I made a form that has check boxes as a step by step guide. there are also dos commands that you copy out of the word file to run. except each time you want to copy one of them you have to unlock the document and then relock it to continue checking the boxes. I have tried various protection settings and other things but I cant seem to find a way to have check boxes and select able text live happily with one another. Is there a way to do this?

Restrict Editing - no editing - with exceptions for your checkboxes if you want them to be able to check the boxes. You want Content Control checkboxes, not legacy checkboxes. You do not want to protect for filling in forms.

will content control check boxes work back to word 03?

No, Word 2003 converts content controls to either plain text or a field.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

No, they will not work in menu versions of Word.

Word 3 was for the Macintosh in the early '90s. Word 2003 is Word 11. I know, it is arcane, stupid and confusing. Thank you MS marketing.

To use legacy form fields and protection for forms, any area you want people to type in has to be in a separate Section. Insert a continuous section break. Let Word know you do not want that section to be protected.
Sections / Headers and Footers in Microsoft Word 2007-2013
Using Forms in Microsoft Word

Alternatively, if the amount people have to write is not huge, you can insert a form text field that they can type in. A further refinement would be on-exit macros for your checkboxes that enable/disable the related text fields depending on the checked state of the checkbox. That depends on the people using your form enabling macros.