There are times in which it is necessary and/or beneficial to remove personal information and identifying information from a document (i.e. blind review of an article). This includes making comment bubble authors anonymous.
1. Save the file before beginning this process because changes cannot always be restored.
2. On the “File” tab, click “Info.”
3. From the “Check for Issues” button, select “Inspect Document” to open the “Document Inspector.”
4. Click the “Inspect” button to run.
5. Next to “Document Properties and Personal Information,” click the “Remove all” button. This will change the comments’ authors to anonymous. Do NOT click to “Remove all” next to “Comments, Revisions, Versions and Annotations” as this will remove the comment completely.
6. Click “Close.”
These instructions, along with illustrations of this, can also be found in SharePoint > Software Users Group > Shared Documents > Word > Making Documents Anonymous.
Original instructions were provided by Ranelle Maltas of UNL Information Services.