| Protecting a document | Tracking changes in a document | Restricting formatting |
| Removing protection | Summary | Exercise |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this chapter you will know:
·
How to protect a document against unauthorized
access
·
How to allow limited editing facilities on a
document
·
Restrict the formatting styles that can be
applied to a document
Introduction
If we are working with a group of people and we wish to send
a document to that group that contains important information, then we may not
wish anyone who has access to that document to make changes to it. In this case we should protect our
document. Protecting the document means
allowing people to view it but prevent them from making changes to it.
Some documents are passed around among a group of people so
that they can comment on its contents.
If this is the case then, even though the document is protected, we may
allow them to enter comments about its contents. Word has facilities that allow people to
enter comments about the document but prevents them from changing its contents.
Protecting
a document while allowing comments
Go to top
Figure 10‑1
Protecting a document is very simple. First ensure that the document is open, and
then select the Review tab and click
on the icon Restrict Editing. This brings up the panel shown in Figure 10‑1
above. We wish to allow the user to
enter comments and thus under 2. Editing
Restrictions we check the box labeled Allow only this type of editing in the document. From the combo box select Comments. Finally we click
on Yes, Start Enforcing Protection. This brings up the dialogue box in Figure 10‑2.
Figure 10‑2
Here we select the Password
option then enter and confirm our password.
Finally we click OK.
Once we do this anyone will be able to open the document and
read it but no one will be able to alter the text or add extra text.
Figure 10‑3
They will, however be able to enter comments. To enter a
comment firstly place the cursor on the area of text you wish to comment on. Next click on New Comment. This will bring up a comment balloon on the
document where you can enter your comment.
You can enter as many comments as you wish into the document. Figure 10‑3
above shows three comments entered about the first paragraph.
Comments can also be removed from a protected document. To
do so right click on the comment and from the pop up menu select Delete comment.
Protecting
a document while allowing tracked changes
Figure 10‑4
Allowing tracked changes means that no data or formatting is
permanently deleted. Instead the deleted
data is displayed in a different format, indicating that it has been
deleted. Similarly extra data added is
shown in a different format. Figure 10‑4
shows our document with part of the last paragraph deleted and extra text
added. The deleted text is shown
formatted in red with strikethrough while the extra text added is shown in red
and underlined.
Once protection is removed from the document the user can
decide whether to allow the changes or not.
To accept or reject the removal of part of the text simply right click
on any part of it and the following pop up menu will appear.
Figure 10‑5
Here you click on either Accept Change or Reject
Change.
Restricting Formatting
Restricting formatting of a document means allowing only
certain styles to be applied to paragraphs in that document. In order to restrict
formatting of a document we bring up again the protection panel shown in Figure
10‑1 and ensure the checkbox Restrict
formatting to a selection of styles is checked. Now click on Settings. This brings up the
dialogue box shown below.
Figure 10‑6
The box contains a list of all of the formatting styles
available in Word – both styles native to Word itself
and styles created by the user. As all
styles are checked when the box appears, first click on None to remove the check from
all of the styles. If we wish the user
to be able to use only Heading 2 and Heading 3 we check those styles. Also ensure that the checkbox Limit formatting to a selection of styles is checked. Now click on OK. Once you click on Yes, start enforcing protection only the styles Heading 2 and
Heading 3 will be available to the user.
Removing
document protection
Go to top
Figure 10‑7
Figure 10‑7
above show the window of a protected document.
At the bottom is a button Stop
Protection. In order to remove
protection from the document we click on this button. A dialogue box will now appear asking for the
password. Once we enter the password and
click OK the protection is removed from the document.
Summary
Protecting a document means preventing unauthorized people
from either looking at it or from altering its data. We can have a number of different levels of
protection. We can prevent people outright
from opening the document while we can allow them to open a document but limit
the amount of editing they can do on it. Here we looked at two different ways
of limiting the editing a user can make on a document. Firstly we restricted them to entering comments
only. Secondly we showed how they could
edit the text but that all of their editing would be tracked. Subsequently the document’s owner could accept
or reject the editing done on the document. We also looked at limiting the formatting that
a user can do on a document to a number of specific styles.
Exercise
1. Create
a short document and save it. Now protect
it so that only comments can be entered.
2. Create
another document and protect it so that all changes will be tracked.
3. Finally
create a third document that will be read only and no editing whatsoever can be
done on it