Word 2007 Form Protection Doesn't Work

[Mashuganah]

I've created a form in Word 2007 but when I open the Restrict Formatting and
Edit dialog, the "Yes, Start Enforcing Protection" button is gray and
unelectable. How do I get form protection to work in 2007?

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

In a brand new blank document, is Restrict Formatting and Editing also
grayed out, or is the problem just in that one document? (Note: it is not
grayed out here, so the point is to find out how widespread your problem is.
Form protection *does* work in Word 2007... the problem is to find out why
it's not working for you.)

--

Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

 

[Jay Freedman]

I've created a form in Word 2007 but when I open the Restrict
Formatting and Edit dialog, the "Yes, Start Enforcing Protection"
button is gray and unelectable. How do I get form protection to work
in 2007?

Look at the Developer tab of the ribbon. If the Design Mode button is
highlighted (indicating it's turned on), click it to turn it off. That's the
most frequent reason that protection is disabled.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Beth Melton]

To add another possibility, if the document is set as a mail merge document
form protection will also be disabled. On the Mailings tab, click Start Mail
Merge and make sure "Normal Word Document" is selected.

~Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

 

[Mashuganah]

Thanks Jay. That was it. Such a kludge "feature."

 

[Stefan Blom]

Note that if the document contains ActiveX controls, macro security will
force the document into Design mode. The workaround is to avoid ActiveX
controls and make use of form fields (or content controls if no backward
compatibility is required) instead.