Prevent copy image in Word

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We need to prevent that images are copied from our word documents. I have found all kind of protections for editing, but still able to select the picture and copy this. Is there a way to prevent this in Word? Thanks

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Rule 1: If someone can see it, they can copy it. Period. All you can do is make it more difficult.

If a document is protected for forms, images in the protected area cannot be selected. This is quite easy to circumvent, though.

Even if a person does not know how to get around it in Word, they can use a screen capture or print it out and scan. Someone with enough patience can reproduce it by hand or on a computer.

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Charles, maybe i am doing something wrong but when i protect the document I am still able to select the picture and copy it. I agree it always be possible, but I want to make it not so easy that it is a simple select and copy and you have the picture.

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Are you doing this?
To protect a document so no clicks can be made and thus nothing can be copied, go to Review > Restrict Editing > Editing Restrictions > Filling in forms.
Of course, it can be saved as a PDF which still may allow copying, or, as Charles said, a screen grab always works. Have you considered adding a watermark which, in theory, would make copying pointless? Again though, if someone is determined, its possible to remove the watermark after copying.

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I have tried this but if you restrict editing in word you can still select the picture and copy it

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I apologize. It had been some time since I tried this and apparently Word has changed. Although you can’t select text in a protected form, you can select an image.

What is your version of Word? Your operating system?

Try putting your image in the header or footer. Then apply the protection for filling in forms.

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Office 2016 and windows 7. It is not that we want to prevent it 100%, but just not to easy to simply select and opy

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Anyone with Windows 7 can use Snipping Tool to grab a copy of anything on the screen. I agree with the watermark idea in post #4. I don’t see how you could stop the copy, but you could at least make it obvious that it is a copy, perhaps even putting a copyright notice in the picture so as to discourage copying.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Here’s how you can disable the printscreen key:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28083031/disable-the-printscreen-keyboard-option-from-windows

You could probably set up a group policy to prevent Snipping Tool and other such programs from working. Here is an excellent explanation of Group Policy:
http://vlaurie.com/windows-7-tips/how-to-use-group-policy-editor.html

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Here’s how you can disable the printscreen key

Fairly pointless in this case, as the image can simply be copied and pasted. Even where that couldn’t be done in older Word versions, the simple workaround was to link another document to the protected one; the protected document’s contents then became fully accessible…

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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Are your Word documents to be printed, or are they intended for on-screen viewing? If you lower the resolution so they display well on-screen, but are too small or low-resolution to print properly, you’ll also reduce the value of any copied image.

But generally I agree with all the above comments–someone who wants the image will find a way to copy it.

What is the function of the Word documents? Is it in-house or public? Is it your own folks you want to keep hands off or unknown viewers (in which case restricting Windows functionality won’t help). There are scripts for web viewing that restrict right-click activities. Knowing the context may spark someone’s good idea.

Kim

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