DOCX Metadata Inspector (Core Properties, Author, Dates)
Every .docx file carries metadata that Word maintains automatically: the author name, the last person to save the file, the creation and last-modified timestamps, a revision counter that increments on every save, a cumulative editing-time tally, and the document title and subject if they were ever set. That metadata is invisible while the document is open in Word but persists in the file and travels with every copy. This tool reads it in your browser — useful before publishing a document to a public audience (the metadata is a common channel for accidental author-name leaks) and useful for compliance review (document-provenance and editing-time tracking are sometimes part of evidence-handling procedures).
Which Fields the Tool Extracts
The core properties live in docProps/core.xml inside the zip, which uses Dublin Core elements plus a few Open Packaging Conventions properties: creator (the original author), lastModifiedBy (the last user to save), title, subject, description, keywords, category, language, version, content status, created, modified and lastPrinted dates, and the revision number. From docProps/app.xml the tool reads the application and version that saved the file, company, manager, template, total editing time (in minutes) and the word, character, line, paragraph and page counts. It also looks where names often hide outside the property sheets: comment authors (word/comments.xml), the authors of tracked-change revision marks (w:ins and w:del in word/document.xml), the co-author list Word keeps in word/people.xml, and any custom properties in docProps/custom.xml. Every field is listed; blank ones are marked “not set”.
Why Metadata Audits Matter
The single most common metadata-related embarrassment is the author-name leak: a document drafted internally and sent to a counterparty still has the drafter's name in the creator field, which can reveal information the sender did not intend to share (the internal team structure, whether the document was drafted by junior or senior staff, whether multiple internal contributors edited it). Less commonly, the cumulative editing time can reveal that a "day-of" document was actually drafted over weeks, or vice versa. For legal documents, the metadata is sometimes discoverable evidence; for press releases and policy documents, it is usually best stripped before publication.
How Metadata Stripping Works (And Where This Tool Fits)
In Word for Windows, Document Inspector (File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document) can remove comments, revisions, document properties and personal information. This tool fits around that step: see what is there before you decide what to remove, then inspect the cleaned copy to confirm the names are gone. It does not modify the file — it is a read-only inspector — so removing anything needs Word or a separate tool.
Privacy and the Browser-Only Posture
Everything happens locally. The tool reads the .docx as a zip in your browser with its own small reader (the browser's built-in DecompressionStream does the inflating), pulls out only the XML parts listed above, and reads the fields with the browser's XML parser. Nothing crosses the network: open the browser's Network tab while you inspect a file and you will see no upload.
Pair this with related UDT document tools: Document Anonymizer to redact names, SSNs, and other PII from the document body before you share it, DOCX to Markdown for converting a stripped document to a publication-ready format, PDF Metadata Inspector for the equivalent inspection on PDFs, PDF Editor for the broader PDF workflow, and EXIF Viewer for the same kind of metadata audit on images.
Frequently Asked Questions
Built by Derek Giordano · Part of Ultimate Design Tools