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What is Draftable Clean?

Draftable Clean is a metadata cleaning solution built for legal professionals. Documents contain hidden metadata — author names, tracked changes, comments, revision history, and system properties — that can inadvertently disclose sensitive or privileged information when shared externally. Draftable Clean gives you two ways to clean documents:
WorkflowWhat it isBest for
Desktop applicationStandalone Windows application for scanning, reviewing, and cleaning documentsBulk cleaning, detailed metadata review, saving cleaned files locally
Draftable Clean Outlook add-inRight-hand panel inside Outlook that automatically cleans attachments as you compose emailsCleaning documents as part of your email sending workflow

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Part 1: Desktop application

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Setting up the desktop application

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Download Draftable Clean here: https://dl.draftable.com/clean/DraftableCleanSetup.exe
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Run the installer and follow the prompts.
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Activate the product by entering your product key.
  1. If you already have a license, your product key should have been sent to your email.
  2. If you want to start a trial, you can start a free 5-day trial here
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That’s it! Draftable Clean is now set up and ready to use.

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Cleaning your first document (desktop)

1
Open Draftable Clean. You’ll see the main application window with the toolbar across the top: Browse, iManage, NetDocs, Clean, Undo, Save, and Email.
2
Click Browse to open a file browser, then select one or more documents from your local folders. You can also drag and drop files directly into the application window. To upload files from your DMS, click iManage or NetDocs in the toolbar.
You can select multiple files at once — for example, a Word contract, a PDF affidavit, and a ZIP archive. Draftable Clean handles all supported file types simultaneously.If the iManage button is not visible, you may need to enable the integration in Settings > Integrations. See Troubleshooting: DMS integrations for details.
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Your files appear in the file list. Each file is automatically scanned and assigned an overall risk rating (e.g. High Risk) with a SCANNED status. This tells you Draftable Clean has identified metadata that should be reviewed or cleaned.If a file shows a PASSWORD status (highlighted in orange), it is password-protected and cannot be scanned until you provide the password. A Password Required prompt appears automatically below the file with a password field.
Enter the file’s password — you can use the eye icon to toggle visibility — and click Check Password.
If the password is correct, the file is scanned and its status changes to SCANNED with a risk rating, just like your other files. You can then expand it to review its metadata.
If the password is incorrect, a Password Invalid message is displayed. Re-enter the correct password and click Check Password again. See Troubleshooting: Cleaning issues for further help with password-protected files.
Password-protected files don’t block the rest of your workflow. You can continue scanning, renaming, reordering, and cleaning other files while a password-protected file awaits authentication.
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Click the expand arrow (>) on any file to see a detailed breakdown of its metadata. Metadata is grouped into categories — such as Document Properties, Personal Information, Tracked Changes & Comments, and more — each with their own item count and risk level.
5
Rename and reorder files directly in the file list before cleaning:
  • Rename — Click the pencil icon next to a file name to edit it inline. Press Enter or click away to confirm.
  • Reorder — Drag files up or down in the list to change the attachment order.
Renamed filenames and custom ordering are preserved when you save or email cleaned files from the desktop application.
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When you’re ready, click Clean in the toolbar. All selected files are cleaned and their status changes to CLEANED.
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After cleaning, click the expand arrow (>) on any file to see exactly which metadata fields were removed. Each field displays a REMOVED badge, so you have full visibility into what was stripped from the document.

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Export options

Once your files are cleaned, you can save them locally or share them via email. Save — Click Save in the toolbar to save your cleaned files. Draftable Clean packages them into a compressed ZIP folder with a timestamped filename.
Email — Click Email in the toolbar to open a new Outlook message with all your cleaned files pre-attached. Draftable Clean preserves the file order and any filenames you’ve renamed, and populates the email subject line, body, and an attachment summary based on your preferences in Settings > General.
The General settings let you customize:
  • Email subject — The default subject line for emails sent from Draftable Clean
  • Email body — The default body text
  • Attachment summary — Whether a List (bullet points) or Table (with columns) of attachments is inserted into the email body

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Part 2: Draftable Clean Outlook add-in

The Draftable Clean add-in is a panel that runs directly inside Microsoft Outlook. It automatically cleans attachments as you compose emails. The desktop application must be running for the add-in to function — if it is not already open, the add-in will attempt to launch it silently in the background.

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Setting up the Outlook add-in

The add-in is deployed organization-wide by a Microsoft 365 administrator. Setup involves uploading the Draftable Clean manifest file to the Microsoft 365 admin center and assigning it to your users.
If you don’t see the Draftable Clean button in the Outlook ribbon, contact your IT team to have it installed. Administrators can follow the Installing Draftable Clean Outlook Add-in guide for deployment instructions.

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How the add-in works

Unlike the desktop application where you manually click Clean, the Draftable Clean add-in works automatically:
  1. You click Draftable Clean in the Outlook ribbon to open the panel
  2. You compose an email, add recipients, and attach files as normal
  3. Draftable Clean detects the attachments and cleans them automatically using the appropriate profile based on recipient domains
  4. When cleaning is complete, the original attachments are replaced with cleaned versions
  5. You send the email — knowing all attachments are clean

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Using the add-in step by step

1
Open a new email in Outlook and click Draftable Clean in the ribbon. A tooltip confirms: “Remove metadata from email attachments before sending.”
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The Draftable Clean panel opens on the right-hand side of the window. If no files are attached, it shows “No attachments yet — Attach files to your email and they will be cleaned automatically.”
Draftable Clean supports multiple languages including English, Deutsch, Español, Français, 日本語, Nederlands, Polski, Português, Svenska, and Tagalog. Click the globe icon at the bottom of the panel to select your preferred language.
3
Attach files to your email using the standard Outlook Attach file button or drag-and-drop.
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Draftable Clean automatically begins cleaning your attachments. The panel shows each file’s cleaning progress — “Updating attachment…”, “Removing metadata…” — and displays the message: “Cleaning in progress — attachments will be replaced automatically.”Once cleaning is complete, each file shows a green checkmark with “Cleaned” status, the profile used (e.g. “Profile: Clean Draft”), and a per-file Profile dropdown. The panel header shows the total count (e.g. “3 cleaned”) and the default profile in use.
If any files contain tracked changes or comments, they display a warning: “Tracked changes and comments were detected in this file.”
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Click Send — your email is sent with all supported attachments cleaned and safe to share.

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Automatic profile switching based on recipients

Draftable Clean intelligently adjusts the cleaning profile based on recipient email domains. Domain rules are configured in Settings > Add-In and determine which cleaning profile is applied. For example, a typical configuration might be:
  • No recipients entered — A default profile such as Standard Clean is used
  • Internal recipients (e.g. colleague@yourfirm.com) — A lighter profile such as Clean Draft that preserves tracked changes and comments
  • External recipients (e.g. contact@externalfirm.com) — A stricter profile such as Standard Clean
These are examples — administrators and users can customize the default profile for when no recipients are entered, and configure domain rules to map specific email domains to any cleaning profile via Settings > Add-In. See Metadata cleaning profiles for details on managing profiles and domain rules. When you add or change recipients, a banner appears: “Recipients changed — re-cleaning attachments with updated profile.” You can click Review Attachments to check the changes.
If enabled in Settings > Add-In, users can override the cleaning profile for individual files using the per-file Profile dropdown in the panel.

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Renaming and reordering attachments

After cleaning, you can rename and reorder files directly in the Draftable Clean panel:
  • Rename — Click the pencil icon next to a file name to edit it inline
  • Reorder — Drag files up or down in the panel to change the attachment order
After reordering, click Update Attachments to sync the changes back to the email.

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Unsupported file types

If you attach a file with an unsupported format (e.g. an image file), the Draftable Clean panel displays an “Unsupported format” status with the message: “This file type cannot be cleaned. See Knowledge Base.” Unsupported files do not block sending by default — this behavior is configurable in Settings > Add-In > Send Protection.

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Password-protected files in the add-in

If you attach a password-protected file, it shows an orange “Password protected” status with the message: “Enter the document password to clean this file.” Enter the password in the provided field and click Unlock to authenticate and clean the file. If the password is incorrect, an “Incorrect password. Please try again.” message is displayed. Re-enter the correct password and click Unlock again.
Once the correct password is provided, the file is cleaned automatically and shows the same “Cleaned” status as your other files.

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Inserting an attachment list

Click Insert Attachment List to add a formatted summary into the email body. The button includes a dropdown arrow with two format options:
  • List — A bullet-point list of attachment names
  • Table — A table with Attachment and Description columns
The default format is configurable in Settings > Add-In > Attachment Summary.

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Send protection

Draftable Clean controls what happens when issues are detected on send. By default:
  • Attachments not finished cleaning — Sending is blocked with a dialog: “Attachments need review before sending.” The user can click Review to return to the email or Don’t send to cancel.
  • Tracked changes or comments detected — The user is prompted with a dialog: “Tracked changes or comments detected.” The user can click Send anyway, Review, or Don’t send.
  • Unsupported attachment types — Sending is allowed
Each scenario can be configured to Allow, Prompt, or Block in Settings > Add-In > Send Protection.

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Next steps

What is Draftable Clean?

Learn more about Draftable Clean’s features and how metadata cleaning protects your documents.

Supported file types

See which file types Draftable Clean can scan and clean, and what metadata is detected.

Metadata cleaning profiles

Customize how metadata is removed with configurable cleaning profiles.

Supported metadata types

Full reference of every metadata type Draftable Clean can detect and clean.