Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Turning Off Document Protection.

Turning Off Document Protection

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 29, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365

If you previously protected your document for change tracking, for comments, or for forms, then you will probably need to unprotect the document at some time so that you can make unrestricted changes. To unprotect your document, follow these steps:

Display the Review tab of the ribbon.
Click the Protect Document tool (Word 2007) or the Restrict Editing tool (Word 2010 and later versions) at the right side of the ribbon. Word displays a task pane at the right side of your document.
At the bottom of the task pane, click Stop Protection. If your document was protected without a password, then you are done; the document is unprotected. If there was a password applied, however, Word displays the Unprotect Document dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Unprotect Document dialog box.

Enter your password in the dialog box.
Click on OK. The document is unprotected.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (6057) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Turning Off Document Protection.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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