Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Protect Your Document Templates.

Protect Your Document Templates

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 2, 2023)

As you work with templates, you begin to realize that they are very valuable tools. As such, they should be protected—particularly if other people use your computer. To protect a document template from being changed or deleted, you should make the template file read-only. This is easily done from within Windows (not Word) by following these steps:

Make sure you don't have the document template open in Word. (If there is any doubt, simply close Word.)
Use My Computer to locate the template file you want to protect.
Right-click on the name of the template file you want to protect. Word displays a Context menu.
Choose Properties from the Context menu. Word displays a Properties dialog box for the file.
Click your mouse on the General tab, if necessary. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The General tab of the Properties dialog box.

Make sure the Read-only check box is selected.
Click on OK.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (504) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Protect Your Document Templates.

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...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Moving Footnote Text into the Document

Need to move the contents of a footnote up into the main body of your document? You can use normal editing techniques to ...

Discover More

Adding a Calendar to a Worksheet

Using a specialized calendar control is a great way to let users add dates to a worksheet. Unfortuantely, Microsoft ...

Discover More

Changing One of Three Fonts

Once you are done formatting your document, you may want to make changes to part of that formatting without messing up ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2021 or Microsoft 365. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word Step by Step today!

More WordTips (menu)

Managing Corporate Templates

Templates are used to store styles and lots of other customizations that affect how you use Word. On a single-user ...

Discover More

Recovering Macros and AutoText Entries from Normal.dot

Many of your custom configurations of Word—most notably macros and AutoText entries—are stored in the ...

Discover More

Creating a Letterhead Template

Word is often used to write all sorts of letters. You may want to create a template that makes creating your letters ...

Discover More

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.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 3 + 1?

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 menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.