atw: Re: hidden text exposed
- From: David Ryan <daverryan@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:46:10 +1000
Hi all,
What's the underlying process for the hidden text option? XML? Behaviors of
syntax or markup will vary over the versions of Outlook, as MS have/haven't
implemented standards. Certainly we should expect anything "hidden" as a
function of a host environment to break-out under another. Unless you are
into steganography, there's nothing truly "hidden" in Microsoft Office.
I'm not sure how we've gotten to a point where we should actually expect any
give file from Company X to have credits or metadata from Company Y, but it
is a significant IP breach and risk for many operations. I'm a big fan of
the Inspect Document tools introduced into the workflow of Word 2010, and
I'd love to think that the various corporations and companies with this
trait of recycling documentation would embrace it. If we do one thing in our
half-lives as technical writers, it surely must be educating people to nuke
their Properties data before publishing. I know "normal people" don't get as
excited about meta-data as we do, but the prep doc features of the new
versions of Word are an incredible tool for passive or unenthusiastic users.
I really like Neil's tip too!
Regards
Dave
PS: The phrase "hidden text" makes me think of the early days of SEO.
#FFFFFF font, #FFFFFF background. Why are people still using hidden text in
anything?
On Wed, Apr 20, 2011 at 1:00 PM, Christine Kent <cmkentau@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> As hidden text is a machine specific setting, you cannot control the remote
> computer. So as someone or other might have suggested, take a copy of your
> document, strip out the hidden text (easy to do as a single operation using
> the Inspect Document feature in Word 2007/2010), and send them the clean
> copy only. This is wise in any circumstance so that you don’t make any
> silly mistakes.
>
>
>
> Christine
>
>
>
> *From:* austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:
> austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Terry Dowling
> *Sent:* Wednesday, 20 April 2011 12:36 PM
>
> *To:* austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> *Subject:* atw: Re: hidden text exposed
>
>
>
> Hi John,
>
>
>
> I virtually always work with all text (including hidden) and formatting
> marks visible in docs, so I knew the rows were there. Indeed, in this case,
> I had just hidden the rows. (One problem in Word sometimes being that even
> if you have don’t have ‘print hidden text’ selected, Word can’t get the TOC
> pagination right until you turn off its visibility.)
>
>
>
> I have to say, the hidden text issue in Outlook is quite quirky.
>
>
>
> In Outlook 2007, the default is to have hidden text not visible in Created
> emails. If sent to someone with Outlook 2003, they can’t see the hidden text
> in the received email (and we haven’t been able to work out a way of making
> it visible). However, when they reply or forward the mail, the hidden text
> becomes visible to them and the new receiver, unless the replier/forwarder
> wilfully changes the text back to hidden. In 2007, it is visible in the
> received email when opened, but not in the preview, seemingly regardless of
> whether the (well hidden) view Hidden Text option is checked.
>
>
>
> Neil, I have no faith in the machinations of MS. But, thanks for the apt
> quote.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Terry
>
>
>
> “We are all atheists. Some just believe in one more/fewer god than the
> others. When you understand why you dismiss all other gods, you should
> understand why I don’t believe in yours.” Paraphrasing someone.
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Dent, John
> *Sent:* Tuesday, 19 April 2011 12:14 PM
> *To:* austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> *Subject:* atw: Re: hidden text exposed
>
>
>
> Or turn on ‘Show hidden text’
>
>
>
> *From:* austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Terry Dowling
> *Sent:* Tuesday, April 19, 2011 13:20
> *To:* austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> *Subject:* atw: hidden text exposed
>
>
>
> I recently copied and pasted a Word table with three visible rows and
> emailed it to a colleague. He received four hidden rows also (fortunately,
> nothing sensitive) to give him the full seven.
>
>
>
> When I received the email back with his seven-row table I checked my sent
> email which still shows only the three. If I forward it, the table expands.
>
>
>
> Motto of the story, is delete, don’t hide.
>
>
>
> HTH,
>
> Terry
>
>
>
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