# Can I make a Word Doc completely UnEditable?



## jensr (Apr 10, 2001)

I work with an executive recruiting firm. We sometimes scan in our applicants resumes to be emailed to our clients. Before we do that we use electronic "white-out" to cover their contact info (eg phone #, e-mail, etc.) If our clients want, they can open the document and remove our "white-out." 

Does anyone know of a way to make the document completely uneditable? I tried using Tools> Protect Document> Comments. But I was still able to move the "white-out" to reveal all info underneath.


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## Anne Troy (Feb 14, 1999)

I can be pretty creative when it comes to this stuff. Seems to me that if you choose to do this little workaround, you'll probably eliminate the problem altogether.

Create yourself a "letterhead" template. Hit File-new and double-click your template. Now you'll have it ready.

Scan the resume. Use the crop tool to cut off the other person's stuff. I mean, let's face it, virtually everybody puts their name and stuff at the top and/or bottom. If you've never used the crop tool, it acts very much like you're resizing the picture. But instead of reducing the size by one inch, it will actually cut off that one inch you've moved it. Play with it--you'll catch on real quick, especially if you've been playing "electronic white out" all this time. Be careful, tho. You can uncrop after you've cropped. See below.

Let me know if you need help accessing the crop tool. It's not necessarily cut-and-dried.

Anyway, when you're done, you cut or copy their "resume" and go to your template. Now, hit Edit-Paste special-As a picture (this will hopefully remove the ability to uncrop it--it works great in my Word 2000 test).


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## jensr (Apr 10, 2001)

We would like to be able to access the complete document ourselves while restricting outside users only. Your say once we crop the resume that info is gone from that document. I got that right?

jens

ps. really appreciate this help!


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## Anne Troy (Feb 14, 1999)

Well, perhaps you can do this:

I told you to put the scanned image in another document and crop it there. Well, you could do this instead. Put the scanned image in another document. Save the file. Now crop and paste into your letterhead format.

Problem: You'll have two docs per person instead of one.

I really don't see any other way. You can easily unprotect any document by inserting it into another blank document (Insert-File), so your "protected" documents aren't really protected anyway.


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## shekerra (Apr 2, 2001)

There is a little trick I've used to make Word docs so that you cannot edit them - here goes:
Tools | Protect Documents - select forms (yes that is correct!)
and password protect it! It cannot be edited period until the pw is input 

>She

**Dreamboat I finally found the EDIT icon - ummmmm I had to login again and then search for the post - but this edit went easier. DUH.

Do I have to insert HTML here in order to get some decent font going here??????

And I agree with PDF for what they want to do above 

[Edited by shekerra on 04-11-2001 at 05:41 AM]


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## Anne Troy (Feb 14, 1999)

Go do that. Now, open a blank doc and hit Insert-File and insert that file into the blank document. No more protection on it. Word 2000.

Also, what's happening is this. Scanned resume is put into Word doc. They use drawing tools to cover up real info and only allow certain info to show. They want:

1. To be able to "uncover" the hidden info themselves in this document while
2. Disallowing their recipients the same capability.


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## RandyG (Jun 26, 2000)

Now maybe you can see why so many documents, ie brochures, pricelists, etc are done in .pdf format.

Go here and have your company buy the product.

There are different products, but look under "epaper"


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