Word form protection

[csou5555]

I am new here and am looking for some help.  I have a word document, which contains links to other portions of the document in the table of content, forms, and drop-downs.  I would like to protect the forms on the document.  However, whenever I select "protect...forms", the links in the table of content are deactiviated and become useless.  Is there any way for me to have both items working in the same document?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Flame]

Would you like to just password protect the whole document itself you that you cannot open or modify the document without the password?

Flame

[csou5555]

The form is to be used to send to groups in the company when they need to put in a service request, so the form can't be p/w protected for modification.  I really need to keep the drop-downs, but my boss wants me to keep the links in the table of contents too - so I'm at a loss.

[Rob Pomeroy]

Are you trying to do too much with one document?  A protected form should really be used for collection of data, shouldn't it?  What are the links for?

How good is your Visual Basic programming?  You could certainly provide an alternative solution to this problem.  You can use the Control Toolbox to insert buttons and whatnot on your form, that will still work when the form is protected.  You could use these elements to assist in leaping about within the file, or doing anything else that is possible with Visual Basic.

[csou5555]

Thanks for the help everyone - FYI - I was able to do it using the following:

1. protect forms via the padlock icon on the FORMS TOOLBAR rather than the TOOLS menu.
2. if 1 doesn't work, then try putting your document into sections (Insert \ Break \ Section Break) and from the menu TOOLS / PROTECT DOCUMENT click FORMS and then also click SECTIONS then untick the section that contains your TOC.

[Rob Pomeroy]

Well I didn't know that!  Thanks for feeding back.