Restrict Editing to Specific Parts and Lock Parts of a Microsoft Word Document

This video demonstrates how to set up a Microsoft Word document so that specific sentences and paragraphs remain editable once the document has be protected or locked down for editing.
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[@andile5945]

Four years later! Timeless. Thank you Chester.

[@soumyasbh]

The best video I saw on document restriction.

[@mariemorganhenry9072]

You rock. I spent hours on a document trying to restrict certain sections for editing that was going to be sent to a team, but after watching your video in five minutes I had it done. Thank you!!!!!!

[@jeremiahwaters9089]

This is EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thanks so much!!

[@melcadman]

Many thanks for this wonderful explanation and demonstration of this particular function. Brief but absolutely to the point.

[@martaaucote5399]

Perfect explanation and demonstration. Thank you so much.

[@suzannta2827]

Thank You so Much for your time and for sharing your knowledge. Regards from Mexico

[@tycNvk]

Could you show how to turn off the yellow highlight or change the colour of the editable section?

[@dennisdamer286]

Nice and short. Your narration is good to listen to!

[@ChesterTugwell]

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

[@patriciafreire4201]

THANK YOU so simple and so usefull this is all I needed for my work

[@ChesterTugwell]

Glad it helped!

[@ranimaharaj-sharma4332]

Thanks, you were very concise, to the point and very clear.. Loved this tutorial.. Thanks again...

[@jessicaalvarez3740]

Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video, really helpfull information and excellent explanation, many thanks

[@rdguezc]

Thank you for this solution. I found it very useful.

[@kristieandmylittlebrother6375]

thank you so much this helped so much i knew this before and there is an easier way only 2 steps but i forgot so i watched this thank youuu verrry muuuuuuch!😄

[@hormozmehr]

It was perfect. short, and effective. THANKS

[@rkreskoci]

Great, thanks so much. I have an issue though. The whole files turn into the Viewing mode and cannot be turned to Editing. Even though I can see the yellow fields with exceptions. Any suggestion on this? Thanks.

[@PandaHoney-ll5zb]

Amazing tutorial. Short and helpful.

[@stepht1866]

this was helpful Chester, thank you!

[@kiranjeets]

So precisely to the point. It is going to be very helpful for me. Thanks !

[@aliashitman47]

Very helpful.

[@JPFilmmaker]

Ty, helped a lot.

[@hiahz7792]

Thank you; this is really helpful and easy.

[@vixgnandt783]

God bless you for posting this

[@Mick-qq1pi]

Thank you for the quick and efficient video.

[@morganthebabygenuis]

Very useful. Thank you for the video!

[@datsailor2003]

Clear instruction and straight to the point! Thank you

[@user-pu7vq7we7n]

Thank you!

[@lfjv]

Superbly explained. Thank you so much, Sir.

[@DipanjanMukherjee1980]

Very well explained ....Well done ...

[@tamelatkdaniels888]

Thank you sooo much!!!

[@Mistershowaltermusic]

You, sir, are a godsend. Big thanks!

[@supriyakorukonda7439]

Very useful. Thank you so much

[@notawix8542]

thank you very much 😊

[@lazalazarevic6192]

Very helpful. Million thanks!

[@jamesbond-rh9bv]

Thank you! Very well explained and simplified.

[@kelliealdrich5479]

Thank you very much!! This was exactly the information I was looking for and very easy to follow.

[@Metteyya1]

Kellie, I followed this video's instructions, and it does not function. Any suggestions?

[@gatasucia5973]

Thank You!!!

[@publicjewelrybox]

Hi Chester, this solution is almost perfect, except I need the user to be able to use the styles and formatting for the text they can edit. Is there any way to lock certain parts of a document (especially pictures and text boxes) while allowing people to edit and format text?

[@Jack7thst1]

Super handy! Well done!

[@jenns1465]

Thank you for this.😭

[@stonekingdominc5892]

So good, thank you very much. Too bad most companies don't have the oversight to have the proper training or help menus within their own software.

[@nurzhanamantay8729]

thank you very much

[@rosaliadesigns1531]

Thank you this was a great guide and helped me a lot 🙏🏼🙌🏽

[@vitalcomputing6298]

This was very helpful thanks.

[@ChesterTugwell]

Glad to hear it!

[@dilshanmendis]

Thank you, very useful 👍🏻

[@rovert126]

Great help, thanks for posting

[@Velisus]

I'm trying to do this for a template.
Like the video describes, I want headers/footers locked, but:
1. I want the entire area outside headers/footers unlocked for the first and subsequent pages.
2. I don't want to have text there to make #1. happen.
Wondering if anyone has a link or answer for how to do it. (Tested & confirmed only please)

[@PEACEtoAllLoveoneanother]

Simple and owesome

[@muhamadishak7809]

Thanks Chester!!

[@ChesterTugwell]

Thanks Muhamad

[@rsbharley4766]

Thank you!!!! You just saved my @*%& sanity!!!

[@coolegsall]

thank you

[@sujonjengcham2099]

Thank you, its really helpful

[@debscholz2730]

just what I was looking for. thanks!

[@michelletamvakis5472]

Very helpful!! Thank you SO much!!

[@juliusbiliran]

This is awesome and super useful! Thank you! This made my day. ;-)

[@lidiacaro1058]

This was very helpful! Thank you!

[@Valtyn]

Thank you, nice one

[@cesaralex5782]

Thank you very much for the video. Please if you can tell me how I can select only the paragraphs that correspond to a page of a file that has several pages. Thanks in advance.

[@camcab147]

Thank you, that has been helpful. Take care! 😎

[@tmkm130]

Hi, I think this is great. Thank you so much. When I open it, it continues to show highlighted areas that can be edited. When I created it, I turned the highlight off and saved it, thinking it would not show when I opened it. Is there a way to open it without it showing the highlighted areas?

[@Velisus]

Experienced same issue. Annoying.

[@jrvalle02]

Thank you Sir!

[@VitorSantos-jm8tb]

Perfect
Thanks!

[@alethanaobes8703]

Thanks Alot,Helpful!

[@njenjanja0404]

You the man! :)

[@adinateo18]

Hello! Great explanation. Is there any possibility of making the highlighted disappear when the editable parts are filled in?

[@paolamartens4616]

Does this all work when working on the document online (in a browser or within MS Teams) as opposed to on the desktop app? Thanks

[@waheedsaifi1668]

Hi, how can I set up a formatting and style for different part of the word document (for example heading, bold times new roman 28, body text calibry 10, footnote calibry 8, table justied calibry 8 etc) in away when you paste sentences with different font, size, etc, it automatically changes to the default style set for that part of the document and one doesn't have to change it manually?

[@seaalbahr2404]

Thanks very useful

[@alingheorghe7162]

If you convert it to PDF the editing capabilietes wil remain or the blocked paragraphs will become editable in pdf?

[@evicaf4e]

So if I lock it, will it remain in it's form, or will it move when I add something to it on another page?

[@elizabethjames9441]

Thanks! Do you know how to pair this feature w/something like a form/dialog box that comes up when the document is opened? Have fields like Salutation/first name/last name/date/etc so that I don’t have to find where each piece needs to go every time and can just enter the appropriate info and trust that it populated in the correct places?

[@pschroeter1]

Thank you, but this is a gigantic multi-step pain in the arse to use when I want to just make one block of text that I've copied over from somewhere else immune to my own editing macros and I'm not even sharing the document. I wish the process worked in reverse in you select the text you wan to protect and everything else is automatically editable. I would really like a way to just select some text and tag it read only.

[@elenamadzharova2895]

Hi Chester, how can I highlight a text box and text outside the text box for editing simultaneously? When I hold down CTRL it deselects my text box. I want to be able to edit the text box + parts of a text outside the box.

[@umarmuktar5615]

Can they copy a picture from the document after protecting it? How do I protect my pasted signature from people copying it to paste on a wrong document?

[@trentmartin4364]

Is there a similar function for specific sections, text boxes or objects in Power Point?

[@lauraomalley2797]

Does anyone know why the 'Yes, Start Enforcing Protection' wouldn't be clickable once all the applicable sections have been made exceptions?

[@semperfidelis9083]

If i say wanna print the said document . the red thing and the text background coloration wouldnt appear on the printed paper right ?

[@lynne8056]

How do you get rid of the square brackets??

[@kazardomain]

what if certain words suddenly caps? just like that Design..i want to be normal..everytime i type certain word in but in auto Caps in the middle of the sentence.

[@cynthiacoomes1432]

Does the yellow remain yellow?

[@shyharmonic]

In Word 2017 there is no Restrict Editing pane in the Review tab, anyone know where it went?

[@slodreamteamful]

Developer tab. You need to customize ribbon

[@Metteyya1]

I followed this video's instructions, and it does not function. Any suggestions?

[@rezendenetto]

Do you know if Google Docs can also do this?

[@TEACHERFROIDZ]

HOW ABOUT DISABLING ANYONE TO COPY PHOTOS FROM YOUR PROTECTED WORD FILE?

[@stonekingdominc5892]

OK big problem for me. I have a fairly complex form. As I select sections on the form holding down the Ctrl Button it can only select a few before it will deselect everything I just selected above. HELP

[@0berish]

You can select sections and click "start protecting" and then you click "stop protecting" and select the other sections you want to protect. You can do this multiple times and the document will save all of them. You don't need to select all the sections with ctrl at the same time.

[@Mariusz803]

But how do you enable only one user to edit it? The groups window doens't show any. How do you make only the PC admin enable it?

[@caribmagtv8249]

hhmmm... I'm a dummy. I want to actually lock certain parts of the document the other way around. For example, I want to highlight parts I don't want editted rather than highlighting parts that can only be editted. How do we do that?

[@jamescc2010]

What if I need to make some parts editable and give this outside public ( so I won't have a list of users), how can I do this or simply do the same thing? I am working on some legal forms that I want to sell to public.
Can you a video on using Adobe and allow editing to some parts ?

[@astraldreamstarot14]

I am so mad a picture always move and follow everytime I try to type a new blank!!!!!!!!!

[@lindalove9682]

Thank you!

[@Connie_Leteane]

Thank you so much for this... very helpful.

[@moca1992]

Thank you this is helpful.