Protect and Unprotect a Document

Protect a Document

Follow the steps below to protect a document with a password.

1. On the Review tab, in the Protect group, click the Protect Document button.

   

2. Specify a protection type in the invoked Document Protection dialog. Select No changes (Read-only) to restrict all actions, Comments - to allow leaving comments only, Tracked Changes - to prevent other users from creating untracked changes.

   

3. Type a password in the Enter new password (optional) box and confirm it in the Reenter password to confirm box.

   

You can also allow particular users to change certain parts of a document.

Give Users Permission to Edit Certain Document Parts

Before adding protection to a document, you can specify certain parts of the document where you want to remove the restriction and allow a particular user or group of users to modify these parts.

1. Select a part of a document to be available.

2. On the Review tab, in the Protect group, click the Range Editing Permissions button.

   

3. In the invoked Editing Permissions dialog, select a user or group of users to be allowed to edit the selected part of a document.

   

4. Editable ranges will be highlighted and enclosed in brackets.

   

5. Continue to select the document regions and give users permission to edit them.
6. After specifying all required parts, enable protection.

Remove Protection from a Document

1. On the Review tab, in the Protect group, click the Unprotect Document button.

   

2. In the invoked Unprotect Document dialog, type the password.