How to change or remove all traces of original author name in Excel 2010 document

Solution 1:

In Office 2010, like some earlier versions, there is an option to "Prepare for Sharing".

First go to the "File" tab, then select "Info".

In the right hand pane you'll see "Prepare for Sharing", which may already show some issues:

Click "Check for Issues" -> "Inspect Document", which will pop up a window, where you can select the issues you want to look at:

From what you've said, the most important one to check is "Document Properties and Personal Information", but I'd leave them all selected, personally. When you're happy, click 'Inspect', which will produce a report:

Now just click on "Remove All" as needed in each category to remove any of the information that has been returned (in this case 'Author').

Then save the file (presumably with a new name if you want to retain the metadata in your original for internal use).

Solution 2:

An .xlsx file is actually a ZIP file with a different extension. Unzip it and have a look at the docProps\core.xml file with a utility like XML-Marker.