Make mail merge output doc protected?

[TMI]

How can I make the output doc from a mail merge automatically be a read only
doc. I want no manual changes to the output doc possible by the user.

Mgmt wants to assure no changes to standard messages that are being
generated by clerks that create many of these letters.

Thanks

 

[Guest]

Hi,

Take the next step and output them as PDFs and then email or distribute
them. There are a number of pdf solutions out there, from toolkits to
complete applications. If you are looking for an automated solution for
medium to higher volume throughputs (50 to 50,000 per run) then my OctoTools
with its mail merge, RTF import, and automatic PDF creation might be a
viable solution. It is a commercial package and not really justified for
one-at-a-time desktop processing. Let me know if you have an application
and I would be glad to demo or explain further.

Larry T.

 

[TMI]

Thanks Larry,

Client is loking to stay within the Word world at this time. All works great
except for users changing parts of the output doc before sending. Mgmt wants
to stop that.

 

[Guest]

Hi,

That is one of the most common reasons for converting output to pdf, so no
one can muck with it. PDF docs can be additionally secured (again there
are ways to get around it, but require special effort by the recipients)
with passwords, and restricted user rights (disallow printing and copying).
There are a number of very good MS applications to PDF converters and
toolkits and many available as shareware or very low cost. I use PDF 995 for
my Word and Excel documents.

Larry