I have a .docx file that I am working on with a team of people at work. We are all (I believe) using Word 10. It's a pretty big document (about 200 + pages) and the file has grown to be really enormous - about 3.6 MB. There are no graphics embedded in the file, nor are they any objects from other programs. It's just a Word file.
Today I tried an experiment. I went File, Information, Check For Issues, Inspect Document
Among the results of the inspection, it reported the presence of "Custom XML" data. I had the Custom XML data removed and the file, which appears to a Word user to be unchanged from where I started, shrank from 3.6 MB to 469 KB. It's now about 12% the size it was.
What the heck is going on here? What is in this "Custom XML" data? None of us working on the document added it. We don't even know how to look at it. The experience leaves me with the following questions:
What is creating all this data?
Is it of any value of me?
Can I look at it?
Can I control/prevent its creation and accumulation?
If I send the file to somebody else, and they know what they're doing, can they see it?
I'd be grateful for any information on this.
Thank you.
JPB
