In a legal matter electronic files are considered evidence. It would stand to reason that metadata in Microsoft Word files is important since it can explain the timeline of events and other details related to the evidence.

All Microsoft Office documents contain metadata and there are dozens of other file types which also store valuable information about the file. These topics will be covered in a different article.

In a legal case many think of emails when referring to metadata. Often the fields (i.e. 'To', 'CC', 'From', 'Date Sent' etc.) are referred to as metadata. Actually, these are database fields as oppose to the hidden information in files.

In addtion to Microsoft office Word metadata there is file system metadata. File system metadata is stored outside of the Microsoft Word.

File system metadata is stored in the File Allocation Table (FAT). When viewing files in Windows Explorer the dates, times, size of the file is the file system metadata.

Spoliation in a legal case often refers to files where the file system metadata has been altered during the copy process.

When collecting files from a custodian machine during a document production it is important to preserve all aspects of the original file. Unfortunatley, simply copying files in Windows will alter file timestamps and metadata. Pinpoint Labs created a program called SafeCopy that allows users to copy files to a new location without altering metadata.

What data is contained in Microsoft Word metadata fields? Here is a list of the commond metadata fields:

MICROSOFT WORD METADATA FIELDS- File Name, Title, Author, Comments, App Name, Version Date, Created Date, Last Printed, Date Last Saved, Total Edit Time, Template, Shared, Subject, Category, Company, Keywords, Manager, Last Saved By, Word Count,Routing SlipTrack Changes, Fast Saves, Hidden text, Graphics Hyperlinks, Document Variables, Include Fields, Page Count, Paragraph Count, Line Count, Character Count, Chars, Byte Count, Presentation Format, Slide CountNote Count, Hidden Slides, Multimedia Clips, Last 10 Authors.

A program which can quickly display information related to file system and Microsoft Office metadata is available through Pinpoint Labs and is called MetaViewer. MetaViewer is a great tools for computer forensic examiners and legal professionals who need to quickly view metadata and hash values. You can download MetaViewer from the Pinpoint Labs website.