Copyright/"lock" a Word file?

[Jeff7181]

I'm wondering if there's any way I can set a MS Word file so that it can't be written to or changed by anyone else. I want to create "guides" for doing various things with computers and don't want them changed or modified by anyone else since I'd be putting my name on it. Is there a way to do that?

 

[Need4Speed]

depends on your version of office. office 2k3 has IRM (Information Rights Management) that will do what you want it to. see more here:
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/preview.aspx?AssetID=HA010397891033

 

[TSDible]

Why not convert it to a PDF file?

There are many free solutions to do this. Personally, I've started using OpenOffice to convert any documents to PDF. However, there are a lot of printer driver based utilities out there to choose from.

 

[Jeff7181]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try em out.

 

[TSDible]

I think that FinePrint PDF Factory is supposed to be pretty good. It isn't very expensive.

FinePrint PDF Factory

 

[Jeff7181]

Holy cow... $50 at the cheapest? =)

 

[TSDible]

There are programs out there that do it for free as well, but they are not as nice or easy to set up.

Check out PDF995. It is free, but displays a sponsors page each time you load the program. I think that you can get rid of that by paying a small fee.
PDF995

I also found another free one called FreePDF. I have no idea how good this one is, I've never used it. I have used the other two.
FreePDF

There is also the open-source GhostScript, but it entails a bit of setup. I've used it, and it produces fairly good PDFs. There are also grapic interfaces for it. However, I find the one step printer drivers the easiest.

 

[Vadatajs]

Openoffice 1.1 exports to pdf.

 

[TSDible]

Originally posted by: Vadatajs
Openoffice 1.1 exports to pdf.

As I already stated...

But that is a big download if you just want to make PDFs with it.