If you can achieve the formatting you need with paragraph styles and
character styles instead of section breaks, then you can protect the
document against formatting changes without disabling other functions.
The formatting restrictions feature lets you choose which styles may
be applied, and prevents direct (non-style) formatting. This feature
was introduced in Word 2003.
In Word 2007, click the Developer tab. (If it isn't visible, enable it
in the Word Options dialog.) Click the Protect Document button. In the
task pane that appears, check the box for "Limit formatting to a
selection of styles" and then click the Settings link below it. Choose
the styles you want the user to be able to apply. Then click the Start
Enforcing Protection button, and supply an optional password.
This feature won't prevent the user from deleting section breaks, so
if you're mostly worried about page margins, headers/footers and the
like, this is not the answer -- and I'm not sure there is one.
--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ:
http://word.mvps.org
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On Mon, 15 Jan 2007 02:19:00 -0800, Big Dave
wrote:
Thanks for that reply. The content controls look useful, yes, but they won't
do what I need, it seems. One of the most basic requirements for my users is
to be able to make content changes without affecting document format, which
means I need to stop them from deleting section breaks. Try putting a section
break into a content control. If you manage that (I did at one point though
it behaved bizarrely and I can't seem to do it again) try putting just a
continuous section break in one and make it so it doesn't interfere with
editting the document.
I would really appreciate any help with this. Thanks.