[Jay Freedman]

Sorry, I don't have any experience with InfoPath, so I can't tell you what it
will or won't do.

On Tue, 13 May 2008 17:22:02 -0700, Kelley
wrote:

Holy smokes. Will converting these types of documents to InfoPath make a
difference? I'm finding myself in the exact same boat as Scott.

"Jay Freedman" wrote:

Yes, that is a very different scenario from the one I was thinking of. Given
this information, let me suggest another direction.

Word documents (both 97-2003 .doc format and 2007 .docx format) can contain
information in "document variables". These variables are stored in the saved
document file, and they can be displayed by DocVariable fields. However,
there is no user interface that permits setting or changing their values;
those abilities are accessible only through automation (macros or outside
programs that use the Word object model interface).

If you can modify the application that creates the documents so that it
places the name and address data into document variables instead of directly
into text boxes, and if the template is modified to use the corresponding
DocVariable fields instead of text boxes, you'll have just about what you
want without forms protection.

You may need a couple of additional macros in the template to ensure that
the document's fields are updated whenever the document is printed or saved
(http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/MacrosVBA/...SavePrint.htm). The reason is
that the DocVariable field's contents can be edited, but those changes will
be discarded each time the field is updated. There is an option to update
fields before printing, but there isn't one to update fields before saving.


Scott wrote:
Good morning Jay,

Thank you for the quick response, but unfortunately I don't believe
this method will work for us. I apologize for not including a bit of
important information - our organization requires that all documents
be in the Word 97-2003 .doc format.

I did a cursory test after reading your response and found a text
control I added and protected from editing and deleting was converted
to static text when the document is saved in the .doc format, so the
protection of the text was lost.

Also, to clarify, the names and addresses on the cover page are
inserted into text boxes when the preliminary document is created by
an in-house application. The names and addresses are the sections
that are protected - we have to guard against users making changes to
the names and addresses on the Word documents - any changes must be
made in our database via the application that creates the documents.

The rest of the document is fair game for editing by the users.

"Jay Freedman" wrote:

Hi Scott,

If all the users have Office 2007, and if you're willing to rework
the documents a bit, I think you can get everything you want.

Word 2007 has a new feature called content controls. They're partial
replacements for form fields. If your description of a protected
cover page with fields followed by unprotected sections applies to
most or all of the documents, then:

- Replace the form fields for names and addresses with text content
controls.
- Select the entire cover page and insert a Rich Text content
control, so it encloses the whole page.
- In the Properties sheet for the Rich Text control, check the boxes
so the control can't be edited and can't be deleted.

This will allow the users to enter name/address data in the inner
content controls but they can't change anything else on the cover
page. Because nothing in the document will have forms protection,
the galleries and spell checking and everything else will work
normally in the rest of the document.

You'll find the content control buttons on the Developer tab of the
ribbon.

If that doesn't work for you, then yes, it is possible to use a
macro to unprotect, manipulate the document, and reprotect. That
technique is used in
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Macros...ProtectDoc.htm.

--
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 Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:24:01 -0700, Scott
wrote:

My organization very recently began using Word 07/Vista. Some
users in the department I support heavily rely on autotext. The
primary documents they work with, though, are protected documents
(on a cover page, the sections containing names/addresses are
protected, the remaining sections of the document are unprotected)
and I have discovered that the Quick Parts galleries are "disabled"
in protected documents.

I found that entering the first four characters of an autotext name
and pressing F3 will play out the autotext, but many users have a
voluminous number of autotext entries and cannot (or should not) be
expected to remember the name of each.

I experimented with creating a macro to insert an Autotext List
field, so I could run the macro, and in the field inserted in the
document right click and get a list of the available autotext
entries, insertable by clicking a selected one.

The autotext is played out in a field, though, so that attempting
to select a portion of the inserted text for editing/deleting, etc.
almost invariably selects the entire text in the field. One of the
more Word experienced users reported seeing this in another context
and had difficulty in accurately selecting only portions of text,
so I can only imagine the cries of outrage I would hear from the
less experienced users... Also, if additional text is entered
following the inserted text (without taking proper precautions),
the additional text is entered in the field, compounding the
selection issue.

Completely unprotecting the documents is not an option, but I
believe that a process that would unprotect the document, allow
access to Quick Parts, then re-protect the document, could possibly
be viable if it could be done "securely" - that is without the
chance of a user intentionally/unintentionally gaining access to
the protected sections at any point.

So, my questions a Is there a method I haven't thought of to
easily circumvent the disabling of the Quick Parts galleries in
protected documents, and if not, is there a viable secure method of
unprotecting - allowing access to Quick Parts to insert an autotext
entry - then re-protecting the document?

I could possibly get (grumbling) developer support if a programmatic
solution is necessary, but of course, I would prefer a simpler,
quicker solution.

Any and all suggestions will be appreciated.