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On 12 Jun 2007, Anders <> wrote:

> Jim skrev:
>> Is there a security utility which can help me with the following?
>>
>> I need to write some letters for someone else as if the letters
>> were written only by the other person. I use my PC to write the
>> leter and will email the other person a Word DOC file to use on
>> their PC. We both use Word 2003 on WinXP.
>>
>> However I do not want the DOC file I send to show that I have been
>> involved in any way at all.
>>
>> (a) I do not want data in File > Properties.
>> (b) I do not want to have my default margins, font, etc.
>> (c) I don't want the document file to have other data which has
>> from elsewhere on my PC (perhaps temp data).
>>
>> ----
>>
>> Until now I have been sending them unformatted text but this means
>> the other person has to paste it into Word and then lay it all out
>> and put in all the formatting for empahsis.
>>
>> Is there some software which will strip out the identifiers in a
>> Word DOC file to anonymise it?
>>
>> Do I need to use some Word function to have two different sets of
>> default layout? (See b above.)
>
> If you have the extra space, and if there is a lot of letters you
> have to writhe for him.
> Why don't you just create a new user in his name?
> It would probably save both you and him a lot of extra work.
> Just a thought.
> /Anders

Anders, that is a very good idea because then the Word settings will be
different. It's a bit of a chore each time but it would work.

However - I do wonder if I can't get the same effect by swapping a few
Word parameter files in my signon.

If I swap signons the PC system identifiers will still be there. Perhaps
they may be not so hard to shift.

On 12 Jun 2007, Todd H. <> wrote:

> Jim <> writes:
>
>> On 12 Jun 2007, Walter Roberson <> wrote:
>>
>> > In article Jim <> wrote:
>> >>
>> >>I need to write some letters for someone else as if the letters
>> >>were written only by the other person.
>> >>
>> >>Until now I have been sending them unformatted text but this
>> >>means the other person has to paste it into Word and then lay it
>> >>all out and put in all the formatting for empahsis.
>> >
>> >
>> > Perhaps if you save the file as RTF type? That's a text-only
>> > format, so you could edit it to review that no trace of you is
>> > left in.
>> >
>> > I don't use Word much; in what little I've done, I think I found
>> > that the page size information was not preserved in the RTF
>> > file, which required that the page size be changed on the
>> > imported file -- but that's trivial compared to the import work
>> > they have had to use before.
>>
>> I tried RTF but I hear implementations are not consistent. For my
>> needs there is not quite enough formatting in the RTF which I get
>> from my RTF editor, Crypt Edit.
>
> So let me see if I have this straight.
>
> You want something that removes margins font, etc, yet you want it
> to have a bunch of formating that isn't available in the RTF format
> Word spits out? These seem like conflicting goals to me.
>
> I'm curious what info is or isn't in the .doc format exported by
> Openoffice.org's writer program though.
>
>


Apologies for confusing you. I originally posted that "I need to write
some letters for someone else as if the letters were written only by the
other person."

RTF does not contain enough formatting for these documents.

maybe have another peek at my original post?

Ronnie wrote:


> Is there a reference somewhere describing these aspects in more depth?


Just open your favorite text processing software, write some text, mark it,
and then select a style like "Heading 1" for it.

Close it, open it up again, mark the text. It's style will be named "Heading 1".

> or what is meant by exporting via the user interface.

Offering/exposing via the GUI.

On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:28:27 +0200, "Sebastian G." <>
wrote:


>Just open your favorite text processing software, write some text, mark it,
>and then select a style like "Heading 1" for it.
>
>Close it, open it up again, mark the text. It's style will be named "Heading 1".
>
Sebastian, thank you. I did that in Word, saved, re-opened in Word,
and, as you predicted, Heading 1 was displayed in the GUI.

As it was when I then opened the document in OpenOffice.org

As it was when I saved the document from OO as a .odt, and re-opened
it again in OO.

As it was when I resaved the odt, this time from OO but as a Word XP
document.

And as it was when I opened the resaved 'odt to doc' document finally
in Word.

So whatever OpenOffice did or did not save, it certainly did save this
formatting metadata. So this is not an example of whatever formatting
metadata OO is thought not to save.

[If anyone is interested, this simple, 33 character, test document in
Word occupied 19k bytes, the .odt file was only 8k bytes (for the 33
character document), and the resaved as WordXP file was 65,536 bytes -
suspiciously like a whole sector or block. OOo did write a smaller
file than Word - so perhaps had taken something out.]

As a user, I too would really would like to understand whether using
OpenOffice does reduce data leakage, and what type of data leakage it
does stem. If anyone who knows of some work done on this happens to
read this thread this far, maybe they'll post a link. Otherwise, it
could make a nice CS project for some student somewhere.

______________
regards,
Ron

In Message-ID:<Xns994E7B575A3605D4AM2@127.0.0.1>,
Jim <> wrote:

>I am using word.
>
>Seems you may not have read the whole of my posting where you see I am
>replying to someone who asks if I have considered using RTF.

It seems you might not have read the Word Help file. It is quite
capable of interpreting and saving RTF files.

In article <Xns994E7B575A3605D4AM2@127.0.0.1>, Jim <> wrote:
>On 12 Jun 2007, Jim Watt <_way> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:42:38 +0100, Jim <> wrote:
>>
>>>I tried RTF but I hear implementations are not consistent. For my
>>>needs there is not quite enough formatting in the RTF which I get
>>>from my RTF editor, Crypt Edit.

>> I thought you were using word?

>I am using word.

>Seems you may not have read the whole of my posting where you see I am
>replying to someone who asks if I have considered using RTF.

I'm the one who suggested that you consider *saving* your file as RTF,
which is something you can do from MS Word.

I didn't understand the reference to Crypt Edit, or the best I could
make out was that -maybe- you thought that using RTF required you to
use different software.

In alt.computer.security Jim <> wrote:
> On 12 Jun 2007, Colin B. <> wrote:
>
>> In alt.computer.security Jim <> wrote:
>>> On 12 Jun 2007, Sebastian G. <> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Jim wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Is there some software which will strip out the identifiers in a
>>>>> Word DOC file to anonymise it?
>>>>
>>>> Yes.
>>>>
>>>> No, I'm not gonna search the link at
>>>> <https://www.microsoft.com/downloads> for you.
>>>
>>> Good job you don't want to as there is nothing there. Heh!
>>
>> There is for me. If this is too difficult for you, you're in trouble.
>
> I think I am. I guess that's why I have asked for help. I just don't
> know everything about computing or word processing.

Let me be clear.

If you follow the link given above, it takes you the MS download site.
If you then plug in some search terms like, say, 'hidden data,' it takes
you right to a MS-created Word plug-in to delete metadata. This seems to
be what you're looking for, no?

If it's that important that you give a completed file to the person, with
no hint of your fingerprints on it, AND requiring more formatting that RTF
can provide, then I think you have two main options:

1) Use a different format, such as HTML.
2) Use a different computer, configured to look like theirs. You could
probably set up a virtual machine with VMWare for this purpose.

I'd be fascinated to know exactly why you need to accomplish this, but
I imagine it's secret for a reason.

Colin

Jim skrev:
> On 12 Jun 2007, Anders <> wrote:
>
>> Jim skrev:
>>> Is there a security utility which can help me with the following?
>>>
>>> I need to write some letters for someone else as if the letters
>>> were written only by the other person. I use my PC to write the
>>> leter and will email the other person a Word DOC file to use on
>>> their PC. We both use Word 2003 on WinXP.
>>>
>>> However I do not want the DOC file I send to show that I have been
>>> involved in any way at all.
>>>
>>> (a) I do not want data in File > Properties.
>>> (b) I do not want to have my default margins, font, etc.
>>> (c) I don't want the document file to have other data which has
>>> from elsewhere on my PC (perhaps temp data).
>>>
>>> ----
>>>
>>> Until now I have been sending them unformatted text but this means
>>> the other person has to paste it into Word and then lay it all out
>>> and put in all the formatting for empahsis.
>>>
>>> Is there some software which will strip out the identifiers in a
>>> Word DOC file to anonymise it?
>>>
>>> Do I need to use some Word function to have two different sets of
>>> default layout? (See b above.)
>> If you have the extra space, and if there is a lot of letters you
>> have to writhe for him.
>> Why don't you just create a new user in his name?
>> It would probably save both you and him a lot of extra work.
>> Just a thought.
>> /Anders
>
> Anders, that is a very good idea because then the Word settings will be
> different. It's a bit of a chore each time but it would work.
>
> However - I do wonder if I can't get the same effect by swapping a few
> Word parameter files in my signon.
>
> If I swap signons the PC system identifiers will still be there. Perhaps
> they may be not so hard to shift.

Perhaps 'rhdtool.exe' can be useful, it is for the XP/2003 versions of Word.

one line:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

/Anders

Jim wrote:
> Is there a security utility which can help me with the following?
>
> I need to write some letters for someone else as if the letters were
> written only by the other person. I use my PC to write the leter and
> will email the other person a Word DOC file to use on their PC. We both
> use Word 2003 on WinXP.
>
> However I do not want the DOC file I send to show that I have been
> involved in any way at all.
>
> (a) I do not want data in File > Properties.
> (b) I do not want to have my default margins, font, etc.
> (c) I don't want the document file to have other data which has from
> elsewhere on my PC (perhaps temp data).
>
> ----
>
> Until now I have been sending them unformatted text but this means the
> other person has to paste it into Word and then lay it all out and put
> in all the formatting for empahsis.
>
> Is there some software which will strip out the identifiers in a Word
> DOC file to anonymise it?
>
> Do I need to use some Word function to have two different sets of
> default layout? (See b above.)


Just edit the document "info"

Ronnie wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:28:27 +0200, "Sebastian G." <>
> wrote:
>
....
> [If anyone is interested, this simple, 33 character, test document in
> Word occupied 19k bytes, the .odt file was only 8k bytes (for the 33
> character document), and the resaved as WordXP file was 65,536 bytes -
> suspiciously like a whole sector or block. OOo did write a smaller
> file than Word - so perhaps had taken something out.]
>
....

ooo documents are compressed jar archives. Extract it and the size will
be similar to Word.


jc