Document Protection

Word's Document Protection feature enables you to limit the types of changes others can make to a document. Specifically, you can limit changes to:

• Tracked changes enables users to change the document only with the change tracking feature turned on.

• Comments enables users to add only comments to the document.

• Forms enables users to enter information only into form fields. (This is an advanced feature of Word that is far beyond the scope of this book.)

To protect a document

1.	Choose Tools > Protect Document (Figure 37). Figure 37. Choose Protect Document from the Tools menu.
2.	In the Protect Document dialog that appears (Figure 38), select the type of protection you want. Figure 38. The Protect Document dialog.
3.	If desired, enter a password in the Password text box.
4.	Click OK.
5.	If you entered a password, the Confirm Password dialog appears (Figure 39). Enter the password again and click OK. Figure 39. Confirm that you know the password by typing it in this dialog's box.

Tips

• Entering a password in the Protect Document dialog (Figure 38) is optional. However, if you do not use a password with this feature, the document can be unprotected by anyone.

• If you enter a password in the Protect Document dialog (Figure 38), don't forget it! If you can't remember the password, you can't unprotect the document!

To work with a protected document

What you can do with a protected document depends on how you protected it:

• If you protected the document for change tracking, the change tracking feature is enabled. Any change you make to the document appears with revision marks.

• If you protected the document for comments, you can only insert comments in the document. If you attempt to edit text, an alert sounds.

To unprotect a document

1.	Choose Tools > Unprotect Document (Figure 40). Figure 40. To unprotect a document, choose Unprotect Document from the Tools menu.
2.	If protection is enforced with a password, a dialog like the one in Figure 41 appears. Enter the password and click OK. Figure 41. Enter a document's password in this dialog to unprotect it.