This indicates you successfully locked the text boxes. The button is disabled, indicating you can’t click it to enter design mode, which is the mode for editing text boxes. Just open your Word document, go File > Info > Protect Document and you will see five options: Open in Read-only Encrypt with Password Restrict Editing Add a Digital Signature Mark as Final Open in Read-only Once the Read-only mode is enabled, the visitors who are not the author of the document can’t edit or make any changes to it. Click 'OK' to lock the text boxes.Ĭlick the 'Developer' tab, then observe the Design Mode button in the Controls group. Type a password in the two text boxes provided. Click the 'Password' option in the dialog box that appears to specify a simple password protection scheme for the document. If you want to lock the text boxes for everyone, leave all user check boxes unchecked.Ĭlick the 'Yes, Start Enforcing Protection' button under Start Enforcement.

Select the check boxes under Editing Restrictions for those users whom you do not want to lock out of the text boxes. Select the 'Everyone' check box under Editing Restrictions in the Restrict Formatting and Editing pane to indicate that anyone can edit the selected areas. Select all parts of the document except for the text boxes that you want to lock. Click the drop-down list under Editing Restrictions to display a list of editing types to restrict and select 'No Changes.' This confirms that you want to restrict access to at least some parts of the document. Under Editing Restrictions, select the “Allow Only This Type of Editing in the Document” check box. Word displays a pane allowing you to manage editing permissions for specific parts of the document, including text boxes. Click the 'Review' tab, then click the 'Restrict Editing' button in the Protect group. Open a Word document that has text boxes.

Protect word document from editing