How can I prevent a Word document from being copied or printed?

My wife used to work at the IT department of a local college. Numerous times, she ran into a similar issue. The trial version of MS Office would expire just before term papers were due, and it would lock the students out of their documents. (Well, it would let them display the documents, but not modify, print, or even select/copy the text to paste it elsewhere.)

Her solution? Get a free copy of OpenOffice.org, open both side-by-side, and re-type the document. Certainly not ideal, but it got the job done.

That Office 2010 trial is quite a trap. I'm not sure if those Word documents produced by the trial version become locked or not when the trial version expires. (I personally don't think they do). I would try to open that document directly in OppenOffice.org or LibreOffice directly It will probably open for editing.

To protect a document from being printing, save it to a CD. You can mail it to whomever you trust. Or you can save it in your CD case.

Saving it to CD doesn't prevent it from being printed.

23-Sep-2011

*Chuckles*

I keep telling people who ask me the same question ... "If it's on my computer, it's mine if I want it, and there is nothing you can do to stop that."

As for the lady that has her students retyping their documents, yes, I have to agree with Mark that they probably could just open them in OpenOffice etc.

One way to prevent copying is to password the file so that it cannot be opened without the password. Once it is opened I agree with Leo.

It is not unlike the situation pre-computers. Books, letters, and manuscripts could be copied by anyone who had enough incentive. Computers have just made it easier.

The best protection is to copyright the material and go after violators.

For many things it simply isn't worth the bother, but if it really matters, then the copyright gives strong legal recourse.

One method to prevent copying is to change all the font to white so it disappears and when protected only the originater can change it back and not the viewer.

Further to my earlier comment about changing the font to white, I just discovered that if you do 'Look Up', Word will display the text. Sorry!

@Graham
Nice try. It reminds me of the secretary who saved all of her Word documents in a smaller font to save space on the disk, or the other secretary who had white out all over her monitor. LMAO!

While this is not an exact solution to the problem of "copying," one way to ensure a file is the original, authentic, and intended version of a file is to place a digital signature on the file. If one sees a digital signature in the Signatures pane on the right, one can assure that it is an unmodified, authentic file last saved by the person signing. Once again, not a solution to copying (or printing), but it ensure it is the intended version of the file.