Microsoft Word Security Measures

[garmen]

Dear all

I am currently trying to find a facility on Microsoft Word 2002 that
allows me to lock all the document and only allow its users to read and
print it.

Basically what I am trying to achieve is I set up a password that locks
all the facilities on a Word document so that users can not copy its
content, save it on their computers or save the document with a
different name. All they can do is to open the file and print it.

Well I have tried to Protect the Document by going to Tools|Protect
Document|Forms and setting up a password. This feature partly solves
my problem, but the user can still save the document and select part of
the text (if trying very hardly). I am certain that it should be a
feature as Microsoft Excel allows people to lock cells and worksheets.


I have also tried to set up passwords in the Save as option, but it
would implicate me giving passwords to end users and they could also
select the data, and copy it to another document (which I don't want).

I am aware that Acrobat Writer does such things, but I am working for a
small company which can not afford to pay hundreds of pounds in such a
software.

Is there anyone who can help me with that?

Thank you very much for reading this and it is much appreciated your
willingness to help.

Garmen

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

There is no way to do what you ask in Word or in any other program. If a
user can see something, he can copy it--with a screen shot if in no other
way. And if he can print it, he can scan it. This is true even of Adobe
Acrobat PDF documents.

 

[Jezebel]

And even the technologically challenged can create a new document that looks
exactly the same.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Garmen,

I am currently trying to find a facility on Microsoft Word 2002 that
allows me to lock all the document and only allow its users to read and
print it.

I concur with what Suzanne and Jezebel say, but for the sake of
completeness...

Word 2003 provides a "lockdown" protection similar to what Excel has.
However, in order to get the full protection you not only have to have
Office 2003, you also need Windows Server 2003 with IRM management. I
think the Adobe solution would be less expensive

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

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