[Magz]

I'm wondering if there is a way to protect Word documents from changes being made after they have been downloaded from a website.

I know there is a protection read-only option that prevents changes from being made to a document, but this seems to work only when the document is opened in Word from its location. It does not protect the document when the document is uploaded onto a website, then downloaded to be viewed.

In a nutshell, I want to be able to upload documents to a website, and prevent people who download them from making changes.

Is there any way for me to do this?

[DeanH]

You wish is beyond Word capabilities, there are various protection levels in
Word but all are generally easy to circumvent.
Have you considered PDFing the Word document, this will at the lowest level
make edits harder, there are free convertors on the WWW you could try but I
am not sure of any further levels of protection these packages have, in the
Adobe version you can add further protection, such as disallowing printing,
etc.
One word of warning - any electronic document can be unprotected, the only
criteria is how difficult the conversion is and how important an editable
document is to the reader.
I am sure other members in this forum can discuss other options of possible
web-secure environments that are available.
You must decide for yourself on how important your document's
content/format/etc is to you and how much you are willing to pay for that
protection.
Hope this helps
DeanH



"Magz" wrote:


I'm wondering if there is a way to protect Word documents from changes
being made after they have been downloaded from a website.

I know there is a protection read-only option that prevents changes
from being made to a document, but this seems to work only when the
document is opened in Word from its location. It does not protect the
document when the document is uploaded onto a website, then downloaded
to be viewed.

In a nutshell, I want to be able to upload documents to a website, and
prevent people who download them from making changes.

Is there any way for me to do this?




--
Magz

[Graham Mayor]

*ANY* document that you allow someone to see can be copied. If you could
find a way to prevent this, the media industry would reward you beyond your
wildest dreams, but it isn't possible so there are no riches to be won

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



Magz wrote:
I'm wondering if there is a way to protect Word documents from changes
being made after they have been downloaded from a website.

I know there is a protection read-only option that prevents changes
from being made to a document, but this seems to work only when the
document is opened in Word from its location. It does not protect the
document when the document is uploaded onto a website, then downloaded
to be viewed.

In a nutshell, I want to be able to upload documents to a website, and
prevent people who download them from making changes.

Is there any way for me to do this?

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

And yet people keep trying to patent perpetual-motion machines. g

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"Graham Mayor" wrote in message
...
*ANY* document that you allow someone to see can be copied. If you could
find a way to prevent this, the media industry would reward you beyond
your wildest dreams, but it isn't possible so there are no riches to be
won

--

Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org



Magz wrote:
I'm wondering if there is a way to protect Word documents from changes
being made after they have been downloaded from a website.

I know there is a protection read-only option that prevents changes
from being made to a document, but this seems to work only when the
document is opened in Word from its location. It does not protect the
document when the document is uploaded onto a website, then downloaded
to be viewed.

In a nutshell, I want to be able to upload documents to a website, and
prevent people who download them from making changes.

Is there any way for me to do this?

[Magz]

Originally Posted by DeanH

Have you considered PDFing the Word document, this will at the lowest level make edits harder, there are free convertors on the WWW you could try but I am not sure of any further levels of protection these packages have, in the Adobe version you can add further protection, such as disallowing printing, etc.[/i][/color]

Hmmm, I thought about PDFing the Word document, but I wasn't sure how I could go about this, without having to print it, and scan it as a PDF. If you know of any free converters I can download, that would allow me to easily convert a Word document into PDF, I am all ears (or eyes, since I'm reading this!)

Thanks!

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

PrimoPDF is frequently recommended.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

"Magz" wrote in message
...

DeanH;362447 Wrote:
Have you considered PDFing the Word document, this will at the lowest
level make edits harder, there are free convertors on the WWW you could
try but I am not sure of any further levels of protection these packages
have, in the Adobe version you can add further protection, such as
disallowing printing, etc.

Hmmm, I thought about PDFing the Word document, but I wasn't sure how I
could go about this, without having to print it, and scan it as a PDF.
If you know of any free converters I can download, that would allow me
to easily convert a Word document into PDF, I am all ears (or eyes,
since I'm reading this!)

Thanks!




--
Magz
[/i][/color]