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Unable to Stop Protection on Some MS Word Documents

Anonymous
2020-06-17T19:25:18+00:00

Update: Here is the issue again but it shows more clearly what is wrong. I protected then unprotected the document several times. Each time I protected it, it asked me to provide a password as if it had not been protected. I did, then I unprotected it using that password but I was unable to save it. It says that it is read only. When I check the properties, it is not read only. What is the problem?

I have Microsoft - Office Home and Student 2016. It will not let me un-restrict certain documents. There is no stop restriction button on the bottom of some documents and other editing restrictions are different on different documents.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Stefan Blom 339.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-06-18T00:24:08+00:00

    From where did you open the document? Word may force Protected view on documents opening from an internet location. (Internet locations include mail attachments, of course.)

    Another possibility is that the document opened in Read Mode (sometimes called "reading layout view"). You can prevent that from happening by clearing the option to "Open e-mail attachments and other uneditable files in reading view" at File > Options > General.

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  2. Stefan Blom 339.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-06-17T21:52:19+00:00

    Perhaps the document opened as read-only?

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  3. Stefan Blom 339.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-06-17T19:29:21+00:00

    In the left-most screen shot, protection hasn't been enabled, which is why you can't turn it off. I can tell because neither "Limit formatting to a selection of styles" nor "Allow only this type of editing in the document" is selected, so no protection is in effect. What makes you think that the document is protected for editing?

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-06-17T23:04:39+00:00

    That's my question--why did it open in read only? I even right clicked and checked the properties before opening it the second time. It wasn't set to read only. So, what in Office made it read only? I don't want to do this again with another document.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-06-17T20:07:23+00:00

    Thank you. That worked but why was it read only before I protected it? I had to protect it to un-protect it to be able to edit the document.

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