How to

Remove personal data from Word, PDF & Excel files

PII Shield finds and removes personal data — names, emails, IDs, IBANs and more — from Word, PDF and Excel files on your own computer. You review every finding, export a clean copy, and keep the originals locally so redaction is fully reversible.

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Short answer. Open the DOCX, PDF or XLSX in PII Shield, review the highlighted personal data, redact or anonymize it, and export a clean copy. Everything happens locally; the original values stay on your machine and can be restored.

Step by step

Open the file. Open your Word (DOCX), PDF or Excel (XLSX) file in PII Shield. Everything is processed on your computer.
Review the findings. Names, emails, IDs, IBANs and more are highlighted. Keep or redact each one in a quick review, or select any text to add your own.
Redact or anonymize. Replace values with neutral placeholders. A mapping is stored locally so you can reverse it.
Export. Save the redacted copy. The original values stay on your machine; only the clean copy is shared if you choose.

Supported formats

Documents: DOCX, PDF, TXT and Markdown. Spreadsheets: XLSX and CSV. Email: EML. Plus audio (MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC, OGG). Your files are processed on your device, offline after activation, on Windows 10 and 11.

What gets detected

Names, email addresses, phone numbers, postal addresses, IBANs and card numbers, national IDs (SSN, NINO, VAT, passports and more), dates of birth, IP addresses and medical record numbers — using an AI model plus precise pattern rules, with you confirming each item.

Frequently asked questions

How do I remove personal data from a Word or PDF file?

Open it in PII Shield, review the highlighted personal data, redact what you need, and export a clean copy. Detection runs on your computer, and the original values stay local so you can restore them later.

Does it keep the document formatting?

For office formats like DOCX and XLSX, PII Shield edits the document’s real content, so the structure is kept. For PDF it works on the document’s text content. Either way you export a usable redacted copy.

Does it work on scanned PDFs?

It works on the text content of your documents. For spreadsheets it reads the cells directly, and for Word and PDF it reads the document text.

Is anything uploaded?

No. Detection and redaction run entirely on your Windows computer; your files never leave the device.

Can I undo the redaction?

Yes. A mapping stored on your device lets you restore the original values when you need the complete file.

Redact your files locally

Free for 14 days on Windows 10 and 11.

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