As a workgroup administrator, you might initiate or oversee workgroup­wide security practices to help protect Word documents. This section describes options available in Word to help protect documents. These options are independent of any additional security measures you put into place at the operating system level.

Word 97 (Windows) and Word 98 (Macintosh) incorporate the symmetric encryption routine known as RC4. RC4 is stronger than the encryption routine used in previous versions of Word, known as Office 4.x encryption. Documents from previous versions of Word are not as protected as password­protected documents in Word 97 or Word 98 format. For more information about Office encryption, see "Security Features in Office" in Chapter 34, "Microsoft Office Architecture."

Word supports three levels of document sharing protection. The author of the document, who is the user with read-write access to a document, helps to control all three levels. The three levels of document sharing protection are:

• File open protection

  Word requires the user to enter a password to open a document. Files with file open password protection require the use of RC4 or Office 4.x encryption. This is provided automatically when a Password to open password is provided. This is the strongest form of securing a file from within Word.

• File modify protection

  Word prompts the user to enter a password to open the document in read­write mode. If the user clicks Read Only at the prompt, Word opens the document read­only. This is not a form of security. Files with Password to modify protection enabled are not encrypted. This only prevents users from making inadvertent changes to the content of the original document.  A user can still open the document for viewing even though they may not have the password needed to modify the document.  Once the file is open, they can still save the content of the file to a file with another name.

• Read­only recommended protection

  Word prompts the user to open the document read­only. If the user clicks No at the prompt, Word opens the document read­write, unless the document has other password protection. This is not a form of security. This only serves to block the inadvertent changing of a document by disabling the ability of the user from saving the content of the file back to the original file.  It is still possible to save the content of the file to a file with another name.

These methods are more for collaboration purposes than for security needs. Protection of this type is not meant to protect intellectual property from malicious users. For example, field codes can be viewed in a text editor such as Notepad even if forms or sections of a document are set to use the following protection methods instead of using encryption.

To help protect a document

1. On the File menu, click Save As.
2. Click Options.
3. To have Word prompt the user to open the document read­only, select the Read­only recommended check box.

   – or –

   To require a password to open the document, type a password in the Password to open box, and then click OK.

   – or –

   To require a password to save changes to the document, type a password in the Password to modify box, and then click OK.

4. When prompted, type the password again, and then click OK.
5. Click Save.

In addition to helping protect an entire document, you can help protect specific elements from inadvertent changes. The following protection methods can all be circumvented through simple actions of any user who has access to the file. These methods serve only to block inadvertent changes to the specific elements or sections of the document by the originator of the document.

The elements you can help protect are:

• Tracked changes

  Changes made to the document can be neither accepted nor rejected, and change tracking cannot be turned off.

• Comments

  Users can insert comments into the document but cannot change the content of the document.

• Forms or sections

  Users can make changes only in form fields or unprotected sections of a document.

To help protect a specific element in a document from unauthorized changes

1. On the Tools menu, click Protect Document.
2. Under Protect document for, select the elements you want to help protect.
3. To help prevent others from removing protection from the document, type a password and click OK, and then retype the password in the Confirm Password dialog box.

Word includes several features that support group review of documents. If your workgroup has access to electronic mail (e­mail), users can also send or route documents to their co­workers.

Many of the features described in this section are available through the Reviewing toolbar.

To display the Reviewing toolbar, click Toolbars (View menu), and then click Reviewing.

Creating a Document with Many Authors

Word provides a number of features that are especially useful when several members of a workgroup jointly write long documents:

• Use master document view (View menu) to create a group of subdocuments and compile them into a single long document. On the View menu, click Master Document.

  When you print the document, Word combines all of the subdocuments into one and automatically numbers pages, lines, and footnotes in sequence. You can generate a table of contents, a table of illustrations, an index, and cross­references for the master document. You can use fields to create captions for illustrations and to number items (such as tables of figures) in series.

• Use templates to ensure that all documents have the same layout and boilerplate text and graphics. On the Tools menu, click Templates and Add­Ins.

  Templates also allow you to provide customized features, such as additions to toolbars and menus, special key assignments, and macros.

• Use styles to ensure consistent formatting and make it easy to change documents quickly. Use the built­in heading styles in Word to quickly create tables of contents and document outlines. On the Format menu, click Style.
• Use bookmarks to quickly locate text and create cross­references to other parts of a document. On the Insert menu, click Bookmark.
• Use AutoText entries to store frequently used text and graphics and quickly insert them into documents without retyping or copying and pasting. On the Insert menu, point to AutoText and click the entry you want.
• Use document map view to quickly browse a long document and see its outline structure and content side­by­side. On the View menu, click Document Map.

For more information about using these features, see Word online Help.

The remainder of this section describes other features to use when several members of a workgroup jointly write or review Word documents.

Tracking Changes

The commands on the Track Changes submenu (Tools menu) allow reviewers to make revisions to a document. The author of the document can then accept or reject these revisions.

The author or any reviewer can specify how revisions should appear (for example, whether deleted text should be formatted as strikethrough or hidden) on the Track Changes tab in the Options (Windows) or Preferences (Macintosh) dialog box (Tools menu).

Note   In previous versions of Word, the track changes feature was called revision marking.

Commenting on a Document

Comments in a Word document are analogous to reviewer notes written in the margins of a printed document. You insert comments with the Comment command (Insert menu). Word formats the comment indicator and the preceding word with a light yellow background, so the comment and the text to which it refers are clearly visible. You can also select a range of text before clicking Comment, and Word formats all of the selected text with a light yellow background.

You can view comments by resting the pointer over text shaded with light yellow, or over a comment indicator in the text. All of the comments appear in the comments pane below the document.

Tip   Comments are especially useful when used with change tracking. When a reviewer makes a change to a document, the reviewer can also insert a comment explaining why the change is necessary.

Note   In previous versions of Word, comments were called annotations.

Saving and Comparing Different Versions of Documents

Word supports two ways of working with different versions of documents: saving versions of a document in a single file, and comparing differences between different documents.

Saving Document Versions

New in Word is the ability to save multiple versions of a document within a single file. This feature, called version control, is available through the Versions dialog box (File menu). For example, you can use version control to save a version of a document after you write the first draft, save another version after the document is edited, and then save a final version after you have polished the document for publication. All three versions are saved within the document file, but only one version is active at any given time.

Recorded with each version are the name of the author who last saved the version of the document, the date and time it was saved, and any additional comments the author included. In the Versions dialog box, you can switch between versions of a document, delete versions, or display a version and then save it as a separate file.

Saving versions of a document in this way is similar to saving a document to different file names at different times. For example, you might start with the draft document Mydocument1, save it after editing as Mydocument2, and then save it again before distribution as Mydocument3. Saving multiple versions in the same file is more efficient, however: Word saves only the differences between versions, so less disk space is used, and you can more easily switch between versions. Version control is also a useful tool when you must maintain a clear record, or audit trail, of revisions to a document, such as a legal contract.

Comparing Documents

The Compare Documents command (Tools menu, Track Changes submenu) is useful when you want to see the differences between two documents. When you click Compare Documents, Word prompts you to select a document to compare with the active document. Word then indicates differences between the two by making revisions to the active document with change marks. You can then review the revisions and accept or reject them.

Unlike version control, comparing documents with the Compare Documents command requires two documents to compare. If you used version control and you want to compare two versions of a document in this way, you must first save one of the versions as a separate document. To do so, click Versions
(File menu) to switch to the other version of the document, and then save it with a different file name by clicking Save As (File menu). You can then use the Compare Documents command to compare the two documents.

Merging Documents

With the Merge Documents command (Tools menu), you can combine tracked changes from several documents into one document. Unlike the Compare Documents command (Tools menu, Track Changes submenu), the merge documents feature requires that you turn on change tracking in order to merge both documents.

Sending and Routing Documents with Electronic Mail

Users in a workgroup who have e­mail capability can review documents by routing or sending them through e­mail, with each recipient adding comments to the document.

To route a document, the sender creates a routing slip, and then routes the document to the recipients either one at a time or all at once. The sender can track the status of the routed document as the recipients review it. After all of the recipients have reviewed the document, it is automatically returned to the original sender.

When sending a document through e­mail, the original sender does not create a routing slip. Whether the sender routes or sends a document, the document is received as an attachment in an e­mail message.

Windows users running one of the following e­mail programs can both route and send documents through e­mail:

• Microsoft Exchange (or another 32­bit e­mail program compatible with MAPI)
• Lotus cc:Mail (or another 16­bit e­mail program compatible with Vendor Independent Messaging [VIM])

Macintosh users running one of the following e­mail programs can both route and send documents through e­mail:

• Quarterdeck Mail
• Microsoft Mail
• StarNine Mail

To route a document to other members of your workgroup

1. On the File menu, point to Send To, and then click Routing Recipient.
2. If prompted, select the user profile you want to use in the Profile Name box.
3. In the Routing Slip box, click Address, select the recipients, and then click OK.
4. In the Message text box, type a message, select the Return when done check box, and then click Route.

Note    Macintosh users running other e­mail programs (for example, Microsoft Outlook Express, Eudora Pro, Eudora Light, and Netscape) can send but not route documents through e­mail.

To send a document to other members of your workgroup

1. On the File menu, point to Send To, and then click Mail Recipient.
2. Follow the directions on the screen.

Note   If you are routing or sending a document to a user who has not yet upgraded to Word 97 (Windows) or Word 98 (Macintosh), first save the document in a format that the target version of Word can open (such as Word 6.0 format), or make sure the recipient has installed the Word file converter for previous versions of Word. For information about sharing documents among different versions of Word, see Chapter 15, "Upgrading from Previous Versions of Microsoft Word."

For more information about using Office applications with e­mail, see Chapter 28, "Working with Messaging Systems and Connectivity Software."