Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Quick reference
File, Info, and Security Considerations
The “File, Info” options allow you to find author information about the document, password-protect a document, and recover any unsaved versions that you may want to retrieve.
When to use
This feature is often overlooked but when it is needed, it is invaluable. It contains the technical file attributes, rather than the text and formats.
Instructions
1. On an existing document, Click FILE, INFO.
a. The first option is “Protect Document”, which allows you to add a password to a document. Keep in mind, this is optional and should only be done with your personal documents on your own private computer. Employers own the work you do while on the job, therefore to password a work file would be prohibitive as employees move positions.
b. The second option is “Check for Issues”. This feature checks to make sure the file is compatible (if necessary) with older versions of Word. It also gives an “Inspect Document” option that cleans off the author name and editing time from the document's record. c. The third option is “Manage Document”. This feature is a rescue if you closed a document and forgot to save changes. It is not foolproof, but it has been more reliable in the recent Word versions than ever before.
c. The third and fourth options allow you to retrieve either an earlier version or a document that you accidentally didn’t save.
- 00:05 This lesson talks about file info,
- 00:07 which actually looks at the background metadata of your document.
- 00:10 Wow, big word, right, metadata.
- 00:12 Let me show you what I'm talking about.
- 00:14 Go ahead and click on the File ribbon.
- 00:19 And we're going to click on info.
- 00:21 When this pops open, we have some options.
- 00:23 Since I am logged into my OneDrive account, I can upload this immediately
- 00:28 from the screen, share, copy path, copy local path, or open the file location.
- 00:33 I can also protect this document.
- 00:35 Now, there's multiple things on this list.
- 00:38 We can make it only open as a read-only.
- 00:41 We can encrypt with a password.
- 00:43 Remember, if you're encrypting with a password, whoever you work for
- 00:46 owns your work.
- 00:46 So make sure if you're encrypting this, you have permission and
- 00:50 you write the password down.
- 00:51 If it's your own personal stuff, protect away, that's fine.
- 00:55 Now, Restrict Editing, this is if I upload it to my OneDrive,
- 00:59 I can determine who's going to be able to edit it or access it.
- 01:03 I can also add a digital signature, or
- 01:06 I can mark this as final and let everyone know this is the final.
- 01:11 The next option is Check for Issues.
- 01:13 When I click this one, I can inspect, check accessibility for
- 01:18 Americans with Disability Act laws, or
- 01:21 check compatibility if I'm using an early version of Word or someone else's.
- 01:26 Let's go ahead and hit the Inspect Document.
- 01:30 In here, you'll see many, many options.
- 01:32 I'm going to go ahead and let it inspect all of those.
- 01:35 And sure enough, it found something.
- 01:37 Document Properties and Personal Information will travel with this file,
- 01:42 Custom XML, and Headers, Footers, Watermark.
- 01:45 Well, I'll go ahead and
- 01:47 hit Remove All, at the risk that it's going to remove my headers or footers.
- 01:51 I'm going to go ahead and remove all of these and we'll see what happens.
- 01:56 Well, Removal All and removal All, and now we'll go ahead and re-Inspect.
- 02:00 This basically just washed my fingerprints off of this file, and
- 02:05 it will go out of my computer cleanly.
- 02:08 It doesn't even have me added as an author now.
- 02:11 It cleaned it all up.
- 02:14 All right, now, we have version history, because we do use OneDrive.
- 02:18 I can retrieve a previous version of this file if I made changes,
- 02:23 but want the originals back.
- 02:25 In the Manage Document, recover unsaved documents if this was actually on my hard
- 02:29 drive, and it wasn't online and I closed it without saving changes.
- 02:33 If I click this, you can see that, I had a couple that I closed and
- 02:38 didn't save changes to.
- 02:40 I can actually jump in and get those back.
- 02:42 I'll go ahead and click Cancel on that.
- 02:45 Going right back to the File > Info,
- 02:48 let's take a hard look at the right-hand side of this.
- 02:51 Here, we have the Properties, we have the file Size.
- 02:55 Titling and tagging are useful in your file management systems.
- 03:00 It is not a requirement, I rarely ever touch those.
- 03:03 I rarely add comments at this level.
- 03:06 It shows me the last time it was modified and created.
- 03:09 Because I cleansed it, I inspected it, and wiped out my personal information,
- 03:13 it shows that there's not even an author on here now.
- 03:16 And then we have Open File Location or Show All Properties, let's click that.
- 03:21 This just expands it and gives us more options to review.
- 03:25 And then up on top, we have a Properties with a drop-down arrow, and
- 03:28 Advanced Properties.
- 03:30 In here, I can just click through the tabs at the top.
- 03:33 And if you are at this level and making any changes in here,
- 03:36 that means you're probably at a corporate level where you really need to
- 03:41 take good file management of your documents.
- 03:44 It is rare that I'm even in this part, but
- 03:46 I just want to show you that it is available.
- 03:49 And trust me, you will know if you need to be in these sections,
- 03:52 because someone at your corporate level will probably coach you through that.
- 03:56 I'll hit Cancel on that.
- 03:57 Let's make sure we know where all of this is.
- 03:59 We were on our main document.
- 04:02 We clicked on file, we clicked on Info,
- 04:07 and we've found all of these options.
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