Can you Remove Properties and Personal information in Windows Explorer?

In Windows 11, in Windows Explorer when you right click on a file and select 'Properties', you'll see that you have the option to 'Remove Properties and Personal information'.

This function can be a quick and easy way to remove some, if not all, metadata from a file. Click on the underlined, blue link and you will be given the option to create a copy with 'all possible properties' removed, or only certain properties that you select from the current file:

. . . . the function will remove the Author and reset the date created, modified, and accessed in the 'File' section, but leaves in the original dates and times in the origin section.

It may be better than nothing but it will not remove comments and track changes from a Word document even if they are hidden.

To remove the metadata from any individual MS Office file you would go to File . . . Info . . . Inspect for Issues . . . Inspect Document, and you'll get the option to run Document Inspector.

The document inspector will flag what kinds of metadata are present.

The Protect function in Adobe Acrobat includes an option to remove hidden information.

download YouTube videos with Media Mister

If you search around, you'll find many suggestions online of how to download video from YouTube without purchasing a premium account for YouTube. Some of these work, and some don't. Some are some sketchy sites you should probably avoid. Media Mister is listed as a safe site in Norton Safe Search, and I've tested and confirmed it can be used to successfully download a complete video with audio.

Media Mister's primary function is to generate likes for social media content generators, but it also makes tools available to review social media data. Use the YouTube download tool here: https://www.mediamister.com/free-youtube-video-downloader

The site will give you the ability to download the video at different resolutions, or just the audio. For YouTube videos select the 360p option which includes the audio with the video. The video will open on new tab, and you just need to right click and download it. A video of an hour long can be downloaded in just a few moments.

What does in the p in '360p' mean? It does not stand for pixels - it indicates that progressive scanning has been used for the video - although a 360p video is 360 x 640 pixels.

360p videos are used on YouTube and other sites with streaming videos. A 240p video might appear on a mobile device.

Standard definition videos are 480p. High definition videos are those at 720p. 1080p is full high definition - the standard for Blu-ray.

You may also see a reference to 480i or 1080i. The 'i' refers to interlaced video - which was used for broadcast televisions. A video posted here on YouTube by Dans Tech describes the difference between the two types of video very well. An interlaced video shows video at a lower bandwidth by showing the even lines for a given frame in the first 1/60 of second and then the odd lines in the next 1/60 of a second. The image appears to be complete to the human eye.

In progressive scan, all of the lines are together. Progressive scan videos were used more widely after the emergence of modern computing because of the need for seamless motion on monitors.

preventing PowerPoint presentations from being edited

During trials parties typically exchange PDFs of demonstratives prepared in PowerPoint for openings, witness examinations, and closings. While these PDFs can capture some of the animated steps in a slide deck, and sometimes even include video added to slides, much of the content of the PowerPoint presentation will inevitably be omitted from the PDF version. If you'd like to, or are required to, send out a PowerPoint file with the full functionality of the original, but don't want the recipients to be able to edit the file, OfficeOne has an add-in called Shape Locker that will allow you to lock it down and make it impossible to alter.

See this link: https://officeoneonline.com/shapelocker/shapelocker_download.html

Shape Locker will appear on the Design Tools tab on the PowerPoint ribbon.

If you select the objects on a slide and then click on 'Lock Shapes' you will be prompted to indicate how you want to lock down each selected shape. You can configure the presentation so that shapes cannot be resized, repositioned, or even selected, and so that text can't be edited.

The add-in is not free - a single user license costs $49, but a trial version is available. The trial version lasts for 11 days.

I tried running some vba code to select all of the shapes in a PowerPoint file at once, but this did not allow me to use Shape Locker on all slides automatically. It's necessary to lock the shapes on each slide one by one.

I've tested it out, and confirmed that I could not edit text after running it, or select any object at all on a slide. However it was possible to access the Animation pane in PowerPoint and make changes there.