Limiting Formatting to a Certain Set of Styles


If your job requires you to create documents that other people have to revise (for example, you draft press releases and send them to coworkers for revision), you may have learned the hard way that a well-intentioned but not Word-savvy person can make mincemeat of your careful formatting. To prevent this unhappy state of affairs, you can restrict formatting to only the set of styles you want people to be able to use. If you do this, users will no longer be able to apply any direct formatting; they will only be able to format your document by applying the allowed styles.

To limit formatting to a particular set of styles, follow these steps:

  1. Open the document whose formatting you want to restrict, and choose Tools, Protect Document .

  2. In the Protect Document task pane that appears, mark the Limit Formatting to a Selection of Styles check box, and click the Settings link (see Figure 9.17).

    Figure 9.17. Use the Protect Document task pane to restrict formatting to a particular set of styles.

    graphics/09fig17.jpg

  3. Word displays the Formatting Restrictions dialog box (see Figure 9.18). Click the None button to remove all of the check boxes from the Checked Styles Are Currently Allowed list, and then mark the check boxes for the styles that you want the user to be able to apply.

    Figure 9.18. Mark the check boxes for the styles that you want the user to be able to apply.

    graphics/09fig18.jpg

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    You might think that clicking the Recommended Minimum button would be a fast way to select a small number of styles that you want the user to be able to apply, but it actually selects quite a large numberperhaps more than you'd expect. It seems to defeat the purpose of the tool. You're most likely going to be better off choosing None and then selectively clicking the ones you want.


  4. When you're done, click OK . Word displays a message box asking whether you want to remove direct formatting or styles that are not allowed. Click Yes or No as desired, and then click the Yes, Start Enforcing Protection button in the Protect Document task pane.

  5. Word displays the Start Enforcing Protection dialog box. Optionally enter and re-enter a password that will be required to remove the protection, and then click OK .

The protection is now in force. All of the formatting options, whether on toolbar buttons , in menus , or in dialog boxes, are dim, and the styles that appear in the Styles list and the Styles and Formatting toolbar are restricted to the ones you allowed.

To remove the protection, choose Tools, Unprotect Document. If you specified a password in step 5, you will be required to enter it now. After you've unprotected your document, you can modify the formatting restrictions by repeating these steps, or clear the Limit Formatting to a Selection of Styles check box to allow users to apply any type of formatting they like to your document.



Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Office Word 2003 in 24 Hours
Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Office Word 2003 in 24 Hours
ISBN: 067232556X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 315
Authors: Heidi Steele

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