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If you use change tracking, how can you be sure that only the final version of the document makes it to the recipient, and that first draft text isn’t still hiding in there somewhere, waiting to embarrass you? All changes should be removed if you click Accept All Changes in the Reviewing toolbar. See more detailed instructions here.

You can also use the Remove Hidden Data utility to get rid of tracked changes and comments in Word XP/2003 documents. Download it here.  

If you don’t quite trust these methods, one sure-fire way to ensure that your document doesn’t include your tracked changes is to convert the Word document to a PDF. You don’t have to buy Acrobat — you can simply use a free PDF tool like CutePDF.

You can also remove metadata from Office documents. This is the information stored with the document that includes such data as the author’s name, organization name, name of the computer on which it was composed or server on which it was stored, template information, hidden text or cells, comments, and other file properties or summary information. For instructions on removing metadata, click here

Deb Shinder