Protection in 2003

[Tracey]

This previous issue "Protection in 2003 again" was not resolved. I will
restate it.

We have a protected form, which was created in a prior version of Word.
When we open it in Word 2003, unprotect it, edit it, and re-protect it, the
button "Yes, Start Enforcing Protection" is grayed out and not clickable.

As advised in an earlier post, we selected View > Toolbars and unchecked the
menu item Control Toolbox, but this did not fix our problem. Is there a fix
for this?

Thanks,

Tracey

 

[Dian D. Chapman, MVP]

Just unchecking the Control Toolbox is not the problem. ON the Control
Toolbox there is an icon to move you into Development Mode. If that
icon is active...then you cannot protect the doc.

Did you turn the Control Toolbox on and look to see if that icon was
clicked? Did you click it to see if it turned on/off? Did you make
sure it was off?

Dian D. Chapman, Technical Consultant
Microsoft MVP, MOS Certified
Editor/TechTrax Ezine

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[Brandy]

Is Design Mode different from Development Mode? The Design Mode icon is
inactive. I did turn the Control Toolbox on and looked to see if the icon
was clicked. I did click it on and off to verify. I will go over these
steps again to see if I missed something.

 

[Dian D. Chapman, MVP]

Design mode is when you're using ActiveX controls from the control
Toolbox to add controls directly to a Word document. Lots of folks get
these mixed up with the form fields on the Forms toolbar. They look
alike, but fields don't need code, controls do.

Development mode is in the VB Editor when modifying a macro or writing
VBA procedures. Yes, they're somewhat different, even though the
design mode is like a pulled in version of the VB editor and you can
switch to the editor, too.

I've never seen any other problems protecting a doc other than the
fact that in 2003, if you leave design mode on...the protection info
on the task pane will be grayed.

So as Beth mentioned...tell us EXACTLY (stepXstep) what you are doing.

BTW...I'll assume you're also using 2003?

Dian D. Chapman, Technical Consultant
Microsoft MVP, MOS Certified
Editor/TechTrax Ezine

Free MS Tutorials: http://www.mousetrax.com/techtrax
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[Brandy]

1) open the template (.dot)
2) tools/unprotect document (enter password)
3) view/toolbars/control toolbox - verify design mode is off.
4) make modifications to the template
5) tools/protect document - options are grayed out (I would like to select
'filling in forms' and start enforcing protection with password.

Thanks for your continued assistance.

 

[Beth Melton]

Would it be possible to email me a copy of your template? I've noticed
a few other reports of users not being able to protect a template so
I'm wondering if there is a problem in the template or perhaps a
computer setting/add-in that is causing the problem. It would be
helpful if I could get a sample file to examine.

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Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Dian D. Chapman, MVP]

Thanks, Beth. As I read Brandy's comments...I was thinking the SAME
thing...but this one's all yours. Pls be sure to let me know what's
up, too.

Dian ~

 

[Beth Melton]

Thanks for the sample files, Brandy.

I finally found the root of the issue. Apparently at one time the
template was a Form Letter for Mail Merge. It no longer has an
attached data source but the Main Document Setup is still "Letter".

To rectify:

- Go to View/Toolbars/Mail Merge
- On the Mail Merge toolbar locate "Main Document Setup"
- Select "Normal Word document"
- Click OK

Result: The Protect Document task pane will now be enabled.

I haven't quite decided if this is a bug, since you can still use VBA
and ActiveDocument.Protect to protect the template, but I'll pass this
information along.

Thanks for your help and sticking with the thread. As I noted
previously, I suspect there have been others encountering the same
issue so with your help we now have a solution.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/