I have a very large table created in Word. I would like to protect only six
columns/cells in that table so users can't make changes to the information in
those specific six columns. Can I lock/protect only certain columns in a
Word table?

Juls wrote:
I have a very large table created in Word. I would like to protect
only six columns/cells in that table so users can't make changes to
the information in those specific six columns. Can I lock/protect
only certain columns in a Word table?

You can, only if all the following conditions are TRUE:

- You are using Word 2003.
- Every user who needs to edit the document also has Word 2003.
- You are not using form fields from the Forms toolbar.

If all those are true, Word 2003 allows you to mark the whole document as
protected and then specify the areas (everything except those six columns)
that users may edit.

If you create such a document in Word 2003 and send it to a user who has any
earlier version of Word, they will see the whole document as protected and
won't be able to edit anything. Other Word 2003 users will see what you
intended.

Other than this one mechanism, the minimum amount of the document you can
protect is a whole section. Since section breaks can't occur inside a table,
that means the whole table is protected or none of the table is protected.
The only alternative is to place a text box form field in every editable
cell, and protect for forms. However, that places some severe restrictions
on how users can edit the document.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org