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How to make a Word document read only?

Author: Kelly Last Modified: 2024-08-02

For protecting a Word document, you may want to make it read only and prevent yourself or other users from changing it. Here, this article will introduce three tricky ways to make a Word document read only.

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Make a Word document read only before opening

You can easily make a closed Word document read only by changing its properties. Please follow below steps to configure:

1. Open the folder containing the specified Word document, right click the Word document, and select Properties from the context menu. See screenshot:
Properties option on the context menu

2. In the popping out Properties dialog box, please check the Read-only option at the bottom of this dialog box, and click the OK button. See screenshot:
Properties dialog box

From now on, the Word document will be opened in Read-only view only as below screenshot shown:
Word document is opened in Read-only view

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Make an opening Word document read only by Restrict Editing feature

If you need to make an opening Word document read only after editing, you can apply the Restrict Editing feature to get it done easily.

1. Click Review > Restrict Editing to enable the Restrict Editing pane. See screenshot:
Restrict Editing button on the Review tab on the ribbon

2. In the Restrict Editing pane, please (1) check the Allow only this type of editing in the document option, (2) select Filling in forms from the below drop down list, and then (3) click the Yes, Start Enforcing Protection button. See screenshot:
Restrict Editing pane

3. In the opening Start Enforcing Protection dialog box, please type password into both Enter new password (optional) and Reenter password to confirm boxes, and click the OK button. See below screenshot:
Start Enforcing Protection dialog box

4. Close the Restrict Editing pane.

From now on, the whole document is read-only, and any users are prevented from editing this document.

Note: For turning off the Read-only view, please (1) click Review > Restrict Editing to enabling the Restrict Editing pane, (2) Click the Stop Protection button, and then (3) type the specified password in the popping out Unprotect Document dialog box. See screenshot:
Restrict Editing pane enabled with Stop Protection button clicked, and password entry in the Unprotect Document dialog box


Make an opening Word document read only by Save as Tools

Other than Restrict Editing feature, you can also make an opening Word document read only by configuring the Save As Tools in Word. Please do as follows:

1. Click File > Save As > Browse.

2. In the Save As dialog box, please click Tools > General Options. See screenshot:
Save As dialog box with Tools menu opened and General Options selected

3. In the coming General Options dialog box, please check the Read-only recommended option, and click the OK button. See screenshot:
General Options dialog box

4. Now you return to the Save As dialog box, please click the Save button directly without specifying destination folder and file name at all.

Notes:
(1) If your Word document has never been saved before, you need to specify the destination folder and file name in the Save As dialog box as normal.
(2) If Microsoft Word warning dialog box pops out as below screenshot shown, please click Yes button to go ahead.
Confirmation dialog saying 'The file [file_name] already exists. Do you want to replace the existing file?'

5. Close the current Word document.

When you open the Word document later, a dialog box will come out and tell you this Word document is read-only as below screenshot shown:
Dialog box appearing when opening a Word document, indicating that the document is read-only


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