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Thread: hidden keystrokes

  1. #1

    hidden keystrokes

    Please tell me if this is possible...

    You want to take your time and spell everything correctly and re-read it before you put it in the email venue so you write up that email using Word. You then delete several things you decide not to include and paste your final draft into your email program and send it on.

    Here's my question: does the ghost of ANYTHING you've deleted stay behind? Can a savvy computer whiz look behind the document and dig up anything that was previously written and then deleted?

    Thanks for your help guys

  2. #2
    The ******* Shadow dalek's Avatar
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    Only thing I can think of is Auto save function in word, even if you delete certain words, depending on the occurrence of saves, these could be retrieved, also most documents create a ~xxxxx.tmp
    so depending on wether you saved and or deleted, and depending on how the document was closed prior to saving, you may have left a trace of the document behind.
    MS Word

    As to reading "behind" the original text on a page, I highly doubt it, your probably thinking of a hard copy type page where previous text can be retrieved physically, through chemicals.

    Unless someone else here, knows of a certified way of doing this, I haven't heard of any..
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  3. #3
    Hi Dalek,
    So if I had cut and pasted my Word doc into the body of the email basically there's no way the deleted stuff would transfer?

  4. #4
    The ******* Shadow dalek's Avatar
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    Originally posted here by Thager
    Hi Dalek,
    So if I had cut and pasted my Word doc into the body of the email basically there's no way the deleted stuff would transfer?
    That's correct, whatever you are cutting and pasting or transferring to your email composer, is all that will be there, anything left behind on the word document may be retrievable under the right conditions, such as a unplanned shutdown, this will create a ~xxx.tmp file of your word document, but that's on your hard drive and not in your email, same with any saves you make, prior to editing and making the transfer, but it's in the body of the email, you are worried about, and I'm fairly certain, it will only have what you have selected/cut and pasted....

    HTH.
    PC Registered user # 2,336,789,457...

    "When the water reaches the upper level, follow the rats."
    Claude Swanson

  5. #5
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hi Thager,

    A lot will depend on the version of MS Word you are using, and your settings. The usual security problem arises when you are monitoring edits and changes and this is stored in the metadata attached to the Word document. AFAIK this is NOT default behaviour?

    If you did a straight C&P then these metadata should not be transferred, as it is no longer a genuine Word document.

    Here is how to test what is happening on your system:

    1. Open word and create a document TEST.doc and type some stuff into it.
    2. Save the document.
    3. Reopen the document and make some changes.
    4. Save the document again.
    5. Rename the document TEST.txt
    6. Open it in notepad, and you will see all the attached metadata.

    My feelings at this point is that none of the changes will be recorded.

    7. Rename the document back to TEST.doc, and check that it opens in Word.
    8. C&P the text, and save it in another Word document TEST1.doc and in a notepad document TEST2.txt

    You will see that TEST1.doc should have none of the metadata relating to TEST.doc (use the method described above to check). TEST2.txt will have no metadata at all..........that is how I would expect your e-mail program to handle it as well.



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