MS Word is said to be the most popular word processor in the world. But unless you’re careful, you could be giving away all sorts of information behind your back. You should pay attention to security with Word, just as you do with your computer.

Let’s say you use Word to create and share documents and projects, or to send jobs or real estate. The recipient can see all the changes you made while developing the document, including dates, who wrote it, initial information (such as the price you’re willing to pay), and all changes (such as the revised price), and more. Sometimes this data is necessary for legal or other purposes. And sometimes not.

Fortunately, there are some simple ways to largely avoid these problems and the subsequent embarrassment if the wrong people see this type of information. Depending on your version of Word, here are some things you should do to protect your data:

*Before you start creating the document, turn off the Change Tracking tool. Click Tools, Change Tracking. In earlier versions of Word (2000 and earlier), click Tools, Track Changes, Highlight Changes, and clear the box marked “Track Changes While Editing.” Notice that the letters TRK at the bottom of your screen are now grayed out.

*Fast Save speeds things up when you save a document, because it only saves your changes. But you need to turn off this feature to prevent the deleted text from being saved as well. Click Tools, Options, Save tab and clear the “Allow quick save” box. Click OK.

*You may want to remove all personal information from a document before sending it. Click Tools, Options, Security tab. Under Privacy Options, click “Remove personal information from file properties on save” and click OK. In earlier versions, click Tools, Options, User Information tab, and delete the text in the boxes. Click OK.

These three easy steps will remove much of your tracks and changes in Word. Additional data remains and can be cleaned with specialized software.