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I have a 2010 word document that is a questionnaire form. I want to lock the form and allow anyone to enter their answers. Most of it is in a table format. How do I do that?

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  • What do you mean by lock the form? Do you mean you want them to only be able to fill in certain predefined fields, without being able to edit the document? What is supposed to happen after they fill the form out? Do they just print / save it, or do you need to automatically get the results somehow (which would make this question too broad)?
    – lzam
    Sep 24, 2014 at 0:22

1 Answer 1

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Source: Create forms that users complete or print in Word

Add protection to a form and prepare it for distribution

You can protect individual content controls in a form template to help prevent someone from deleting or editing a particular content control or group of controls, or you can prepare a form to be distributed and filled out by locking it. You can help protect all of the form template content with a password.

Tip If you want, you can test the form prior to distributing it. Open the form, fill it out as the user would, and then save a copy in a location that you want. Protect parts of a form

  • Open the form that you want to protect.
  • Select the content control or the group of controls to which you want to restrict changes.

To group several controls, select the controls by pressing SHIFT and clicking each control that you want to group. On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Group, and then click Group.

  • On the Developer tab, in the Controls group, click Properties.
  • In the Content Control Properties dialog box, under Locking, do either of the following:
    • Select the Content control cannot be deleted check box, which allows the content of the control to be edited but the control itself cannot be deleted from the template or a document that is based on the template.
    • Select the Contents cannot be edited check box, which allows you to delete the control but does not allow you to edit the content in the control.

Note This option is not available for all controls.

Prepare a form to be filled out

  • Open the form that you want to lock so that it can be filled out.
  • On the Developer tab, in the Protect group, click Protect Document, and then click Restrict Formatting and Editing.
  • In the Protect Document task pane, under Editing restrictions, select the Allow only this type of editing in the document check box.
  • In the list of editing restrictions, select Filling in forms.
  • Under Start enforcement, click Yes, Start Enforcing Protection.
  • To assign a password to the document so that only reviewers who know the password can remove the protection, type a password in the Enter new password (optional) box, and then confirm the password.

Important

If you choose not to use a password, anyone can change your editing restrictions.

Use strong passwords that combine uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Weak passwords don't mix these elements. Strong password: Y6dh!et5. Weak password: House27. Passwords should be 8 or more characters in length. A pass phrase that uses 14 or more characters is better. For more information, see Help protect your personal information with strong passwords.

It is critical that you remember your password. If you forget your password, Microsoft cannot retrieve it. Store the passwords that you write down in a secure place away from the information that they help protect.

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