Allow changes to parts of a protected document

You can mark a document as read-only and still allow changes to selected parts.

You can make these unrestricted parts available for anyone who opens the document, or you can grant permission to specific individuals so that only they can change the unrestricted parts of the document.

Protect a document and mark the parts that can be changed

1. On the Review tab, in the Protect group, click Restrict Editing.

Tip: To select more than one part of the document at the same time, select the part that you want, then press CTRL and select more parts while you hold down the CTRL key.

• To allow anyone who opens the document to edit the part that you selected, select the Everyone check box in the Groups list.
• To allow only particular individuals to edit the part that you selected, click More users, and then type the user names. Include your name if you want to be able to edit that part of the document. Separate each name with a semicolon.

Important: If you intend to protect the document with user authentication rather than password protection, be sure to type e-mail addresses for user names.

Note: If you select more than one individual, those individuals are added as an item to the Groups box, so that you can quickly select them again.

Unlock a protected document

To remove all protection from a document, you might need to know the password that was applied to the document. Or you might have to be listed as an authenticated owner for the document.

If you are an authenticated owner of the document, or if you know the password for removing document protection, do the following:

On the Review tab, in the Protect group, click Restrict Editing.

Make changes in a restricted document

When you open a protected document, Word restricts what you can change based on whether the document owner granted you permission to make changes to a specific part of the document.

The Restrict Editing task pane displays buttons for moving to the regions of the document that you have permission to change.

If you do not have permission to edit any parts of the document, Word restricts editing and displays the message, "Word has finished searching the document" when you click the buttons in the Restrict Editing task pane.

Find parts you can edit

If you close the Restrict Editing task pane and then try to make changes where you do not have permission, Word displays the following message in the status bar:

This modification is not allowed because the selection is locked.

To return to the task pane and find a region where you have permission to edit, do the following:

On the Review tab, in the Protect group, click Restrict Editing.