Protect and Unprotect a Document

Add Protection to a Document

To protect a document by specifying a password, follow the steps below.

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

   

2. In the invoked Start Enforcing Protection dialog, specify a password to restrict people from editing a document. To do this, 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 Parts of a Document

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 unrestricted.

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 unrestricted parts of a document, add protection.

Remove Protection from a Document

You can unprotect a document, if you know the password for removing document protection.

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

   

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