How to hide the Document Information Panel when creating a new Word document from a .DOTX file which was on a sharepoint site?

Question

The title more or less says it all.

I have DOTX files in a document library which people can download and create new word files from. The library DOES NOT have required columns or any special custom properties.

When a user creates a new DOCX file from the DOTX file which was on SP at one time, the Document Information Panel shows. We do not require information from the users and would like it to not show.

There is an option in the Content Type settings which allow you to force the panel and this is unchecked.

How can we force the panel to not show in Word when created a new DOCX from the template file?

Thank you.

Answer 1

There is an article that describes a similar problem (it's about excel templates) and some workarounds.

http://bizsupport1.austin.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=110&prodSeriesId=1840603&prodTypeId=18964&objectID=c03474919

I haven't tried all these workarounds but it may get you started. I am dealing with the same issue so if I get something working I will update this.

Answer 2

When you open the document that you have pulled off the SharePoint server (as that normally by default causes the DIP to open) and save the document or template to your machine, you just need to run the inspection function within word (I image the same exists for excel etc).

In word 2007 this is on the path Office Icon > Prepare > Inspect Document. Select what you want to inspect the document for, i.e. "Document Properties ans Personal Information" & "Custom XML Data", run the routine and then select "remove all". The DIP should no longer appear when it is opened again.

Note, this does remove metadata and perhaps some XML functionality from the file/document, so keep a backup just in case you loose something else that you wanted. If I then have to reload the document to a SharePoint site, I make sure to update the properties, i.e. metadata again, although good practice is to always keep this updated whenever you create a document to help search and organizational functions of operating systems.

Not a perfect solution, but the fastest easy way to get rid of the DIP.

Answer 3

I have had this problem as well. I solved it by uploading a new template of type '.dot'. This solved the problem (the DIP does not show up), but I don't consider this ideal. I'm currently looking into other solutions.

Cheers, Craig.

Answer 4

SP 2016 onprem + Office 2013 combo here.

I had a similar problem. My custom content types' templates were set to look at .docx files. I converted .docx files to .dotx. After that DIP was not showing any more when new document was created using SP ribbon's New button.