Restricting access to document contents

We can restrict documents using a number of methods in Microsoft Word 2019. If you forget a password for a protected document you will not be able to recover it, so be very careful with this, and only restrict documents when absolutely necessary.

The entire document can be restricted, or we can select parts of the document that can be viewed but not edited. These options are explained in the following subsections. Restrictions can be set via the Info option from the File tab, or from the Review tab on the ribbon.

Follow these next steps to protect certain parts of a document from editing when sharing with others:

1. Open the document. We will use Resume1Furkidds.docx for this example.
2. Select the Review tab.
3. Select Restrict Editing from the Protect group, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

4. The Restrict Editing pane will now be present to the right side of your Word document (see preceding screenshot).
5. Locate the second step, Editing restrictions, on the Task pane, making sure that the checkbox is selected to reflect Allow only this type of editing in the document.
6. Click on No changes (Read only) from the drop-down list box.
7. Select/highlight parts of the document for which you wish to allow editing to happen. You may use the Ctrl key on the keyboard to select multiple parts of the document simultaneously.
8. Under the Exceptions option, select Everyone to allow any user of the document to make changes to the highlighted parts of the document.

Or you could follow these steps:

1. Click on More users… to type the usernames of the people granted editing rights.
2. Click on OK to accept the usernames, after which they will be added to the list.
3. At this point, you may select other parts of the document to allow different users editing rights.
4. Repeat this step, if required.

Refer to the following screenshot to view the preceding information:

5. In the last step, click on Yes, Start Enforcing Protection.
6. A dialog box appears, asking for a protection method. In this case, I've chosen the Password option.
7. Choose a method and click on OK to continue, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

8. Editing is in place for certain document parts, defined for particular users, and the rest of the document will be restricted.
9. Don't forget to save the document so that the changes are intact when you share the document.
10. You will notice that if you try to delete a sentence or edit a paragraph that is protected, you will not be able to edit it until protection is removed.
11. To stop protection, simply click on the Stop Protection icon at the bottom of the pane, as illustrated in the following screenshot:

Note that you can also use the following steps to access the Restrict Editing feature:

1. Go to File | Info | Protect Document. 
   
2. Select Restrict Editing, as illustrated in the following screenshot: 

You now have the skills to protect certain parts of your document from editing using the Restrict Editing pane within Word 2019. The next topic will show you how to protect the entire document.