Password-protect a Word 2003 document

You can protect Word 2003 documents by adding a password, either to prevent access or stop changes being made to it.

Click on the View menu and then Task Pane. Click on the Task Pane title and select Protect Document. The top option stops people from changing the formatting of the document.

To restrict access, select the option 'Allow only this type of editing in the document' in section 2. Choose the appropriate option in the dropdown menu: Tracked changes allows changes but records them so they can be approved or denied. Comments only allows comments on the document.

Filling in Forms only lets changes be made in forms and No changes means just that. Click on the Yes, Start Enforcing Protection button.

Leave Password selected and enter a password in both boxes. Click on OK.

You can see that there is no editing allowed in the document as the Cut icon that would remove text has been disabled.

To remove this, click on the Stop Protection button at the bottom of the Task Pane. Enter the password and click on OK.