Microsoft Office Word 2003 Inside Out (Bpg-Inside Out)

 New Feature   In Word 2003, you can restrict the available styles and formatting capabilities in a document. When you restrict formatting, users are able to open the document, but they can't format text other than applying approved styles. Most of the character formatting tools on the Formatting toolbar, along with other text formatting tools (such as formatting keyboard commands and menu items), are inaccessible when a document has formatting restrictions applied. Furthermore, the Styles And Formatting task pane shows only the allowable styles. To restrict formatting, you use the Protect Document task pane and the Formatting Restrictions dialog box, as shown in Figure 28-8.

Figure 28-8: You can turn on formatting restrictions in the Protect Document task pane to stop users from applying character formatting or unapproved styles to document text.

To set up formatting restrictions, follow these steps:

1. Choose Tools, Protect Document. The Protect Document task pane appears.

2. Click the Limit Formatting To A Selection Of Styles check box, and then click the Settings link. The Formatting Restrictions dialog box appears.

3. In the Formatting Restrictions dialog box, specify which styles users are allowed to access by ensuring that the styles you want to make available are the only styles checked. You can take the following actions:

   • Manually select and unselect style check boxes to specify a group of styles that you want to allow users to access.

   • Click Recommended Minimum to limit styles to a recommended group of styles.

   • Click None if you don't want users to have access to any styles.

4. Click OK. If the document contains styles that you didn't select in step 3, a message box appears, stating that the document contains formatting or styles that aren't allowed and asking if you would like to remove them. Click No to apply the formatting settings without changing the document's current formatting, or click Yes to remove the styles from the document. Keep in mind that if you clicked None in step 3 and then click Yes in the message box in this step, your document will be formatted in Normal style throughout. In most cases, you'll probably want to retain the current formatting in the document, so you should click No in the message box.

5. In the Protect Document task pane, click Yes, Start Enforcing Protection. The Start Enforcing Protection dialog box opens.

6. In the Start Enforcing Protection dialog box, enter a password in the Enter New Password (Optional) box, and then reenter the password in the Reenter Password To Confirm box. If you don't want to use password protection, leave the password boxes empty. Click OK to complete the procedure.

After formatting restrictions are enforced, users won't be able to apply character formats or use styles that aren't included on the approved list of styles.

To turn off formatting restrictions, display the Protect Document task pane, click Stop Protection in the Protect Document task pane, enter a password if required, and click OK.