How to Write Protect a Part or All of Your Word Document

There are times when you finish creating a Word document you want no one else but yourself to have the access to modify it. Naturally, some of you may come to the idea of encrypting your document with password. Certainly, it can protect your privacy well. However, there are also occasions when you have to allow others to view you document. In such cases, you need to make use of “Restrict Editing” option in Word to ensure file content integrity.

In the below are two different situations of preventing people from changing your document. The first is obviously restricting editing for the whole document. As to the second one, considering various purposes, we offer you two ways to restrict editing in parts of the document.

Situation 1: Write Protect the Whole Document

1. Firstly, open the file you want to protect.
2. Click “File” on the “Menu Bar”.
3. Then click “Info” option.
4. Next, click “Protect Document” on the right side.
5. Choose “Restrict Editing” on the list-menu. Click "Info" -> Click "Protect Document" ->Click "Restrict Editing"" width="449" height="628" />
6. Now you have opened the “Restrict Formatting and Editing” pane. Choose “No changes (Read only)” in the list box below “Editing restrictions”.
7. Then check the box of “Allow only this type of editing in the document”.
8. Now click “Yes, Start Enforcing Protection” button. Check "Allow only this type of editing in the document" Box ->Click "Yes, Start Enforcing Protection"" width="230" height="485" />
9. In “Start Enforcing Protection” dialog box, enter your password.
10. Then reenter your password.
11. Click “OK”. You can see the explanation of your permissions on the “Restrict Formatting and Editing” pane.
12. Finally, remember to save the change by saving the document.

Next time you open this document and need to edit it, follow the below steps:

1. Repeat above steps from step 2 to step 5 so as to open the “Restrict Formatting and Editing” pane.
2. Click “Stop Protection”.
3. Enter password in “Unprotect Document” dialog box.
4. Click “OK”.
5. If you want to stop the protection permanently, you have to save the document before you close it.

Situation 2: Write Protect Parts of a Document

As we have mentioned above, there are two ways to achieve this task:

Method 1: Make Exceptions

1. Repeat steps from 1 to 7 in “Situation 1: Restrict Editing in the Whole Document”.
2. Select the part of text allowing editing.
3. Check “Everyone” box.
4. Repeat steps from 8 to 11 in “Situation 1: Restrict Editing in the Whole Document”. Check "Allow only this type of editing in the document" Box -> Select the Text -> Check "Everyone" Box -> Click "Yes, Start Enforcing Protection"" width="878" height="442" />

Now you can see the region you can edit in highlight, such as below:

Method 2: lock Parts of a Document

To inform you at the beginning, this method shall use “Developer” option. So, before all the moves, you should add “Developer” to “Menu Bar” first. For the specific steps, please go to one of our articles: How to Insert Background Music into Your Word Document

1. First, select the part allowing no modification.
2. Click “Developer”.
3. Then click “Rich Text Content Control”. Click "Rich Text Content Control"" width="690" height="381" />
4. Next, click “Properties”.
5. In “Content Control Properties” dialog box, type a title.
6. Then check “Content control cannot be deleted” box.
7. And check “Contents cannot be edited” box.
8. Click “OK”.

Now put your cursor at the locked area, you shall see the below effect:

How to Manage Word Collapse

Despite of its powerful feature, Word can still succumb to collapse and leave you with all broken files. Once you lost data due to word crash, it’s best for you to take the help of a specialized word repair tool in order to retrieve your information as much as possible.