Microsoft Word protecting styles using VBA and the "Protect Document" feature.

Question

I am trying to limit the styles a user can use in a Word 2003 document. I am doing this by using the "Protect Document" feature. For my situation I may need to use VBA but I am not sure.

After I protect the document, I can no longer apply a style to just a single word without it changing the style for the whole paragraph.

For example if I tried to change the word 'house' to a new style in the sentence below...

There is a house on the hill.

Then the whole sentence would become that style, not just the word house. Does anyone know how to get around this using VBA or know what I am doing wrong?

Thanks!

Answer 1

In the Styles and Formatting pane, look at the styles that have the letter 'a' next to them (instead of the paragraph mark ¶). Those are character styles. For example, the Emphasis style applies italics, and the Strong style applies bold. You can define other character styles for your own templates; just change the "Style type" dropdown in the New Style dialog from Paragraph to Character.

In the Protect Document pane, after checking the "Limit formatting" box, click the Settings link below it and choose the styles you want to allow. You can choose character styles there as well as paragraph styles. The users can apply either kind of style, as long as it's a style in the list you allowed.