Managing and sharing 365 files
- By Joe Habraken
- 3/3/2022
- Understanding 365 file formats
- Configuring save file options
- Saving files as different file types
- Creating and managing files
- Searching for 365 files
- Protecting a 365 file
- . . . . .Preparing a file for sharing
Preparing a file for sharing
The Microsoft 365 applications also give you tools for checking a document before you share it. These features are primarily designed for both security and accessibility issues. For example, you can check the document for any personal information that might be contained in it; this is a security check because you don’t necessarily want to share personal information in the shared document. Or you might have text in the document that will be difficult for people with disabilities to read; this is an accessibility issue.
The Check For Issues button on the Info window in the Backstage provides three tools that check your file for possible issues related to sharing:
Inspect Document: This tool inspects the document for specific content such as comments, annotations, document properties, and hidden text. The main purpose of the inspector is to help ferret out personal information that you might have inadvertently stored in the document.
Check Accessibility: This tool opens the Accessibility Checker task pane in the document and provides a list of warnings related to accessibility issues in your document. For example, several blank lines between paragraphs might signal to a person using a screen reader that the document has ended. As you select each warning in the task pane, you are presented with information on why you should fix the issue and suggestions on how to fix it.
Check Compatibility: This tool checks the file for items that are not supported by earlier versions of the application you are using. For example, you might have used the Citation and Bibliography features in Word, but the Compatibility Checker tells you the earlier versions of Word (Word 97–2003) need to convert these items to static text.
As already mentioned, you can run these tools from the Backstage in the Info window. The purpose of these tools is to negate the chance of sharing personal information (Inspect Document), to make sure that the file is accessible to users with disabilities (Check Accessibility), and to ensure that users of earlier versions of Microsoft products can access the file and view its content (Check Compatibility).