Microsoft Word 2008
Protecting a Document
Microsoft Word's tracking and editing features are designed to make collaborative work run more smoothly. The key feature, Track Changes, records all revisions to a document and registers who made which changes at what point in the revision process. Protect Document can provide a document with different levels of protection so that only collaborators are allowed to make changes to the document.
Protecting for Tracked Changes and Comments
Preparing a document for review is the first step in a collaborative project. By protecting the document for review, a writer can specify how much revision he or she wants to allow reviewers. By selecting tracked changes, reviewers are free to edit the document’s text, format and style, but not to change edits made by other reviewers. By selecting Comments, reviewers can add comments, read other comments, but not change or delete others comments.
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Open the document for review
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From the Word menu, select Preferences...
The Word Preferences dialog box appears. -
In the Personal Settings section, click SECURITY
The Security dialog box appears.
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Click PROTECT DOCUMENT...
The Protect Document dialog box appears.
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In the Protect document for section, select the appropriate option
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OPTIONAL: In the Password text box, type a password
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Click OK
Protecting with a Password
You can designate a password to protect the document from changes made by unauthorized reviewers. Before changes can be made to the document, it must be unprotected using the password. Keep a list of passwords and their corresponding documents in a safe place. If the password is lost, the document may be unrecoverable.
Protecting with a Password: To Open
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Open the document for review
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From the Word menu, select Preferences...
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In the Personal Settings section, click SECURITY
The Security dialog box appears. -
In the Password to open text box, type your password
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Click OK
The Confirm Password dialog box appears. -
In the Reenter password to open text box, retype your password
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Click OK
The Security dialog box closes.
Protecting with a Password: To Modify
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In the Password to modify text box, type your password
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Click OK
The Confirm Password dialog box appears. -
In the Reenter password to modify text box, retype your password
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Click OK
Unprotecting a Document
When you no longer need to have your document protected, you can remove the protection and remove passwords.
Removing a password
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In the password text box, highlight the characters
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Press [Delete]
Unprotecting your document
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From the Word menu, select Preferences...
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In the Personal Settings section, click SECURITY
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Click UNPROTECT DOCUMENT...
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Click OK
