Microsoft KB Archive/222180

= OFF97: How and Why Unique Identifiers Are Created in Office Documents =

Article ID: 222180

Article Last Modified on 1/24/2007

-

APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Office 97 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 97 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft PowerPoint 97 Standard Edition

-



This article was previously published under Q222180



SUMMARY
When you create a document in any of the programs listed above, a unique identifier may be created within the document.

This article explains how and why these unique identifiers are created in documents, and provides two methods you can use to remove unique identifiers from your Office documents.



How and Why Unique Identifiers Are Created in Office Documents
When you create a document in any of the programs listed above, the program generates a unique identifier, in the form of a number, which is stored within the structure of the document when you save it. The purpose of the unique identifier is to allow third-party tools to work with and reference documents created in Office programs.

There is no way to use the unique identifier to identify the author of a document without intimate knowledge of the personal computer on which the document was originally created. Since this information is available only to the owner of the computer, it is not possible to determine the author of a document simply by looking at the document itself.

Removing Unique Identifiers from Office Documents
Microsoft has developed two utilities that eliminate unique identifiers in documents created in Office programs:
 * The Office 97 Unique Identifier Patch prevents Office programs from inserting unique identifiers into new documents that you create.
 * The Office 97 Unique Identifier Removal Tool is a utility that removes unique identifiers from existing documents that were created in Office. If you are concerned about the presence of a unique identifier in your documents, you can use this utility to remove the unique identifiers from your documents.

How to Download and Install the Office 97 Unique Identifier Patch
NOTE: The Office 97 Unique Identifier Patch requires that you have Microsoft Office 97 SR-2 installed on your computer. If you do not already have Office 97 SR-2 installed, visit the following Web site:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010449981033.aspx

Download the Office 97 Unique Identifier Patch, from the following Web site:

http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/9798/Off97uip.aspx

Click Download now!, and save the Off97uip.exe file to your Desktop.

To install the Office 97 Unique Identifier Patch on your computer, follow these steps:
 * 1) If you are running Office from a network drive, quit all running Office programs including the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar and FindFast. To quit FindFast, open the Control Panel, double-click Find Fast, and then click Close And Stop on the Index menu.
 * 2) Double-click the Off97uip.exe file on your Desktop and follow the on-screen instructions to install the patch.

When installation is complete, restart your computer.

To install the Office 97 Unique Identifier Patch on a network server that contains an administrative installation of Office, follow these steps:  Click Start, and click Run. In Open, type:

C:\Windows\Desktop\Off97uip.exe /c:"Off97uip.exe /a"

If necessary, change the path to reflect the actual location of the Off97uip.exe file. Click OK. Follow the on-screen instructions to select the copy of Mso97.dll that is contained in your administrative installation and click Open.

Note that any user who has installed Office from this administrative installation should either:
 * Install the Unique Identifier Patch on their own computer, using the steps above

-or-
 * Reinstall Office from the administrative installation.

This will ensure that the Mso97.dll file is properly patched.

Once the patch has been installed, any new documents that you create in Office programs will not contain a unique identifier.

How to Download, Install, and Use the Office 97 Unique Identifier Removal Tool
Download the Office 97 Unique Identifier Removal Tool, from the following Web site:

http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/9798/pf_setup.aspx

Click Download now! and save the Pf_setup.exe file to your Desktop.

To install the Office 97 Unique Identifier Removal Tool, double-click the Pf_setup.exe file on your Desktop and follow the on-screen instructions.

To remove the unique identifier from a document created in Office 97, follow these steps:
 * 1) Click Start, point to Programs, and then point to Microsoft Office Tools. Click Microsoft Office 97 Unique Identifier Removal Tool.
 * 2) Select the folder that contains the Office documents you want to update and click OK. All documents in this folder, for example, C:\My Documents, and subfolders will have the unique identifiers removed from them.
 * 3) Click OK when unique identifier removal is complete.

Details of unique identifier removal are stored in the file Propfix.log, located in the root folder of your hard disk.

For More Information
For more information about this issue, please see the following Microsoft Web site.

Letter to customers about this issue:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/1999/03-08custletter2.asp

Q&A for customers about this issue:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/1999/03-10qa.asp

Additional query words: OFF97 XL97 WD97 PP97

Keywords: kbdownload kbinfo kbofficeupdate KB222180

-

[mailto:TECHNET@MICROSOFT.COM Send feedback to Microsoft]

© Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.