Can I limit use of distributed .doc files?

[Paul Orton]

I want to be able to distribute .doc files to customers (for viewing an
printing purposes) but I need to restrict the number of times they ca
be viewed and/or printed. Is it possible to do this, and how? Coul
they, for example, be rendered useless after x number of days

 

[Jay Freedman]

I want to be able to distribute .doc files to customers (for viewing
and printing purposes) but I need to restrict the number of times
they can be viewed and/or printed. Is it possible to do this, and
how? Could they, for example, be rendered useless after x number of
days?

No, Word can't do that. It could, perhaps, if you were able to force every
recipient to allow macros to run, but you can't do that because of security
issues.

If you use Adobe Acrobat to make a PDF file from the document, you can
exercise a bit more control over what recipients can do with it. However,
there's still no way to prevent them from making an exact copy -- in the
extreme, by taking screen shots and running them through optical character
recognition software -- and doing whatever they wish with the copy.
Essentially, all you can do is make it difficult, not impossible.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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