Prevent users from editing cover page elements in Word 2010

See http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/word_tip_pages/content_controls.html for instructions on using "group" content controls to restrict editing. The article at http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-word/archive/2006/10/23/control-yourself.aspx would also be useful if it hadn't lost its images.

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. The second article you linked lost its images, unfortunately.

I tried the content controls, inserted the background picture into a content control box, but everytime I open the document, I get an error:

"The file XXX.docx cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents."

I click on 'Details" and it says "Unspecified error".

So I assume there is no way to protect cover page elements from being modified in any way?

The key information in the blog is that you need to use the Developer Tab and how to get that tab to show up. You already know what a document looks like where you want to prevent changes to part.

You can set content controls so that they cannot be deleted and cannot be edited.
This is done in the properties for the control.

If all of the content controls on a cover page are set so they cannot be deleted and cannot be edited, the page itself cannot be deleted. It is possible that this is true even if only one content control is locked down in this manner; I haven't tested that, though.

I used the Conservative Cover page to test this. A screen shot is shown below. Note that portions outside the table can be edited. Also if a table cell is empty (no Content Control) it can be edited. Since every cell in the table contains a content control, the table itself cannot be edited (or deleted).



I was simply working with the stock form. I would have combined the cells and used paragraph spacing to space things instead of having an empty cell to put a single space content control in.

I would make the table cover the page. At the end of the table, though, before the page break, there will be a single (empty) paragraph. You can put a single space text cc there to prevent editing at that point. You can also shrink the font size of that paragraph to 1 point.  (See blank page at end of table for more on this. http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/BlankPage.htm)

If the blank paragraphs outside the table (part I note above as being able to be edited) had one space content controls in each paragraph, they could not be edited either. Any parts that are not locked content controls can be edited.

Image controls can also be similarly locked.

Note that this does not prevent someone from going back into design mode on the Developer Tab and undoing this. Doing that is beyond my abilities. I expect that it is possible to have a macro that allows someone to call a single command or click on a QAT button and lock down all of the content controls on a cover page.

Looks pretty good Charles.

I was going to suggest a "simple fix".  Setup the cover page then screen capture it.  Paste the screen capture over the text, or completely replacing the text.

The image is no longer easily editiable.

Your solution sounds much easier. Would probably want to put that image on the first page in a "do not edit/delete" image control.

Of course, nothing can be done to prevent someone really dedicated from making changes. We can just make it more challenging.

Thanks for the suggestion. The second article you linked lost its images, unfortunately.

Which is why I said, "The article...would also be useful if it hadn't lost its images."

Thanks for the suggestion. The second article you linked lost its images, unfortunately.

Which is why I said, "The article...would also be useful if it hadn't lost its images."

Uhm. I know. No need to be snarky. I was just trying to prevent people from clicking on a redundant link.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions, everyone. We did the background image thing and just hoped that people won't mess it up.