All documents you create with Microsoft Office applications are marked with your username and initials. But this information is not fixed and you can easily modify it.

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All documents you create with Microsoft Office applications are marked

All documents you create with Microsoft Office applications are marked with your username and initials. But this information is not fixed and you can easily modify it.

When you launch one of the Microsoft Office applications for the very first time on your PC under Windows or your Mac (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook…), it asks you to indicate a user name and initials which will be valid in all modules of the office suite. These software will then mention your Office username in different situations. The properties of an Office document thus indicate each time the name of its author. As well as each comment added in a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file. In Word, finally, when change tracking is activated, any intervention on your part on a document will also be nominative.

Unless your company’s IT department locks everything down, you are free to change your Microsoft office suite username and initials in the options of any app for Windows and macOS, including being edited of a document. In Word for the web, your username is your Office login.

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How do I change the username in Office for Windows and macOS?

Before adding, for example, comments in an Excel or PowerPoint document or activating track changes in Word, check your username… and change it if necessary!

  • To change the user name for Office for Windows applications, in one of these Microsoft applications, such as Word or PowerPoint, click the tab File > Options.
  • In Word for Windows, you can also click the tab Revision > “launcher” icon for Change tracking options > button Change username.
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  • Options for Word or other Microsoft Office software will open.
  • In the category Generalunder section Customize your suite of Microsoft Office programs, enter a username and initials – or whatever. Your name will be seen by everyone you send your Word document to, unless you delete this information from the file.
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  • In Word for Mac and other Office for Mac software, for example, click the menu Word > Preferences > User.
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  • On Mac and PC, the name and initials that we change for example in the Word options apply to all the other Office applications installed on this computer, we therefore find them among others in the general options of PowerPoint (illustration below).
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  • You are free to enter the name (52 characters maximum, spaces included) and the initials (9 characters maximum) that suit you. Initials are used only on rare occasions, they are not even presented to you in Excel’s Options. In the field usernamein any case, most people simply indicate their first and last name.
  • On Mac and PC, in recent versions of Office, if you check the box Always use these values, regardless of Office sign-in status (it is checked by default), the app will use this username even if you’re signed in to Office with an account that shows other information. This box is useful on computers shared by several people, when you want the user name to remain the same from one session to another.
  • The Office username change takes effect immediately and in all Office applications. It is usually not necessary to close and reopen open documents. On the other hand, it only concerns the next comments and, in Word, the next change marks that you will add in your documents. Existing edits and comments retain their old username.

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