Locking Paragraphs So They Cannot be Edited

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 16, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021


Karen edits environmental reports and develops templates for them. She wonders if she can lock boilerplate text, only a few paragraphs, so that the user of the template cannot modify that text. Karen doesn't want to restrict writing or password protect the template; she just wants to lock particular paragraphs.

There are three ways you can approach this task. First, the absolute foolproof way to include the text is to simply take a picture of it using a screen-capture program and then include the picture in your document. Someone could obviously delete the image, but they cannot change text that is no longer text.

The second approach is to use one of the controls available through the Developer tab of the ribbon:

  1. Select the paragraphs you want to protect.
  2. Display the Developer tab of the ribbon.
  3. In the Controls group, click the Group tool and then, from the resulting options, click Group.

That's it. The text in the selected paragraphs cannot be edited. You can later edit the paragraphs, if you desire, by again selecting the paragraphs and then choosing to ungroup them. (That's an option available when you click the Group tool.)

The third approach is more traditional, and it should be used if you want to protect the text using a password. (That way you can, at a later point, unprotect the text so you can update it in some way.) Basically, what you do is to insert Continuous section breaks before and after the text you want to protect, and then use the tools provided in Word to protect just those sections of the document. The detailed instructions for this approach can be found in this WordTip.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13759) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021.

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Catching Single-Letter Spelling Errors

There have been times when I've reviewed my writing and found lots of "lone letters," detached by a single space from the ...

Discover More

Printing Rows Conditionally

Need to only print out certain rows from your data? It's easy to do if you apply the filtering or sorting techniques ...

Discover More

Summing Only Cells Containing Formulas

If you want to figure out the sum of all cells that contain formulas, there are a couple of ways you can go about it. ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 2013 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access) with VBA programming, using it for writing macros, automating Office applications, and creating custom applications. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2013 today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Using Optional Hyphens

Adding hyphens to your document can affect the way in which Word wraps text from one line to the next. Optional hyphens, ...

Discover More

Removing Breaks

Word allows you to add several types of "breaks" into your document. If you later want to remove any of them, you can use ...

Discover More

Lines Breaking between Double Spaces

Some people like to have one space between sentences, while others prefer two. For those in the latter camp, you may ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 7 + 9?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.