document protection and Ink Annotations

[cgijag]

Hello,
I've seen a few posts regarding protecting a Word document (by sections) and
the Ink (comments/annotations) feature using a tablet pc. It seems that even
though you setup protection by section the ink feature is disabled. I
haven't had any luck getting confirmation whether this will be fixed (or if
theres a workaround). Anyone else had any luck? thanks.

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi =?Utf-8?B?Y2dpamFn?=,

I've seen a few posts regarding protecting a Word document (by sections) and
the Ink (comments/annotations) feature using a tablet pc. It seems that even
though you setup protection by section the ink feature is disabled. I
haven't had any luck getting confirmation whether this will be fixed (or if
theres a workaround).

The reason this is a problem is that "ink" is superimposed on the document as a
Shape (floating graphic), in a special layer. When forms protection is
activated, this layer is inaccessible - no workarounds, no "fixes". It's
inherent in the way the functionality was designed, back in the early 1990s.
This graphics layer was added to Word some five years later (for version 97).

Given that the Word team is now focussing on Content Controls (new in 2007) and
isn't planning to do anything at all with the Form fields, I don't expect this
to change.

If you have 2007 you can use grouped content controls to limit text input, and
use Inking at the same time.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[cgijag]

Thank you. I'm pasting your response to the duplicate question i had posted
in programming so anyone else with this question can see your great answer.
Thanks!

 

[lordneeko]

Hello,

I know you asked this a long time ago but I've been searching for a solution
to this same problem. I want to be able to lock the document from
unauthorized changes but I still want to allow inking. If you choose under
"Restrict formatting" to allow tracked changes only, you will still be able
to use the inking feature. I know this isn't perfect, but let's face it, it
is a microsoft product. I really hope microsoft addresses this in office
2010, but I'm not holding my breath. I hope this has helped you. If you have
learned anything new let me know.

thank you.