Before you share an electronic copy of a Microsoft Office document with other people, you can use the Mark as Final command to make the document read-only and prevent changes to the document. When a document is marked as final, typing, editing commands, and proofing marks are disabled or turned off and the document becomes read-only.
Additionally, the Status property of the document is set to Final. The Mark as Final command helps you communicate that you are sharing a completed version of a document. It also helps prevent reviewers or readers from making inadvertent changes to the document.
Note: The Mark as Final command is not a security feature. Anyone who receives an electronic copy of a document that has been marked as final can edit that document by removing Mark as Final status from the document.
Warning! Documents that have been marked as final in a 2007 Microsoft Office system program will not be read-only if they are opened in earlier versions of Microsoft Office programs.
Marking a document as final has the following results:
- The document is changed to read-only, and some buttons on the ribbon are unavailable.
- A Marked As Final banner appears at the top of the document.
- A Permissions flag on the Info page of the Backstage view indicates that the document has been marked as final.
- A Marked As Final Icon appears on the status bar.
Further changes cannot be made to the document by you or anyone else without first removing the Marked As Final designation.
To mark a document as final
1. On the Info page of the Backstage view, click the Protect Document button, and then click Mark as Final.
2. In the Microsoft Word dialog box, click OK to acknowledge that the file will be marked as final and saved.
3. If a Microsoft Word message box informing you that the document has been marked as final appears, click OK.
You can select the Don’t Show This Message Again check box to prevent the message box from appearing when you mark documents as final in the future.
To remove the Marked As Final designation
- On the Marked as Final banner at the top of the document, click Edit Anyway.
- On the Info page of the Backstage view, click the Protect Document button, and then click Mark as Final.