I need to make some Word and Excel files “read only” to share with others in the work place. I know, under “Properties”, you can make a file “hidden” or “read-only” using the “Attributes” option. But, everyone else knows this, too!
Is the only way to do this by password protecting the document? Also, is there a way to password protect (or “lock”?) a file to prevent access altogether? I should mention these files are not on a server, so its’s not loike “rights” can be assigned to different users. These are files distributed on a CD, but we’re loooking for ways build-in limited access by the end-users.
Could you be a little more specific on your requirements? From what exactly do you want to protect your documents from?
If you are giving away the CDs, but want only a specific group of people to be able to access them, then password protection is your only solution. Word 2003 (I don’t know about earlier versions) requires two passwords. One for opening the file in Read-Only mode and a separate password for editing the file.
If you are worried that maybe people will make copies of your work, then there is nothing much you can do about it. Since you allow some people to see the document, then they are able to copy it. (Acrobat, mentioned by qts is not a solution. They can simply take screen captures and run it through an OCR)
Well then you don’t want Unix as it is a multi user OS. chmod is for change attribute modes. The three digits are in octal (base eight using digits 0-7) which allows three different properties to be encoded for in order the owner of the file, the group of the file which may include other uses and everyone or universe. The digits are encoded as 4=readable, 2=writeable and 1=executable. Add the attribute numbers and you get the digit for each place. The executable attribute is needed because Unix doesn’t use file extensions to denote that.
IMHO WORD is a tool for creating and working on documents but is terrible for presenting and distributing finished documents. They look bad, people have problems depending on the version, etc. I recently received some estimates for an office network and one of them was in WORD and would not display well. I was not going to waste time with it and I just rejected it. PDF would have displayed the thing perfectly and it avoids the issues of changes etc. If you want to distribute a document, PDF is the way to go, not WORD.
Are you trying to make the documents read only so that a central document on the server that all have access to isn’t accidentally changed by a user or in order to protect your document? If you are going for the latter you are screwed and no matter what you do they can get around it. The former is much easier.
Anyway, I was wrong: The standard ISO 9660 CD-ROM format doesn’t allow file permissions (but it does have VMS-style versioning, oddly enough). Trying to chmod a file on a CD-ROM would make you look stupid.
Well, look stupid for two reasons.
Interestingly, the Rock Ridge extension does give you UNIX-style permissions. There are lots of extensions to ISO 9660, but (as usual) different systems support different extensions.
Do we need a new ISO standard or a new medium? Only time will tell.
I have to re-think my question and the goal I am hoping to accomplish. If a write-protected Word document, for example, can be saved as something else and edited…then Adobe might be my only option. I think the fear is that we don’t want someone to have the ability to generate a “bastard” version of a document. It would pollute our “gene pool” of a library of documentation. …operating in a Windows 1995 (or better) OS.
I really think Adobe is geared for what you need. You can get the shareware version of “PDF 995” (or pay $9.95 for the full version) and make PDFs all the livelong day.
The PDF format is relatively open. There are a number of editors for pdf documents. It is relatively easy to modify a pdf in a similar manor to a word document. The program that Una recommends looks like it will allow you to edit and save PDF documents. This is little different from word in this respect.
What it basically comes down to is how secure you want it. No security on a document you give someone is perfect. No matter what you do to it, someone could just retype it with the changes they want, or print and scan it, or something else. The question is how much of a pain do you want to make it for them.
Or, if you want a more Word-like solution, try LyX. It’s available free-of-charge for multiple platforms, and it combines the simplicity of Word with the cross-platform compatibility (and controllability) of PDF files.
To be really safe, you could keep the only copy of the document as an encrypted file on your hard disk (not accessible from the network). Distribute it to other people who need to see it on specially treated paper that will dissolve within five minutes of contact with human skin.
There are other methods even more secure, but then people might think you’re being paranoid.
Wow, the feedback is amazing. Obviously, there is more to my initial OP than meets the eye…at least, my eye! Let me just ask this at this time: Can I prevent someone from saving an Excel file under a different name? - Jinx
I’m a computer professional, highly intimate with Microsoft operating systems.
I’ll assert, based on professional knowledge and experience, that the answer is “No.”
Jinx, once you let somebody view a document, then they can do anything they want with it (copy, edit, re-distribute, etc.) and there’s no reliable technology that will prevent them.
In such cases, you have to rely either on trust relations, or a legal framework (eg. registering and copyrighting the document).
Since you are asking for ways of protection, I assume that such trust relations do not exist between you and the document receivers. If that is the case, then you can write on the bottom of the document “Please, be gentle!” (Ok, that was a joke :D)
Since I am studying Computer Security, I am very interested in your case, especially on the reactions of the document receivers. Please keep us updated in this thread, or e-mail me directly.
