Hidden content refers to content in Microsoft Office and PDF documents that is not easily visible, including comments, revisions, and speaker notes. When processing files, DISCO identifies these items and makes them searchable.
DISCO can detect the following content in common business documents:
| Word | Powerpoint | Excel | |
|
Comments |
Comments Hidden text Invisible text* Revisions |
Comments Hidden slides Invisible text* Speaker notes |
Comments Hidden columns Hidden rows Hidden sheets Very hidden sheets Invisible text* Hidden text** Macros Unsupported formulas Formatting Headers Footers |
*Invisible text is text that is the same color as the document’s background. For example, white text on a white background.
**In Excel, hidden text is Data Validation where the source is not a formula.
You can find documents with hidden content by:
- Searching for all documents with hidden content
- Searching for documents with specific types of hidden content
- Searching precisely within hidden content fields
Searching for all documents with hidden content
- In the search bar, click SEARCH BUILDER.
- In the METADATA category, click Has any hidden content.
- In the hasHiddenType dropdown, click Yes. The search results will include any documents that have any of the hidden content types DISCO can detect.
Searching for specific kinds of hidden content
- In the search bar, click SEARCH BUILDER.
- In the METADATA category, click Specific hidden content.
- Select the type of content you want to find (such as comments) and then click Run search.
- The results will show any documents with that type of hidden content.
Searching within hidden content fields
Content found within comments, hidden text, invisible text, and speaker notes are extracted and placed into searchable fields.
- In the search bar, click SEARCH BUILDER.
- In the METADATA category, click the hidden content type. The available hidden content types are Comment, Speaker note, Hidden text, and Invisible text.
- In the hiddenText field, enter search terms (what terms should be in the comment, speaker note, hidden text, or invisible text). For example, to find comments that contain the word delete, type delete in the field.
- Click Run search.
Using search syntax to search for hidden content
To find hidden content without using the search builder, enter the relevant search syntax in the search bar:
|
Search fields |
Search values |
Example(s) |
|
hasHiddenType(variable) |
|
hasHiddenType(yes) Searches for documents that have hidden content hasHiddenType(no) Searches for documents that do not have hidden content |
|
hiddenType(variable) |
|
hiddenType(notes) Searches for PowerPoint documents with speaker notes |
|
comments(variable) |
Search terms you want to find in the comments |
comments(remove) Searches for documents with comments containing the term “remove” |
|
speakerNote(variable) |
Search terms you want to find in the speaker notes |
speakerNote(sales) Searches for PowerPoint presentations with speaker notes containing the term “sales” |
|
hiddenText(variable) |
Search terms you want to find in the hidden text |
hiddenText(delete remove) Searches for Word documents with hidden text containing the terms “delete” or “remove” |
|
invisibleText(variable) |
Search terms you want to find in the invisible text |
invisibleText(sales & contract) Searches for documents with invisible text containing both the term “sales” and the term “contract” |