Unprotect a Word Doc using Office 2007

[jaredhattaway]

Hello,

My company has several forms that have been created in previous versions of
Word. Each form has protection turned on to prevent any unnecessary changes.


We have just completed upgrading everyone to Office 2007.

When I open the forms in Word 2007 the "Proetection" is toggled off but it
will not let me make any changes to the forms.

If I open the same document in Word 2003 and save the document with
Protection turned off, I can then open the document in Word 2007 and make
changes to the document.

Has anyone run into this problem? Does anyone know of a solution other than
openning all the forms in a previous version of word to remove the protection.

Thanks,

-Jared

 

[Beth Melton]

What steps are you taking exactly to toggle protection off?

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

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

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

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

 

[jaredhattaway]

Beth,

Here are the exact steps taken for each version:

Word 2007:

1) Open Document
2) Click the "Review" tab on the ribbon
3) Click the "Protect Document" button
4) Click "Unrestricted Access"
5) Click "OK" to the warning message that pops up when removing protection.

Nothing happens.

Word 2003:

1) Open Document
2) Click the "Tools" menu
3) click "Unprotect Document"

The document can now be modified.

Am I missing something?

-Jared

 

[Beth Melton]

In Word 2007 you need to use these steps (step 4 is what you are missing):

1) Open Document
2) Click the "Review" tab on the ribbon
3) Click the "Protect Document" button
4) Click "Restrict Formatting and Editing"

This will display the task pane (the same as in Word 2003) which will
include the Stop Protection command.

Note that the Protect Document command works differently depending on the
edition of Office you are using. The Enterprise edition (which is what I
suspect you are using) includes Information Rights Management (IRM) and the
Restrict Document command is for accessing the IRM feature. In other
editions, clicking Protect Document accesses the task pane.

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

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

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

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

 

[jaredhattaway]

Right under my nose... Didn't think to look at the bottom of the frame.

Thanks!

-Jared

 

[Beth Melton]

You're welcome.

FWIW, you aren't the only one who has done this and won't be the last. That
being the case, I'd say the commands are poorly named.

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

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

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

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

 

[nikkie]

-FWIW, YOU AREN'T THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS DONE THIS AND
WON'T BE THE LAST. THAT BEING THE CASE, I'D SAY THE COMMANDS ARE POORLY
NAMED.-

Good grief I struggled with this for two hours combing the web until I
finally found this. The interface to this whole process is so
completely ill-thought and butchered by people who have never used these
kinds of products as a user. It shows you how disconnected they are and
why the bottom line seldom changes, that is when you only have one
player like MS.

 

[Gordon]

-FWIW, YOU AREN'T THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS DONE THIS

Done WHAT? Please note:
This is NOT a chat room and You are NOT posting to a forum run by
techarena - you are actually posting to a global Usenet Newsgroup. You will
get a far better experience if you use a newsreader and subscribe to these
groups directly, rather than through techarena.

Setting up Outlook Express/Windows Mail to access Microsoft newsgroups
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

Accessing the MS newsgroups in Outlook Express/Windows Mail Newsreader
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/newsgroupsetup.mspx

If you must stay with techarena then please follow Usenet custom by quoting
the post you are replying to, and replying to the thread.

Thank you.

http://dts-l.net/goodpost.htm

 

[bareynol]

Beth Melton;3293582]
In Word 2007 you need to use these steps (step 4 is what you are
missing):

1) Open Document
2) Click the "Review" tab on the ribbon
3) Click the "Protect Document" button
4) Click "Restrict Formatting and Editing"

This will display the task pane (the same as in Word 2003) which will
include the Stop Protection command.

Note that the Protect Document command works differently depending on
the
edition of Office you are using. The Enterprise edition (which is what
I
suspect you are using) includes Information Rights Management (IRM) and
the
Restrict Document command is for accessing the IRM feature. In other
editions, clicking Protect Document accesses the task pane.

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

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

Coauthor of Word 2007 Inside Out:
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/9801.aspx#AboutTheBook

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

I have a similar problem:
Window XP: 5.1 (build 2600.xpsp_sp3_qdr 090206-1234 : Service Pack 3
Word 2007 (12.0.6504.5000) SP1 MSO (12.0.6320.5000)
Document type: 97-2003

Background:
In my stupidity the last time I saved the document I checked "Restrict
Access" in an attempt to limited inadvertant editing. At the time it
requested a password (which I entered) and then it wanted to install
Information Rights Manger - which unfortunately I accepted.

Statement of Problem:
I need to edit the document. The Protect Document tab shows a lock.
When pulled down, the Unrestricted Access is checked. When I try and
uncneck it, the pull down disappears and nothing happens. When I
attempt an edit, a status message at the bottomof the window says "This
modification is not allowed because the selection is locked."

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[JDias]

WORD 2007 has another way to stop you from editing a document, which ma
be less obvious. Try this...
1) Open Document
2) Click the "Review" tab on the ribbon
3) Click the "Protect Document" button
4) Press the "Stop Protection" button at the bottom of the screen
5) De-select Formatting and/or Editing restrictions.

That will do it

 

[404NotFound]

I was trying to convert some case studies documents in SharePoint, t
demostrate that you are able to author content in Word, and publish the
in HTML using document conversion process. But the document conversio
process keep crashing because of certain elements in the Word document
But when I tried to edit, the document is protected against edit.

Knowing Word 2007 files are just xml files in a zip file, I did th
following.


- Rename the document to zip format
- Open it up in my favorite zip program
- Edit settings.xml in Notepad
- Look for "protection" in the xml file, and you will locat
<w:documentProtection> element.
- Remove all the attributes in it.
- Update the zip file
- Rename the document back to docx
- Open it up in Word 2007, and you are able to edit the document...


This works perfectly :

 

[robertcqu]

Hi There,
I set up the Read only access in Word 2003. Now when I open the
document in 2007 I do not know how to get rif of it?

I do:
1) Open Document
2) Click the "Review" tab on the ribbon
3) Click the "Protect Document" button
and
No - Press the "Stop Protection" button at the bottom of the
screen??!!
How do I then remove the read only protection?

Robertcqu

 

[sservais]

My problem is the opposite. I am making a form in a new Word 200
document. When I try to enable document protection, the 'Yes, star
enforcing document protection' button is disabled.

Anyone know what I need to do to enable it?

I set Formatting and Editing restrictions, but nothing I do enables th
'start enforcing' button.

At the bottom of the 'Restrict Formatting and Editing' dialog, there i
a link to See Also Restrict Permission. That takes me to a trial servic
for IRM. When I cancel that dialog, I get an error message: "Cannot us
this feature without credentials."

Does this error also apply to the document protection as well as th
IRM? If so, what do I need to do to enable document protection. Thanks