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Is there a way to lock certain parts of a document but leave the rest unlocked?

New Here ,
Jan 15, 2013 Jan 15, 2013

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I want my employees to be able to edit certain parts of a document but want to be able to lock parts so they can not change the terms.

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Security digital signatures and esignatures

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LEGEND ,
Jan 15, 2013 Jan 15, 2013

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Not possible. Security and encryption on a PDF file cannot be applied on a per-page basis.

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LEGEND ,
Jan 15, 2013 Jan 15, 2013

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What sort of editing will they be doing?

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New Here ,
Jan 15, 2013 Jan 15, 2013

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Filling in Clients names and stuff particular to their project

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LEGEND ,
Jan 15, 2013 Jan 15, 2013

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So is this a form that you want to be able to lock certain fields so a user can no longer intereact with them, or something else?

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New Here ,
Jan 15, 2013 Jan 15, 2013

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yes

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LEGEND ,
Jan 15, 2013 Jan 15, 2013

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OK. There are several ways to do this and which you choose depends on how difficult it should be to make changes. The simplest method is to set the fields in question to read-only. This will prevent users from interacting with the fields, but a knowledgeable user with Acrobat would be able to alter field values relatively easily. It's possible via scripting to flatten certain fields so their appearances get converted to regular page contents, but someone with Acrobat would be able to edit the text. If you were to apply security restrictions after flattening, this would prevent an Acrobat user from being able to make changes to the page contents, but it's relatively easy to remove such restrictions. So, what will your employees be using to work with the form and how secure does it need to be?

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New Here ,
Jan 15, 2013 Jan 15, 2013

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They will use either excel or word. I am a creative so this is really out of my field and need all the advice I can get.I would do this all in InDesign if it were up to me.

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LEGEND ,
Jan 15, 2013 Jan 15, 2013

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When I asked about a form, I meant an interactive PDF form. You can create one in Acrobat by adding the form fields to a PDF that something like InDesign creates. Users of a PDF form would typically open it in Adobe Reader, fill-in the form, and save it. You mentioned Excel or Word, which now makes me think that you're not talking about a PDF form. Can you clarify?

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New Here ,
Jan 15, 2013 Jan 15, 2013

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Basically, I need to create forms for a mechanical company. It will include the projects, terms and conditions. I am creating this (it is currently an Excel file) and I can have the employees use whatever I want them to. I need them to be able to get them ready for clients and make the changes just not to certain parts that I want locked. So in your opinion, What should I do/use?

Like I said, I am a creative and this is a new world for me. Thanks so much, by the way, for your help.

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LEGEND ,
Jan 15, 2013 Jan 15, 2013

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OK, you might be able to use a PDF form. As I mentioned before, the easiest way to lock fields is to set them to read-only. You can do this before you send the form out to the people sho should not be able to change it. It can be set up so that it just involves a click of a button or bookmark, which would trigger a simple script that locks the fields. Whether this is sufficient for your needs I can't say, but you have other options as I mentioned before.

If you have the latest version of InDesign, you can author the document there and even create the interactive form fields in InDesign, and then export to PDF. You'd then add the script in Acrobat and the form could be ready to go. You might want to simply include the text you don't want changed in the InDesign document as regular text so that it wouldn't have to be in a form field that then gets locked. It's hard for me to say what might be best without knowing more details.

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New Here ,
Jul 11, 2019 Jul 11, 2019

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ok - not ideal.  But we have the same issue.  We want out techs to complete customer and model information and then the client the remainder.  You can lock fields after they have been filled - but then why make them fields just use the word doc as a template for the form.  What we did - was we had the tech fill out the model, SN, etc and then with the client complete the rest of the information.  At the end of the visit she will print the file to PDF which locks down everything and removed all form fields - so what is - is.

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New Here ,
May 25, 2021 May 25, 2021

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Only 8 years late here but YES there is. It works great. I used it for a digital copy of my book Servant Leadership Manaul: Education, Assessment, Training, and Organizational Development Activities by Daniel G. J. Kuchinka. See this for simple instructions: https://acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/acrobat/how-to/create-fillable-pdf-forms-creator.html

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Community Expert ,
May 25, 2021 May 25, 2021

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This solution was discussed above.

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