Office Security Issues - Forms Protection - Word 2003

[WalkerEvans]

The IT shop here at my day job had to rebuild my entire system profile last week (Windows 2003) due to a power supply problem, and I've lost some critical functionality under Office 2003. My problem is that I can't set Forms protection on any of my Word documents. This is something that I have been able to do for years and has saved me many hours of re-coding, as the folks here just love to poke around under the hood and tinker with things ... the problem being they don't know a thing about what they're doing. Complicating things is the fact that none of the folks in our IT shop have a clue about VBA; to them it is literally a foreign language so they have no idea what they might have done to mess things up.

The problem presents as follows: When I select "Protect document" under Tools it brings up the Protect Document sidebar, with Option 2 (Editing restrictions) already selected for "Filling in forms" ... But Option 3 (Start enforcement) grayed out. No matter how I approach this the result is the same; I end up with Option 3 unavailable and the document unprotected.

Anybody out there have a solution to this one?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[small]"How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"[/small]
"Two -- one to hold the giraffe, the other to put the clocks in the bathtub."

 

[WalkerEvans]

Solution found!!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[small]"How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"[/small]
"Two -- one to hold the giraffe, the other to put the clocks in the bathtub."

 

[Loomah]

wanna share it?

;-)

If a man says something and there are no women there to hear him, is he still wrong?
How do I get the best answers?​

 

[WalkerEvans]

Loomah,

I'm willing to share, but it falls into one of those "Twilight Zone" categories. I opened every single document that was in any way macro-driven, renamed them by adding a "1" to the end (ie, swap.doc became swap1.doc), and then copied them onto removal media. At that point I deleted all of the originals, reloaded the "1" copies, and then removed the "1".

This solved the problem completely! This has had to be done once before, although it was only on one document, not all of them. There have also been cases where code that ran perfectly for a couple of years suddenly failed, and neither I nor anyone else on here could come up with a solution as to why it failed, or how to fix it -- only to have it begin working again as suddenly as it stopped!!

I'm becoming convinced that Microsoft hired the ghost of Rod Serling and put him to work developing VBA; there seems to be no explanation for some of these things other than short trips into the "Zone". Either that, or someone in Redmond has a really warped sense of humor - worse than either mine or Skip's!!


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[small]"How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"[/small]
"Two -- one to hold the giraffe, the other to put the clocks in the bathtub."

 

[fumei]

Either that, or someone in Redmond has a really warped sense of humor - worse than either mine or Skip's!!"

That is good. Let's blame it on Skip! I like it.

However, all kidding aside, I doubt it has anything to do with someone in Redmond having a sense of humor. I too have had some mysterious functioning at times. I suppose we can dump it into that catch-all phrase even Microsoft uses.

The file has been "corrupted".

Yeah? How? By what? Who knows.

faq219-2884

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[WalkerEvans]

Gerry,

"Corrupted" ... hmmmmm. All of this did start happening at about the same time as the Made-Off scandal. Could it be ...? Nah. Just a coincidence.[grin]

You're right, it likely is due to some property of the files being warped when the background program (ie, Office) developed a problem with an operator or some such - I'm pretty sure that was the case when only one of my documents had a problem. It just starts pushing the bounds of the absurd when ALL of them have the same problem at the same time - and off-loading and then re-loading solves that problem. Still, it was at least the result of something actually being done.

There was an Excel problem about a year ago that no one could seem to solve, as my code had[/] been working and still should have been - but wouldn't. You, Skip, PV and a bunch of others looked through the code without finding any real errors, and none of the proffered suggestions worked: and then, without warning, the code started working again, with no modification of anything!!

It's easier to blame a phantom joker than to admit the systems we all have to work with every day are that subject to both random corruption and miracle healing. In any case, thanks for the feedback.

(And I wasn't really blaming Skip - just acknowledging the rather quirky sense of humor we seem to share. A real-life example -- I recently saw a science show on PBS titled "Creation of the Universe". Among the closing credits was this line: The Creation of the Universe was made possible by a Grant from Texas Instruments)


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[small]"How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"[/small]
"Two -- one to hold the giraffe, the other to put the clocks in the bathtub."

 

[SkipVought]

"That is good. Let's blame it on Skip! I like it."

I resemble that remark!!!

And my resemblement is growing with every minuet that passes with metronomic intensity. No more opus pocus!

Skip,
[sub]
Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE![/sub]

 

[WalkerEvans]

Skip,

I resemble that remark!!!

And my resemblement is growing with every minuet that passes with metronomic intensity. No more opus pocus!

I'm sorry, truly sorry, that your umbrage causes your resemblement to grow into a harpsicordian-like tic; a case of Stamitzian-Tourette's was not intended, nor was there intent to perpetuate numerological legerdemain.


I throw myself on your merci.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[small]"How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"[/small]
"Two -- one to hold the giraffe, the other to put the clocks in the bathtub."

 

[SkipVought]

Anyone gonna up the ante before I cry uncle?

Skip,
[sub]
Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE![/sub]

 

[WalkerEvans]

Skip,

Much as I support family interaction, this goes too far:

Get your Auntie out of the pot or I'll be obligated to make a solo effort to contact the United Network Command for Law Enforcement!


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[small]"How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"[/small]
"Two -- one to hold the giraffe, the other to put the clocks in the bathtub."

 

[fumei]

sigh




you two....


Gerry

 

[WalkerEvans]

Gerry,

At least this keeps us off the streets. Can you imagine the Colonels of panic that might erupt if this stuff got into the General public? It would almost certainly cause a Major problem that could only be resolved by the application of Corporal punishment ... in Private, of course. Mrs. Schwarzenegger would see to it the Sargent took a hand. Even little babies would take to the trees to escape - and we certainly don't want any infant tree involvement, do we?

Best we confine this stuff here, where folks are immune to it, don't you think?


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[small]"How many liberal, forward thinking Kansans does it take to change a light bulb?"[/small]
"Both of them!"

 

[SkipVought]

erie ahhhhh.

query a kin?

Skip,
[sub]
Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE![/sub]