Word: Hiding the Document Information Panel automatically

It can be very annoying if your Sharepoint administrator has added a policy to always show the Document Information Panel when you open a Sharepoint file.

You have to keep closing the Document Information Panel every time you open a file. And you can't even deselect the "Always show Document Information Panel on document open and initial save" because they disable that checkbox!!

Word and Excel can automatically hide this pesky Document Information Panel using macros.

Word Macro

In your normal.dotm file (located in C:\Users\%Username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\), add the following two functions to the macros (Alt-F8 to open Macros window).

Sub AutoOpen() ' ' AutoOpen Macro ' '     Application.OnTime Now + TimeValue("00:00:03"), "ToggleDocumentPanel" End Sub  Sub ToggleDocumentPanel()     With Application         .DisplayDocumentInformationPanel = False     End With End Sub

Excel Macro

This one's a bit more tricky.

1. On the Developer tab, click Record Macro.
2. In the Macro name box, type Auto_Open.
3. In the Store macro in box, save the macro in a hidden workbook that is automatically loaded when you start Excel by choosing Personal Macro Workbook.
4. Click Stop recording.
5. On the View tab, click Unhide Window.
6. Choose Personal.XLSB and click OK.
7. Type Alt-F8 to open the Macros window.
8. Choose Auto-Open and click Edit.
9. Paste the following:

Sub Auto_Open() ' ' Auto_Open Macro ' Remove Document Information Panel '     Application.OnTime Now + TimeValue("00:00:03"), "ToggleDocumentPanel" End Sub  Sub ToggleDocumentPanel()     With Application         .DisplayDocumentInformationPanel = False     End With End Sub

8. Save the excel spreadsheet.

9. On the View tab, click Hide Window.