Protect a form

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You can protect a form when it is in progress, and also protect the final version to prevent users from making changes as they fill it out.

Protect a form as you are designing or changing it

This method provides a helpful way to test how the final version of the form will work.

• On the Forms toolbar, click Protect Form . 

Note   In previous versions of Microsoft Word, if you protected a form after making changes, all form fields were automatically reset to their original state. In this version, that does not occur. You can manually reset form fields by clicking Reset Form Fields on the Forms toolbar.

Prevent users from making changes to a form

Before you distribute a form that users will view and complete in Microsoft Word, you must protect it so that users can enter information only in the designated areas.

Note   When you protect a document by using the following method, any information in form fields will be reset.

1. On the Tools menu, click Protect Document.
2. Click Forms.
3. To assign a password to the form so that users who know the password can remove the protection and change the form, type a password in the Password (optional) box. Users who don't know the password can still enter information in the form fields.
4. To protect the entire form, click OK.

   To protect only parts of a form, those parts must be in separate sections. Click Sections, and then clear the check boxes of the sections you don't want to protect.

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