I have a document that has formatting restrictions (e.g., no highlighting of text) applied when opened in Word 2007 but not when opened in Word 2010 (on a different user's computer). In 2007, choosing the Developer ribbon and clicking Protect Document shows the following permissions in the right panel: "This document is protected from unintentional editing. You may freely edit in this region. You may format text only with certain styles." In 2010, choosing the Developer ribbon and clicking Restrict Editing shows that no restrictions are applied. I need to be able to work on the document in Word 2007 and be able to highlight text. Any suggestions?

I do not have an answer but do have some clarification questions:

By highlighting, I think you mean selecting. (Highlighting is a permanent background color change.)

The purpose of the editing restriction is to keep you from doing that which you wish to do. If you have the right to do it, why not simply turn off the editing restrictions?

There a button at the bottom of the Protection pane to stop protection.

Note that Word displays yellow highlighting for unprotected areas in a document to which the "No changes (Read only)" editing restriction has been applied.

I do recall that editing restriction/document protection was buggy in some recent version of Word, but I don't remember any details. I'll have to do some testing tomorrow...

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional