[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Too bad. Something to hope for in the next version, I guess.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Jay Freedman" wrote in message
...
I've been experimenting with this (a.k.a. "playing around" g). I
didn't have any trouble inserting a continuous section break at the
end of either a Rich Text content control or a Plain Text content
control. Inserting a continuous section break in the middle of the
text in a control split the control in two, just the way a section
break splits a table.

The break behaved just like a continuous section break in regular text
-- for instance, I could set the section ending at the section break
to be two columns, and the section after it to one column.

When I set the content control's properties to "Contents cannot be
edited" and/or "Content control cannot be deleted", I got some complex
results. If the content control's outline was visible, I couldn't
delete the section break. But if I placed the cursor to the left of
the section break and pressed the right arrow key, the control's
outline disappeared, leaving the cursor still to the left of the break
but apparently outside the content control. At that point I could
select the break with Shift+right arrow and press Delete to remove the
section break. The preceding material, including the content control,
then assumed the section formatting of the material that followed.

So my answer to Big Dave remains essentially the same: Content
controls don't provide protection against deleting section breaks if
the users are prone to accident, experimenting, or actively trying to
sabotage your documents. If you can get the formatting you want
without section breaks, then content controls do provide a way to lock
down text without killing off other functions.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

On Mon, 15 Jan 2007 11:55:40 -0600, "Suzanne S. Barnhill"
wrote:

I just thought the protection allowed you to protect section breaks along
with other text. You can select a block of text and protect it from
deletion; could not this block include a section break?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

"Jay Freedman" wrote in message
...
Whether they do or don't, the question is still whether the desired
formatting can be done at all without the need for section breaks. If
the
OP's concern is with users deleting section breaks and taking with them
things like headers/footers, then neither style restriction nor content
controls is going to solve the problem. Word has no way to lock down
section
breaks other than using forms protection, and that disables other
functions.
It's not a good story.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote:
But don't content controls allow you even more control over overall
document formatting? I certainly got that impression from Tristan
Davis's demos.

For Tristan Davis's blogs on content controls, see


http://blogs.msdn.com/microsoft_offi...ent+controls/d
efault.aspx


"Jay Freedman" wrote in message
...
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
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

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.