Introduction

If you work in an office environment with Microsoft Office Word 2003, or are part of some other group that routinely collaborates in document preparation, learning the basics of document sharing is a must. The greater the number of people that interact with a document before it reaches final form, the more critical it becomes for you to keep track of versions, comments, the source of all editing marks, and adequately manage the process of correcting them.

Forms are an easy way to collect information in a consistent manner, such as a survey, invoice, or order form. With a form you can ask specific questions and get the response in the format that you want, such as yes/no, itemized list, or a brief comment. Forms can be either printed or online documents with instructions, questions, and fields where users can enter their responses.

Because working together on a document may be crucial to the success of it's completion, there might be various levels of security that need to be set for your readers. Some may have full access to read and make changes, while others are limited to just reading the document, and still other may only be able to read part of the document because it contains hidden text.

When sending document files through e-mail and transferring them to others, a new feature called Information Rights Management (IRM) greatly protects your document from getting in the wrong hands. With IRM, you can restrict the document from getting forwarded to others that weren't on your original send to list. In Word, you can send out a document for review using e-mail, from within Word. You can also set up a routing process when you send it out for review. By listing the e-mail addresses of your recipients, the document is transferred to the list, and you receive confirmation each step of the way.