How do I unlock a legacy form in Word 2007?

[Dorothy M F]

I have a substantial number of forms that I prepared in Word 2003 and they
are saved in locked format. I see legacy tools in Word 2007 for Word 2003
forms, but I do not see the lock/unlock control. Is there a way to open a
locked Word 2003 form in Word 2007 and then unlock it so it can be edited?
Or do I have to unlock any form in Word 2003 before I try to edit it in Word
2007?

 

[Jay Freedman]

On the same ribbon with the legacy tools, there's a Protect Document button.
That opens a task pane where you should be able to click a Stop Protection
button -- unless the protection was applied with a password.

If there is a password, try inserting the text of the form document into a
new blank document.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Dorothy M F]

Thanks for the reponse but something is still wrong.
When I click on the Protect Document button, the task pane shows a
check mark by "Unrestricted Access", but I cannot edit the document. The top
item on the task pane ("Restrict formatiting and editng") is not checked. I
don't see a "Stop Protection" option on the pane. I did not use a password
in locking the orignal file in Word 2003.
If I unlock the document in Word 2003 and then open it in Word 2007, I
can edit it. The task pane for the Protect Document button is identical to
that which appears when I open the locked form, i.e., the "Unrestricted
Access" item is checked.
A related query: If I try to restrict the unlocked document,
depending on exactly how I try to do that, I either get a request for a
password or a direction to load Windows Rights Management which seems to
require me to use an on-line servier. Is there no equivalent to the simple
"lock" of Windows 2003 (i.e., anyone who knows about the Forms toolbar could
unlock the file)?

 

[Jay Freedman]

It does sound like something is wrong, and I wonder whether it might
be the conversion between 2003 and 2007 that's doing it. I haven't
seen any protected documents that couldn't be unprotected in the way I
described.

It's normal to be asked about a password when applying forms
protection. Just leave the boxes blank and click OK to protect without
a password.

You can add the old Lock icon to the Quick Access Toolbar. Click the
down arrow at the right end of the toolbar and choose "More Commands".
In the dialog, select the category "Commands Not in the Ribbon",
select the Protect Document command in the list, and click the Add
button to copy it over to the list on the right. You can then click
the Modify button and choose the icon -- the lock icon is in the
middle of the third row.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Dorothy M F]

Interesting. I've got a functional unlock mechanism now but not exactly as
you described. In the attempt to add the old lock icon to the Quick Access
toolbar, everything proceeds as you describe through the point of moving the
Protect Document command to the right window. But the Modify button is
grayed out and unavailable. Nonetheless, the Protect Document icon (a green
button) now appears on my Quck Access toolbar and does, indeed, unlock (or
relock) the previously inaccessible form. So my sincere thanks. Now I just
have to come up to speed in the 2007 version which, as you can probably tell,
I've just installed. Again, I really appreciate your help.


:

Dorothy> It does sound like something is wrong, and I wonder whether it might