Just a reminder to be careful out there...

[gagged_Louise]

One thing I happened to notice this morning: MS Word, and most likely some other word processing programs (and some picture software too?) has a default setting that will tag a document that you've saved and edited in the software with your own name (the name of the licensee of the software copy, and that's most often your own r/l name)

The result? When you're sending the story, diary notes or piece of fun to another, maybe to a dozen people as an attachment (in a mail or over an IM program) your name will sometimes go with it, and show up in the "properties" menu of the document. That menu gets visible by right-clicking the document icon and then selecting "properties" or simply by letting the mouse marker float over the icon. What's more, this name tag is not visible as long as the file is on your own hard drive, but it shows up like a watermark when the piece lands on someone else's, and it may include the company or institution you're working for.

I suppose some computer pros here knew already but to me this was an unpleasant piece of news. Sure there is some way to disable this name tagging - a number of text/image files I've received from friends here don't give away real names, but one close friend here did without knowing it, and from that name and the knowledge of where that person lives it was peanuts to reach extremely sensitive and private information (and I don't mean the name of her old high school twenty-five years go or the like, but much more sensitive)

Checking back with her, I soon realized I had shared my own real name without knowing it, though only to people I totally trust here. Will have to make a quick run-down of what softwares this applies to and how to disable or change those tags in MS Word and some other programs. I mean, nobody wants to share photos of yourself and then find out that the pic is in secret stamped with your r/l name (none of the pics I've received from people here give that, but many are tagged with the name of the camera model used). Hoping to be back soon on this.




Oh, and

lol subbies should be careful or they may wind up with a Dom like me

-What righteous subbie wouldn't want just that?

[Thorne]

I learned this some time ago and, as usual, naturally assumed that everyone else knew about it too.

As for MS Word, Click on the TOOLS menu, then click on Options and go to the User Information tab. You can put in whatever you want in there. As far as I know, that's the info that gets added to the file properties. I don't think you can get away with putting nothing there, but just putting a single, random letter won't hurt you.

For MS Excel, it's Tools, Options and the General tab.

It's generally a good idea when you save a file that you've created through some kind of program like these, to check the properties, just to see what pops up.

One thing I happened to notice this morning: MS Word, and most likely some other word processing programs (and some picture software too?) has a default setting that will tag a document that you've saved and edited in the software with your own name (the name of the licensee of the software copy, and that's most often your own r/l name)

The result? When you're sending the story, diary notes or piece of fun to another, maybe to a dozen people as an attachment (in a mail or over an IM program) your name will sometimes go with it, and show up in the "properties" menu of the document. That menu gets visible by right-clicking the document icon and then selecting "properties" or simply by letting the mouse marker float over the icon. What's more, this name tag is not visible as long as the file is on your own hard drive, but it shows up like a watermark when the piece lands on someone else's, and it may include the company or institution you're working for.

I suppose some computer pros here knew already but to me this was an unpleasant piece of news. Sure there is some way to disable this name tagging - a number of text/image files I've received from friends here don't give away real names, but one close friend here did without knowing it, and from that name and the knowledge of where that person lives it was peanuts to reach extremely sensitive and private information (and I don't mean the name of her old high school twenty-five years go or the like, but much more sensitive)

Checking back with her, I soon realized I had shared my own real name without knowing it, though only to people I totally trust here. Will have to make a quick run-down of what softwares this applies to and how to disable or change those tags in MS Word and some other programs. I mean, nobody wants to share photos of yourself and then find out that the pic is in secret stamped with your r/l name (none of the pics I've received from people here give that, but many are tagged with the name of the camera model used). Hoping to be back soon on this.




Oh, and



-What righteous subbie wouldn't want just that?