Excel Redaction

[dkaplan]

I have a user that wants to remove (redact) information from an Excel spreadsheet (2010), then send that spreadsheet to a third party. They want to be certain that someone at the other end cannot see the information they have deleted.

To be clear: they are not deleting entire rows, they are simply selecting the info in specific cells and hitting the delete key.

After the deletions, they save the spreadsheet and email it as an attachment.

Is this foolproof? i.e. could someone at the other end restore what they have deleted?

 

[combo]

Deleted data can't be restored in sent file. However, there is a lot of personal data that is or may be stored in the workbook. It may be useful to inspect workbook before sending it. You can see what is kept and how to check it here:

https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...orkbooks-FDCB68F4-B6E1-4E92-9872-686CC64B6949

Excel files (.xlsx, .xlsm) are packed sets of xml structures, if you like you can unpack them and view in text editor.

combo

 

[dkaplan]

Thanks, Combo.

Am I correct that Auto Recover will not revert to a previous version when the file is sent as an attachment?

 

[combo]

The office file recovery functionality stores files locally, in one of user account folders.

combo

 

[dkaplan]

Thanks, Combo.

This has been very helpful.