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Subject:Recent thread - hiding info in Word templates ? From:Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca> To:TECHWR-L Writing <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, monique -dot- semp -at- earthlink -dot- net Date:Mon, 04 May 2009 17:04:55 -0400
Monique Semp wondered: <<I'm thinking I remember a recent thread about
people "hiding" their name and/or company info in rarely used
paragraph or char styles in a template, with the intent of being able
to later track down/prove that they were the one who created said
template.>>
I don't recall it being discussed here, but it seems like you could do
this easily enough by creating a style named (for example)
ZbyMonique2009 so that the style name appears at the end of the list
of styles, where nobody is ever likely to find it. If you define but
don't use the style, it appears way down at the end; if you set Word
to display "only styles in use", it won't even appear in the list.
But there are other ways. Just about nobody seems to know that Word
offers a document properties feature (under the File menu) that lets
you define all kinds of useful stuff, such as the title, creator name,
and organization. Those who do rarely look under the "Contents" or
"Custom" tabs, so both would be good places to hide the information...
particularly if you put "created by" in the Summary tab, so a careless
thief would delete your name there and never look farther.
Another great trick is to type your name in the footer, and change the
text color to white. Most would-be pirates won't see it even if they
think to look there.
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Geoff Hart (www.geoff-hart.com)
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
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Effective Onscreen Editing: http://www.geoff-hart.com/books/eoe/onscreen-book.htm
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