Quality control of a deliverable

This lesson is still being tested: it improves with learners' feedback. If something is unclear, it is the lesson that needs fixing, not you.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to

go through a checklist on a deliverable, page by page;
use an AI as a first pass, and know what is left for you to do;
check the links in a PDF, and spot the ones that don’t lead where they say;
remove the personal information hidden in a file.

Why it matters to you

A wrong total, a date that doesn’t fall on the right day, a dead link: a single mistake is enough to make people doubt the whole document. Quality control takes twenty minutes, and it is the moment your work becomes a deliverable. The AI helps you go fast, but what leaves with your name on it is validated by you.

Before you start


You need	A PDF reader, your assistant (free account) if it accepts PDF files, the checklist and the exercise PDF (resources)
Cost	€0
Duration	50 minutes
Reminder	For your deliverable: nothing from the “never” list in what you give the AI

Understand it in 3 minutes

The checklist, in nine points (details in the resource): spelling, figures, dates, names, links, rights, readability, layout, the file itself. You go through it on the final version, the one you send.

The AI, as a first pass. It reads fast, and finds a lot. In our test of 24/10/2026, with Claude Code (which is not included in Claude’s free plan; this test was not rerun in the app or in ChatGPT), on a two-page PDF where we had planted 7 errors, it found them all, with the page, the quotation and its level of certainty, for example “The total is wrong: 120 + 45 + 30 = €195.”

It also said what it had not been able to do: “I did not open either of the two addresses”, knowing which name is right “is up to the club’s organization”, “I did not test a real printout.”

But for the date, it wrote “checked with the system calendar”, although this test only allowed it to read the file: even when it is right, an answer can announce a check that did not take place. Redo a date calculation yourself.

What is left for you:

click every link in the final file: the displayed address and the link’s target can be different;
settle the facts: which name, which date, which amount is the right one;
look at the result: on a phone, and printed if the document will be printed;
check the file: its name, its format, and its properties.

A single test, with simple errors, does not prove that an AI always finds everything: the checklist remains the rule.

Hidden information. A file can contain your name in its properties, comments, revisions. According to Microsoft’s help (24/10/2026), in Word, Excel or PowerPoint, File, Info, Check for Issues, Inspect Document finds and removes them (the list of Office versions on this page names no version for Mac).

Do it on a copy: the help warns that it is not always possible to recover what it removes. It also warns that it does not detect text hidden by other means, for example white text on a white background. And when you export to PDF, the Document properties option decides whether they are included in the PDF. On Mac, if you can’t find the Inspector’s menu, check the file’s properties (author), comments and revisions by hand.

Do it together

1Step 1: You first, on the exercise PDF

Download the exercise PDF (resources). It is the made-up program of a book club evening, on two pages. Open the checklist, and go through it yourself, in 10 minutes, without AI. Note each problem: page, quotation, problem.

2Step 2: The AI next

Give the PDF to your assistant (if it accepts files), with the request from the resource (“Check this document before it is sent, page by page…”). Compare its list with yours: what did it see that you didn’t, and the other way around?

3Step 3: What the AI can’t do for you

Click every link in the PDF. Which one opens nothing? Which one opens a different address from the one written?
Look at page 1 on your phone: is a sentence hard to read?
Open the PDF’s properties in your reader (the path depends on the reader: look for “properties” or “document information” in its menu or its help). In this exercise PDF, you won’t see a title or an author, but dates and the software that created it (here a browser; on a Mac, the Finder’s “Get Info” window may show that browser name as the author). In a PDF exported from Word, your name may be there: that is why you look before sending.

4Step 4: The answers

Read these only after the exercise. The 7 planted errors:

a spelling mistake: “welcomming”;
a date: Saturday, November 22, 2026 is a Sunday;
a name: Inès on page 1, Agnès on page 2, for the same person;
a total: €185 instead of €195;
a link to a domain that doesn’t exist (“.example” is a reserved name that opens no website);
a link whose displayed address is not the target;
a sentence in pale gray on white: 1.67:1, far from the W3C’s 4.5:1.

Your turn

Choose a real deliverable you are going to send (a document or a presentation from lessons 1 to 4).
Do a first pass with your assistant, then go through the whole checklist yourself.
Fix it in the source, make the PDF again, and recheck the points you corrected.
Before sending, inspect a copy of the file if you are sharing a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file.

Resources to download

Deliverable checklist: the nine points, the request for the AI, the table of problems.
Exercise PDF: the evening’s program: two made-up pages, with 7 planted errors.

Check your work

It worked if:

you went through the whole checklist on the final version, and ticked each point yourself;
you clicked every link in the final file;
each problem was fixed in the source, and the new PDF rechecked;
the file’s properties contain nothing you don’t want to share.

Common mistakes:

checking the source, then sending a PDF that was never opened;
believing the AI when it flags nothing;
reading a link’s address without clicking on it;
fixing the PDF, and finding the mistake again in the next version;
sending a file with forgotten comments or revisions.

Keep it and pick it up later

Keep the completed checklist with the deliverable: it says what was checked, and when.
The module 10 deliverable: a document or a presentation, laid out according to your style guide, exported as a PDF, and checked page by page with the checklist.

Going further

optional

Microsoft’s help details what the Document Inspector looks for: comments, revisions, properties, headers, hidden text.

New words

5 words explained

Word	What it means
Deliverable	The final document, the one you send or publish
Checklist	The list of points to check, ticked by you
First pass	A quick read-through, here by an AI, before your own check
Document properties	The information hidden in a file: author, title, dates
Document Inspector	The Office tool that finds and removes that information

The test in step 2 was actually run with Claude Code 2.1.310, read-only, on the exercise PDF (test report, T50). To be checked: it was not rerun in the app or in ChatGPT, with the PDF sent in the conversation.

Date, version, sources Written on 24/10/2026. Checks of 24/10/2026:

Document Inspector (path, copy recommended, removal sometimes permanent, white text on a white background not detected, what it looks for): support.microsoft.com, “Supprimer des données masquées et des informations personnelles en inspectant des documents” (page in French; English version “Remove hidden data and personal information by inspecting documents, presentations, or workbooks”);
Document properties option when exporting to PDF: support.microsoft.com, “Enregistrer ou convertir au format PDF ou XPS dans les applications de bureau Office” (page in French; English version “Save or convert to PDF or XPS in Office Desktop apps”);
contrast of 4.5:1: w3.org, minimum contrast.