Background of Word Document

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Problem:
Is it possible to have the words “Draft Copy” printed at a 90 degree position to, and underneath, the normal page of verbage that I might forward on to someone. Further, is it possible to somehow encode it so the recipient cannot delete the “Draft Copy”, thus ensuring that the page of verbage is not appropriated for personal use by the recipient?

I work with Word 2000

Any help would be appreciated.

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Put the “Draft Copy” text in the header using Word art, a graphic or just formatted text, then protect the document with a write password. ‘Zabout all you can do to protect it. See attached

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Kevin:

Thank you very much. I particularly liked the attachment with “draft copy” on the paper, which you could then write over.

Question:

If I write protect the “draft copy” part, is it then still possible to send the document back and forth, with all parties making changes, until an agreed upon document is created, at which time I could then remove “draft copy” ?

JLade

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You can’t write protect the “Draft Copy” text or graphic. Anyone who knows that the item is in the header can view headers and delete it. You could get clever and put code in the document “project” that disables the viewing of headers/footers. A password on the project would add fairly reliable security just in case. Disabling header/footer viewing is fine, I guess, as long as none of the users is required to make changes to the headers/footers.

When the draft sessions are complete you could open the project using the password (known only to you and the FBI), remove or disable the “locking” code, then view headers/footers and remove the draft copy text.

Sounds like write protecting the document is not what you want, since the various users need to modify the original.

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Kevin:

Thanks Again

JLade

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One way to protect the headers only, without code, is to create a document, and put a continuous section break in the first character of the document. Then protect the document for forms- Tools, Protect, Forms, click on sections. Then untick section 2. Also put a password in the protect.

That will enable users to change document text without changing the header.

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Will it also stop them putting another section break at the front of the unprotected section to override the limitation?

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If it’s protected, they won’t be able to put another section in front of the protected section, as far as I can see.

However, if the document is protected, there are limitations on formatting etc, which might make it not too useful.

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Thank you all for your comments. After giving this some thought overnight, I’ve come to the conclusion that putting “Draft Copy” in a header and write protecting it, but not the main section still doesn’t create a situation where someone cannot copy & paste the material in the main text section and use it as an original.

I’m trying to figure out a way to stop someone from using something as their own that I’ve principally created, but which I’ve e-mailed to someone else for their comments within the text so I can do a final document.

JLade

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A couple of things come to mind based on postings I’ve read here – I don’t really understand either of them properly and they aren’t foolproof, but perhaps they could help. If not, other loungers will let you know.
Metadata
Could this be a circumstance where the difficulty of getting rid of metadata might actually help in this instance? Could one start with a blank document and switch track changes on, but without the highlight changes on screen and highlight changes in printed document switched on? In my poor understanding of how track changes works, would this mark all JLade’s original text as his/hers without it being obvious? Of course, there are plenty of loungers who could make sure this metadata was cleaned, but not everyone is that good at Word.
Hidden Text
Also, can hidden text help? Maybe JLade could scatter this through the document. Again, it can be made to be visible and deleted, but it would not be obvious.
This is probably just meaningless ramblings on a Friday afternoon, but just trying to help!

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Another option that should be mentioned in this discussion is sending out a PDF rendition of the document (rather than sending it as a Word file). There are various security level options available when creating PDFs, one of which is to permit others to annotate the file – this is a lot like marking comments over a Word document by putting them in textboxes.

Once you received the PDF file back with comments, you would need to do the manual work of inserting the comments back into the actual Word file. But at least this way you have the security of never letting the recipients get their hands on an editable original.

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Thanks:

Your suggestion is probably the most fool proof to make sure that I can keep the original product until it is ready to go out.

I’ll have to read up more on working with PDF

Thanks again.

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Hi everybody,

the point is, “painting” with the mouse and Ctrl+C is always working, even in PDF, even if switching to text +copy command are somehow disabled. I’ve seen until now exactly one software trapping this shortcut (FineReader, unregistered trial).

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Hi Emilia,

Acrobat Distiller settings let you disable selecting text and graphics in the finished PDF.

Of course, that doesn’t stop someone from printing the document and scanning it with OCR. So, Distiller settings let you disable printing.

Of course, *that* doesn’t stop someone from taking a screenshot, printing, and scanning with OCR…

Chris

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Of course, *that* doesn’t stop someone from taking a screenshot, and pulling out the text via OCR without even printing& scanning… :-)))

But seriously, just one more offtopic question: Does such a PDF really trap Ctrl+C if I select something just painting with the mouse on the screen? Because the shortcut works even if there isn’t a copy command even in sight.

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Geoff,

Protecting the section… that’s a great idea. I’ll have to remember that one. Thanks!

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Yeah, I know. It seems our JLADE will be unable to accomplish the protection desired because no matter what kind of protection/password/security scheme applied to a Word document, one can always Ctrl-A, Copy and Paste. Plagarism is not prevented by any device or technology…

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As has been pointed out, there is really no way in Word or on this earth to do this. If someone can read it, that same someone can copy it, by hand if necessary.

Consider using PDF format.

For short documents, you could put your wording in a text box and set the text box to be behind text. This in not in the header or footer (the normal place for a Word watermark) because we will be copying text in the body of the document.

For each page of the document, insert your text box. Then, select and copy the page.

Go to a new empty document and use Edit => Paste Special… and paste it as a picture (no link). That is about as uneditable a Word copy as you can get (although it can still be edited using a paint program and brought back into Word through OCR).

Hope this is of some help. (edited 6-28 to correct links in signature)

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