Document Protection and Word Features

[Andy]

Hi

I have a requirement to provide users with a variety of templates that they
can create documents from. Obviously certain parts of the document need to be
editable and others need to be protected from user tampering. The thing is
whenever I enforce the protection, certain features in Word are disabled:-
notably Track Changes, Watermarking and the ability to format the image
layout (wrapping text around it) of an inserted image. The ability to have
these features enabled in the un-protected part of the document doesn't sound
unreasonable to me. Is there a way of doing these things?

 

[macropod]

Hi Andy,

A partial workaround:

While it might not be possible to do some of the desired formatting in your
protected document, it could still be done in an unprotected one, with the
desired results be copied & pasted into the protected document afterwards.

Cheers

 

[Andy]

Thanks for that macropad, but unfortunately the cut and paste solution would
be unacceptable to the users. They're very picky . The main things that
they are insisting on are Track Change and image formatting. I can't get it
to work. I wonder if it can be achieved programatically.

Hi Andy,

A partial workaround:

While it might not be possible to do some of the desired formatting in your
protected document, it could still be done in an unprotected one, with the
desired results be copied & pasted into the protected document afterwards.

Cheers

--
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]

Hi

I have a requirement to provide users with a variety of templates that they
can create documents from. Obviously certain parts of the document need to be
editable and others need to be protected from user tampering. The thing is
whenever I enforce the protection, certain features in Word are disabled:-
notably Track Changes, Watermarking and the ability to format the image
layout (wrapping text around it) of an inserted image. The ability to have
these features enabled in the un-protected part of the document doesn't sound
unreasonable to me. Is there a way of doing these things?

 

[Graham Mayor]

You say 'obviously some parts of the document have protection', but why
'obviously'? Why do you need this protection if it is getting in the way? It
is not going to stop anyone from accessing the protected information. If the
document is a form, then OK, but for any other type of document the
protection is almost certainly unnecessary and there are other ways of
inserting information into documents that do not require the document to be
locked - eg see http://www.gmayor.com/Macrobutton.htm and/or Word MVP FAQ -
Userforms
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Userforms.htm

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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Thanks for that macropad, but unfortunately the cut and paste
solution would be unacceptable to the users. They're very picky .
The main things that they are insisting on are Track Change and image
formatting. I can't get it to work. I wonder if it can be achieved
programatically.

Hi Andy,

A partial workaround:

While it might not be possible to do some of the desired formatting
in your protected document, it could still be done in an unprotected
one, with the desired results be copied & pasted into the protected
document afterwards.

Cheers

--
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]

Hi

I have a requirement to provide users with a variety of templates
that they can create documents from. Obviously certain parts of the
document need to be editable and others need to be protected from
user tampering. The thing is whenever I enforce the protection,
certain features in Word are disabled:- notably Track Changes,
Watermarking and the ability to format the image layout (wrapping
text around it) of an inserted image. The ability to have these
features enabled in the un-protected part of the document doesn't
sound unreasonable to me. Is there a way of doing these things?

 

[Andy]

Hi Graham

I suppose I used the "obviously" word erroneously. Sorry about that. The
document is actually a pre-formatted "template" with bits of text already
inserted. The user is not allowed to change this text, hence the document
protection aspects. Any further ideas would be welcome cos I'm struggling now.

You say 'obviously some parts of the document have protection', but why
'obviously'? Why do you need this protection if it is getting in the way? It
is not going to stop anyone from accessing the protected information. If the
document is a form, then OK, but for any other type of document the
protection is almost certainly unnecessary and there are other ways of
inserting information into documents that do not require the document to be
locked - eg see http://www.gmayor.com/Macrobutton.htm and/or Word MVP FAQ -
Userforms
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Userforms.htm

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

Thanks for that macropad, but unfortunately the cut and paste
solution would be unacceptable to the users. They're very picky .
The main things that they are insisting on are Track Change and image
formatting. I can't get it to work. I wonder if it can be achieved
programatically.

Hi Andy,

A partial workaround:

While it might not be possible to do some of the desired formatting
in your protected document, it could still be done in an unprotected
one, with the desired results be copied & pasted into the protected
document afterwards.

Cheers

--
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]


Hi

I have a requirement to provide users with a variety of templates
that they can create documents from. Obviously certain parts of the
document need to be editable and others need to be protected from
user tampering. The thing is whenever I enforce the protection,
certain features in Word are disabled:- notably Track Changes,
Watermarking and the ability to format the image layout (wrapping
text around it) of an inserted image. The ability to have these
features enabled in the un-protected part of the document doesn't
sound unreasonable to me. Is there a way of doing these things?

 

[Graham Mayor]

Create the texts in a document, bookmark them and use IncludeText fields to
insert the text where required.
Or use autotexts.
Or simply tell your users that they must not change the standard wordings.
Most users will respond to this - those that won't should be looking for a
new job.
Protection will not stop anyone from changing the text if that's what they
wanted to do, and where it is unnecessary, as it appears to be here, it just
gets in the way of work.

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

Hi Graham

I suppose I used the "obviously" word erroneously. Sorry about that.
The document is actually a pre-formatted "template" with bits of text
already inserted. The user is not allowed to change this text, hence
the document protection aspects. Any further ideas would be welcome
cos I'm struggling now.

You say 'obviously some parts of the document have protection', but
why 'obviously'? Why do you need this protection if it is getting in
the way? It is not going to stop anyone from accessing the protected
information. If the document is a form, then OK, but for any other
type of document the protection is almost certainly unnecessary and
there are other ways of inserting information into documents that do
not require the document to be locked - eg see
http://www.gmayor.com/Macrobutton.htm and/or Word MVP FAQ - Userforms
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Userforms.htm

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP


<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

Thanks for that macropad, but unfortunately the cut and paste
solution would be unacceptable to the users. They're very picky .
The main things that they are insisting on are Track Change and
image formatting. I can't get it to work. I wonder if it can be
achieved programatically.

:

Hi Andy,

A partial workaround:

While it might not be possible to do some of the desired formatting
in your protected document, it could still be done in an
unprotected one, with the desired results be copied & pasted into
the protected document afterwards.

Cheers

--
macropod
[MVP - Microsoft Word]


Hi

I have a requirement to provide users with a variety of templates
that they can create documents from. Obviously certain parts of
the document need to be editable and others need to be protected
from user tampering. The thing is whenever I enforce the
protection, certain features in Word are disabled:- notably Track
Changes, Watermarking and the ability to format the image layout
(wrapping text around it) of an inserted image. The ability to
have these features enabled in the un-protected part of the
document doesn't sound unreasonable to me. Is there a way of
doing these things?

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Andy

I have a requirement to provide users with a variety of templates that they
can create documents from. Obviously certain parts of the document need to be
editable and others need to be protected from user tampering. The thing is
whenever I enforce the protection, certain features in Word are disabled:-
notably Track Changes, Watermarking and the ability to format the image
layout (wrapping text around it) of an inserted image. The ability to have
these features enabled in the un-protected part of the document doesn't sound
unreasonable to me. Is there a way of doing these things?

Yes, there is, but it's pretty tough: you'd have to provide macros to
your template that, for all features that are inhibited by Word's
Protection mechanism that you want to use, the macro will unprotect the
document, do the change, and then reprotect it.

I would certainly assess every other possible method first. Namely, if
you are using Word 2003, you might want to check on the new protection
feature that lets you define areas in your document which are open to
changes and others which are not (independent of sections and the
historical Protect document feature).

HTH
Robert

 

[Idaho Word Man]

Robert,

I am intrigued by your mention of "the new protection feature [in Word 2003]
that lets you define areas in your document which are open to changes and
others which are not." I would really like to do that. Where can I learn
more about it? I've searched my help menu, but I must be searching for the
wrong terms, since I haven't found anything yet that sounds like what you're
describing.

Thanks,

Fred

 

[Idaho Word Man]

Hi, Andy,

I had a similar problem a while back. Since I'm an advocate of keeping
things simple, here's what I came up with. If the parts you wish to protect
are text only, this will provide a low-tech solution. It's not fully
adequate, but it leaves the rest of the document 100% editable.

When I was certain that all the boilerplate sections of my document were
correct, I created my template using Save As, so I still had my original.
Then I cut the boilerplate paragraphs out and used the Paste Special function
to paste them back in as a picture. (I used the Windows Metafile option.)

There's absolutely no way for anybody to modify that text now, since it
isn't text any more. There are no formatting problems with the rest of the
document, since the protection feature isn't turned on. And if we ever need
to revise the boilerplate paragraphs, I still have my original.

I don't know if that will work for you, but it was a quick, down-and-dirty
way for our group to get around Word's protection limitations.

I hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Andy]

Hi

I have dabbled with the picture option myself a little bit. The problem I
found was that the picture can be deleted (by accident or otherwise). I might
end up having to do this though, so thanks for the tip.

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

I am intrigued by your mention of "the new protection feature [in Word 2003]
that lets you define areas in your document which are open to changes and
others which are not." I would really like to do that. Where can I learn
more about it? I've searched my help menu, but I must be searching for the
wrong terms, since I haven't found anything yet that sounds like what you're
describing.

There's a new Taskpane "Protect Document" (or it has newer content
compared to Word 2002, I couldn't say) in Word 2003. In step 3, you can
define exceptions to the Formatting or Editing restrictions chosen
before. [I'm sure you'll find all sorts of on- or offline help when
looking for the taskpane's name, now.]

Hmm, for the problem at hand, it probably doesn't help much though, on
second thought: Word won't let you change picture layout as well (you
may change default picture insertion style in Tools | Options | Edit and
you will get what you want then, but that's a global setting IIRC ...).

HTH
Robert