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Document Security
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Document Security |
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Document Security |
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While Pathagoras does not provide its own document security features, it lets you easily take advantage of the document security inherent in Word and thereby add a tangible level of document security to your assembled product.
There are many layers to the protection that you can assign to a specific document or to a group of documents within a folder. This is a non-exhaustive list of document security options that are readily available to you:
| • | Make the document read only. |
| • | 'Password' the document. You can 'protect' (lock) a document against changes by unauthorized users. |
| • | Convert a document to pdf or other formats. |
| • | Prevent unauthorized access to folders and drives on your computer and network. |
| • | Third party providers provide even more enhanced document security (encryption) that will keep eyes off the document or minimally prevent others from changing it. |
It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss all possible security options. We do, however, invite you to Word's Help system and to the Internet for fuller discussions on the subject of document security. In those resources you can read about what works, what doesn't, the limitations of each, and techniques by which you can enhance protection for a document, a folder or an entire system against unauthorized access/manipulation.
Enhanced document 'protection' with Pathagoras:
Securing or locking down (Microsoft calls it "protecting") a particular document to prevent unauthorized editing is accomplish via the Tools element of the Word toolbar. To manually protect a document, clicking the "Protect Document" item in the list and follow the prompts.
Pathagoras can enhance this protection by automating it for you. To automatically protect a document after it has been assembled, display the All Settings screen. Click the Document Assembly tab and click the Lock Document box in the upper left.
When you check the Lock Document button, the document will be protected against manual changes. There are 3 exception to this:
| 1. | You can insert another clause to the document via the Document Assembly|Clause Selection Screen |
| 2. | You can insert another clause to the document via a DropDown List. |
| 3. | You can replace [variables] via the Instant Database screen. |
When you perform any action described in 1, 2 or 3 above, Pathagoras will temporarily 'unprotect' the document so it can perform the action requested. It then immediately re-protects the document.
Marking specific sections for protection.
Sometimes you may wish to protect only a specified section of your document. Collaborative editing efforts might dictate that easy access be given to certain sections, while other sections need to be 'off-limits'. Pathagoras can help there. Just mark the 'source documents' with "#BEGIN#" and "#END#" (plain text) markers where you want to allow editing. When locking takes place, Pathagoras will scan the document and keep unlocked those sections you have indicated.
CAVEAT: As of this writing, locking is a single level of security which makes it more difficult for a user to edit the document. These is not presently any 'passwording' required to allow editing. Passwording will be added shortly as testing is completed. (So be aware that it would be pretty easy right now for a knowledgeable user to unlock the protected document.) (Even when passwording is added, a password will not be required for the automatic unlocking and relocking described in 1, 2 and 3 above.)
Print after assembly:
This is a quasi security device. Its primary purpose is to automating the printing of your document after you have replaced variables with 'live' values. However, you can designate that the document automatically immediately print to an image (typically a pdf file) after this even, and that way, no further local editing is possible.
To set up Print After Assembly, click Utilities/Settings|All Settings. Select the Instant Database tab. Select the Miscellaneous tab. Select the choices, including designation of the printer to use following an assembly an application of Instant Database data.
======Extra text. To be removed when editing complete==========
(The document can also be easily unlocked by the user if the user knows the 'protection' password, but that is a standard Word function.)
It will not be possible to insert a clause using Alt-G (and that is only because the document is locked).
As to the automatic print after making the variable-with-value replacements via IDB, I programmed that as well. (The other user was not quite as interested in that.) You can, in the Instant Database settings screen, tell Pathagoras to automatically print the document immediately after replacements are made. If this auto-print is chosen, you are then given the opportunity to select whether the program prints to the Windows 'default' printer or a designated printer (which can be the pdf or any other pre-designated printer).