Protecting Contents in Office
The following is an overview of the different ways of protecting contents in Office from being modified, deleted or viewed.
Protecting Documents With Passwords When Saving
All documents that are saved in OpenDocument format can be saved with a password. Documents that are saved with a password cannot be opened without the password. The content is secured so that it cannot be read with an external editor. This applies to content, graphics and OLE objects.
| Turning on protection | Choose File - Save As and mark the Save with password check box. Save the document. |
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| Turning off protection | Open the document, entering the correct password. Choose File - Save As and unmark the Save with password check box. |
It is possible to use OpenPGP to define private and public keys to be used to encrypt Office documents. Read Encrypting Documents with OpenPGP to learn more on how to set up OpenPGP encryption keys.
Protecting Revision Marking
With every change made in Office Calc and Office Writer, the review function records who made the change. This function can be turned on with protection, so that it can only be turned off when the correct password is entered. Until then, all changes will continue to be recorded. Acceptance or rejection of changes is not possible.
| Turning on protection | Choose Edit - Track Changes - Protect. Enter and confirm a password of at least one character. |
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| Turning off protection | Choose Edit - Track Changes - Protect. Enter the correct password. |
Protecting Frames, Graphics, and OLE Objects
You can protect the content, position and size of inserted graphics. The same applies to frames (in Writer) and OLE objects.
| Turning on protection | For example, for graphics inserted in Writer: Choose Format - Image - Properties - Options tab. Under Protect, mark Contents, Position and/or Size. |
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| Turning off protection | For example, for graphics inserted in Writer: Choose Format - Image - Properties - Options tab. Under Protect, unmark as appropriate. |
Protecting Drawing Objects and Form Objects
The draw objects that you insert into your documents with the Drawing toolbar can be protected from being accidentally moved or changed in size. You can do the same with form objects inserted with the Form Controls toolbar.
| Turning on protection | Choose Format - Object - Position and Size - Position and Size tab. Mark the Position or Size check box. |
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| Turning off protection | Choose Format - Object - Position and Size - Position and Size tab. Unmark the Position or Size check box. |