Protecting my Work

[scult1]

I have working for a real tough boss now for 6 months. While he has
paid me already around 20 k he has run up a bill with me of abount
6000 dollars. All the work is in a MS Word file, in my laptop. Now he
is flying over seas and wants a copy of it. How can I protect my work
so that at a certain date the file will get locked under a password. I
think I could use a macro, but then couln't he just deactivate macros
in word. The file is now in word 2007. Any ideas??

I have googled for this with no success

TIA

Susan

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I don't think you want a macro. I think you need a lawyer and a good
contract.

 

[JoAnn Paules]

Excellent suugestion! I fear Susan is going to find herself SOL and out a
lot of money.

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]
Tech Editor for "Microsoft Publisher 2007 For Dummies"

 

[scult1]

I don't have enough money for a lawyer and don't need one at this
stage for that matter I just want a diterent. Do you have an answer?

 

[Don]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in (e-mail address removed):

I don't have enough money for a lawyer and don't need one at this
stage for that matter I just want a diterent. Do you have an answer?

You "may" be able to accomplish this with a PDF, however not aware of any
such access restrictions available in Word.
There are nuumerous inquires in this NG's archives regarding restricting
access to Word files. Don't ever recall such an option be presented.

If you have access to website server you may be able to provide password
restricted access with an "expires header", however even that option does
not prevent access from a previously saved local file of the page/document,

 

[JoAnn Paules]

Unfortunately if someone really wants the contents of that document,
deterrents will not prevent the theft of the information. Once an electronic
document leaves your system, it's vulnerable.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Susan,

Word does have access to a Windows feature, Information Rights Management. It's not in all of the 2007 Office editions and you could
have an unhappy customer if he tried to open the file from the wrong computer/email address while on his trip. The procedure for it
and limitations are discussed on http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA101029181033.aspx
It disables the Windows printscreen key and copying directly, (as does Microsoft's "Silverlight" add in for web documents) but as
the article mentions there's often a way someone will find to get around the hogties

As noted in other replies and in the article, once it's printed it's always available

If you have Adobe Acrobat v8 you can set an expiration date for the PDF that doesn't rely so much on 'outside resources' beyond a
sort of current Acrobat PDF viewer.

Some ebook creation software (that support Word documents saved as RTF format) contain similar capabilities, including this freeware
lite version - http://www.visualvision.com/software/ebookswriter_e.html

So part of the decision will be how much risk you think you have both for protecting your work and from keeping customer's happy;
the message you're sending your customer by putting restrictions on documents if you haven't done it previously and haven't
discussed it ahead of time, or how changing the format to a different media is received. (i.e. a PDF file can be presented as more
portable than a Word document with the right sales approach <g>).

==========I don't have enough money for a lawyer and don't need one at this
stage for that matter I just want a diterent. Do you have an answer? >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[askteam]

Hi Susan

you can protect any reading or editing of your documents at your
notebook.
please spend 5 minutes reading this
http://soi12.com/office/story.php?title=Understand_security_in_MS_Word

Now you have 3 choices at 3 different levels of protection.

1. protection within MS Word
http://soi12.com/office/story.php?title=Understand_a_better_file-level_security_in_Office_2003
http://soi12.com/office/story.php?title=Understand_security_in_MS_Word

2. protection at any file(s)
http://soi12.com/office/story.php?title=Hide_and_Lock_Your_Files
http://soi12.com/office/story.php?title=Keep_your_private_files_into_password_protected_Lockbox

3. protection at harddisk
http://soi12.com/office/story.php?title=Free_Open-Source_On-The-Fly_Disk_Encryption_Software

See all choices of protection at
http://soi12.com/office/search.php?page=1&search=security