Help protect your document against unwanted changes and comments

You can use document protection to restrict the types of changes that reviewers can make to your document.In this article

Let reviewers insert comments and tracked changes

Let reviewers insert comments only

Stop protection for comments and changes

Let reviewers insert comments and tracked changes

1. On the Review tab, in the Protect group, click Protect Document, and then click Restrict Formatting and Editing.

   

2. In the Protect Document task pane, under Formatting restrictions, select the Limit formatting to a selection of styles check box, and then click Settings to specify which styles a reviewer can apply or change.
3. Under Editing restrictions, select the Allow only this type of editing in the document check box.
4. In the list of editing restrictions, click Tracked changes. (This includes comments as well as insertions, deletions, and moved text.)

   Note For a different set of protection features use Active Directory directory service, click Restrict Permission to use Information Rights Management.

5. Under Start enforcement, click Yes, Start Enforcing Protection.
6. To assign a password to the document so that only reviewers who know the password can remove the protection, type a password in the Enter new password (optional) box, and then confirm the password.

   Important If you choose not to use a password, all reviewers can change your editing restrictions.

Let reviewers insert comments only

1. On the Review tab, in the Protect group, click Protect Document, and then click Restrict Formatting and Editing.

   

2. In the Protect Document task pane, under Editing restrictions, select the Allow only this type of editing in the document check box.
3. In the list of editing restrictions, click Comments.
4. If you want to give some people editing options for specific pieces of the document, you can select areas in the document, and then choose which users (a group or individuals) can edit the selected areas of the document. Click the dropdown arrow next to the group or individual name to find the next region or all regions that the group or individual can edit, or to remove permissions for the group or individual.

   Note For a different set of protection features use Active Directory directory service, click Restrict Permission to use Information Rights Management.

5. Under Start enforcement, click Yes, Start Enforcing Protection.
6. To assign a password to the document so that only reviewers who know the password can remove the protection, type a password in the Enter new password (optional) box, and then confirm the password.

   Important If you choose not to use a password, all reviewers can change your editing restrictions.

Stop protection for comments and changes

1. On the Review tab, in the Protect group, click Protect Document, and then click Restrict Formatting and Editing.

   

2. In the Protect Document task pane, click Stop Protection.

Note If you use a password to add protection to the document, you need to type the password before you can stop the protection.