Does black or white text hide words in Word?
No. Black shading, black text or white text only change how the words look. The words themselves stay in the Word file, and anyone who selects the area, changes the colour or reads the file's contents can see them. Microsoft's own inspector says it cannot detect text hidden by methods such as white text on a white background.
This guide shows what we found in a test document, what Microsoft says, and what removing the words actually involves.
What Microsoft says
Microsoft's Document Inspector page describes an inspector for hidden text: text formatted as hidden, which is a font effect in Word. It adds a note: this inspector cannot detect text hidden by other methods, for example white text on a white background. Microsoft's reference for Word also describes hidden text as a font property, which is a different thing from a colour.
So there are two different ways text can be out of sight. Hidden text is a setting Word knows about. Black-on-black or white-on-white is just formatting, and Word's inspector does not treat it as hidden.
What we tested
We ran this on Microsoft Word 2016 on Windows. We made a test document with three lines of invented text. In the first line, which contains an invented email address, we set the font colour to black and the shading to black. In the third line, which contains another one, we set the font colour to white. We saved it and opened the file's internal parts.
Both addresses were present in the file's text exactly as typed. The black shading and the white colour were stored as formatting next to them. Nothing had been removed.
We then ran Check Before Send on the file. It listed both email addresses as high-priority findings, along with the author name and the file's times. We let it make a copy, read the copy's text, and scanned it a second time. Neither address was in the copy, the second line of ordinary text was still there, and no findings remained.
What this means
- To see covered text, a reader does not need special tools. Select the area and change the colour, or read the file's contents.
- A black bar that has to be permanent has to be made by deleting the words, not by colouring them.
- The inspector in Word is useful for hidden text, comments and properties, but Microsoft says it cannot detect text hidden by other methods.
Limits
This is one small file made in one version of Word. We tested colour and shading on lines of ordinary text. We did not test text boxes, tables, headers, pictures of text, or text hidden in other ways. A name or number inside a picture is not read as text by Check Before Send.
What to do
- Delete the words you want gone. Do not colour them.
- Check the file for what is left: names in properties, comments and tracked changes can repeat the same details.
- Check the copy you are about to send.
Check the file before you send it
Drop the Word file into Check Before Send. It lists personal details it finds in the text and in the file's properties, you choose what to remove, and it writes a new copy and runs a second scan on that copy. "Verified not found" means that second scan found nothing, not that the file is guaranteed clean.
The file is read inside your browser and is not uploaded; the Trust Center explains how to confirm that. To look at what else a Word file keeps, see are resolved comments still in a Word document, or browse the other guides.