I am trying to lock or password protect my auto-text in a template that I just created. We have multiple people in our office using the same templates on a cloud based server and people are constantly editing things, and saving over certain areas of our original that we do not want them to be. Is there a way to put a lock for only authorized users or a way to password protect these auto-text entries? I understand that I can restrict editing to only certain formats or to allow people to only do certain things, but if I do this they can still edit the auto-text entries once they have been generated as they are not part of the original document.

Thanks

Is this a true template file (with the *.dot extension)?

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

You can make the template read only. I'm not sure what putting a password on it will do for people creating documents based on it, though.

Stefan, only a template can hold AutoText or other BBs.

You are right, of course.

I guess I was really asking if the template is being used as a template or if it is being opened as a file and then renamed (changing the file type in the process). Not so likely a scenario, perhaps.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

The file is being opened and then renamed. However, in the process of so many different people using the same template, there are errors that occur (i.e. someone opens the file, does not rename it, goes through their editing and then saves over the file). So, what I am looking for is a way to bypass this human error. It does not necessarily need to be a password or a lock, any suggestions are welcome.

So users open the template file (meaning that the file name displays on the status bar in Word), manually click File | Save As and type in a new document name? That isn't the best way to make use of templates (*.dot files).

It would be more efficient to use the template properly, which means that you let it create an untitled document. The first time you save you will then be prompted to supply a name for it. This is the way templates are meant to work, but I don't know if they work that way in a cloud storage environment.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Right, I understand the way that it is supposed to work. Nonetheless, this is somewhat of a new process to everyone in our company and I am looking for a way to guarantee that they cannot make this mistake, as this is the third time I have had to rebuild these templates and it is quite a hassle.

On a separate note, if you right-click and open the template it opens the file with the files actual name (i.e. Master Spec - XYZ) versus when you double-click to open the file it opens as an untitled document. Is this a setting, or just the way that Word works? If it is a setting, how would you set it to always open as an untitled document?

Thanks

First, consider getting people to actually use it as a template. This does not involve opening it. Rather a new document is created based on the template.
Templates in Microsoft Word

It would certainly be possible to put a macro in the template that forced this, but then you have the problem that users do not have to allow macros to run. I can imagine a number of methods, but the one I started with is the most practical from my point of view.

One possibility would be to mark the file as Read-Only in the Windows properties of the file. This is done from Windows, not Word.