Protecting a single cell in a table

[melanie]

I am working with a table and would like to protect the
contents of a single cell. I have tried inserting
continuous breaks before and after the cell that I want
to protect and then selecting protect document and forms
from the Tools menu. The problem occurs when I try to
insert the section break. It only seems to create the
break at the row above the cell - not before the cell
itself. Likewise if I attempt to insert a break after the
cell. At that point the table physically breaks into 2
sections. Any suggestions? I am using Word 2003.
Thanks

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

This type of protection is not possible in Word (it is in Excel). You cannot
protect less than a single row in a table (and in fact, inserting a section
break splits the table, so it will no longer behave as a single table).

 

[Jay Freedman]

Actually, in Word 2003 you can protect a single cell -- or anything, even as
little as a single character. This new feature has been requested for so
long that I'm surprised MS hasn't made a bigger effort to publicize it.

It can't be done in any earlier version without splitting the table by
inserting section breaks around the entire row, and protecting that section.
If you set protection on one cell in Word 2003 and then open the document in
any earlier version, the entire document will be protected there -- so this
will be of very limited value unless all the recipients also have 2003.

I'm away from my 2003 installation at the moment, so I'm not going to try to
quote the exact procedure. If someone else hasn't already posted it when I
get home this evening, I'll follow up...

 

[Jay Freedman]

This is the procedure for locking a single cell in a table and leaving
the rest of the document editable. Remember, this works only in Word
2003.

In a sense, this feature works backwards. Rather than protecting
specific parts of the document, it lets you specify which parts of the
document *can* be edited, either by specific users or by all users.
You can easily choose to have one part editable by one group, and
another part editable by another group -- for example, subordinates
can enter their hours in a table, and only the supervisor can edit the
totals.

These instructions assume you want everyone to have access to all
parts of the document except one cell.

- Display the Protect Document task pane.
- Check the box under Editing Restrictions.
- If the dropdown below that checkbox shows anything else, set it to
"No changes (read only)".
- Select all the parts of the document before the locked cell, and
click the checkbox under Exceptions for "Everyone".
- Select all the parts of the document after the locked cell, and
click the checkbox under Exceptions for "Everyone".
- Click the "Yes, Start Enforcing Protection" button. If you want a
password, type it twice (and remember it!), otherwise leave it blank.

If the document is opened in any earlier version of Word, the entire
document is "protected for comments" -- that is, the user can insert
comments, print, and save but can't edit anything. As with earlier
protection schemes, though, you can break this protection just by
using Insert > File to pull the text of the "protected" document into
an unprotected blank document.

If you sign up for Microsoft's new Document Rights Management scheme,
you can encrypt the protected document so it can be opened only by
people to whom you grant access. I haven't tried to break that (yet
<g>).

 

[Carl E. Snyder]

Those are good instructions. The only problem is that when I try to
do this on my PC the "Yes, Start Enforcing Protection" button is
greyed-out.

Is there something I need to switch on to enable document protection?

Thanks!

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi Carl,

I don't know enough yet about this feature to say what the problem is.
On my PC the procedure just works.