrubDrop does

ScrubDrop reads .docx, .xlsx and .pptx files in your browser; the file is not uploaded. For free, it lists each supported kind of hidden data that it finds, with counts and short samples, so you can see what an inherited file carries before you decide; text on a layout no slide uses is ordinary content and is not listed, so check it in Slide Master view. The free version, one file at a time, removes the document properties, which takes out the author, the last saved by, the company, the manager, the template name, every custom property and the folder a workbook was saved in; it removes the comments and accepts the tracked changes. Server properties that a document system keeps as custom XML data stay with the custom XML. Removing custom XML data, links to other files (including the path of a Word document's attached template), hidden sheets, rows, slides and shapes, and defined names is part of ScrubDrop Pro.

ScrubDrop removes the old values rather than replacing them; set your own author and company in Office afterwards. It does not change content, such as a logo, a name in a footer or the text on a layout no slide uses, because only you can tell whether it belongs. The result is read again by software separate from the one that wrote it, and a file that does not pass is not offered.

Questions

Does saving an inherited file make me its author?

No. Microsoft's page says Office sets the Author property when a new file is created, from the User name in the options. Saving someone else's file records you as the person who last saved it, and the author stays until you change it in File › Info or remove the properties.

Does Document Inspector remove a previous employer's custom properties?

For Word, Microsoft's page lists the properties on the Summary, Statistics and Custom tabs, the template name and document server properties among what Document Inspector removes. Names in the text, headers or footers are a separate check: search for them.

Does ScrubDrop put my name in place of the old one?

No. ScrubDrop removes the properties rather than replacing them. After cleaning, set your own author and company in File › Info, or leave them empty.

Sources: the Microsoft pages linked on this page were checked on 25 October 2026. ScrubDrop is not affiliated with Microsoft.

See what an inherited file still carries, 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.