How to Limit / Restrict Edits to your Word Documents


You can save a Word document as read-only file. By making a document read-only, you can prevent any changes made to it.  But what if you want the document to be reviewed by a group of people and still don’t want any changes in the file? You can limit or restrict edits to your word documents.

Word 2007 has an easy solution to this problem. Word 2007 has a feature by the help of which you can make sure that the reviewers can only add comments in the document but not edit any text in it. Only you will have the rights to edit your document and no one else.

restrict formatting of word documents

To protect your document from the reviewers, follow these steps:

  • Click on the ‘Review’ tab.
  • From the ‘Protect’ group, click the drop down arrow of the ‘Protect Document’ tool.
  • From the list of options, click on ‘Restrict Formatting and Editing’.
  • Check the ‘Allow only this type of editing in the document’ check box.
  • Click on the drop down list below the check box, and select ‘Comments’.
  • Click on the ‘Yes, Start Enforcing Protection’ button.
  • Enter the password in the text box and retype it to confirm.
  • Click ‘OK’. 

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