I recently began issuing an email newsletter. I put the letter together in Word, then save it to a PDF so it cannot be easily tampered with. Problem is, my newsletter contains color photos and detailed graphics and I don’t much care for the quality of PDF.

While noodling around in Word I came across options for “Whiteboard”, one of which allows the whiteboard to be “locked”. I assume this locks the file so that it cannot be changed, much the same as a PDF. If I’m correct, this would be a viable option for my newsletter – I could retain the quality of the original Word doc while preserving its integrity.

All I could find in Help regarding whiteboards is how to add pages to a whiteboard and how to lock it.

My question is how the heck do you create a whiteboard to begin with? Second, does the “lock” feature on the whiteboard do what I think it does?

(Bill really aggravates me sometimes.)

My MS Word 97 doesn't have a "Whiteboard" option, so I searched in the Microsoft Office homepage for this. This link is to the page I found referring to "Whiteboard" as a "Microsoft Office 3rd Party Download".

Real Pen, Inc. RealPen

Real Pen, Inc. RealPen
RealPen uses an advanced software algorithm to extract handwritings from video images. Just point your web cam at a whiteboard or piece and paper and write normally with a real pen. RealPen will capture just the writing and display it over any window. RealPen is useful whenever you communicate with others through a document, especially during PowerPoint slideshows.

RealPen is a form of electronic whiteboard.

I have used a "Whiteboard" with Microsoft Net Meeting, but I don't know if this is the same thing. From your description of what you want to do, this doesn't sound like it will accomplish your task.

Have you thought of just saving your Word file with a password and allowing only "Read Only" access to your newsletter subscribers? For those who don't have MS Word on their computers, they can download and install a free MS Word Viewer program from Microsoft:

Download Microsoft Office Converters and Viewers

I hope this is of at least some help.

Dwight

Thanks, Dwight! You've answered my question. I checked out the link you provided and did some searching of my own which confirmed what you've said. Whiteboard is definitely not the application I'm looking for.

Unless I'm mistaken (which is certainly possible) saving as a 'read only' will not protect photos from being lifted from the doc - it will only keep someone from altering the file and saving it under another name. Of course they could just as easily print off the PDF version, scan the photos and do whatever with them. Anyhow, thanks again for you help!

Mike

You should be able to prevent changes to any Word or Excel document you create if your O/S is at least Win98SE (earlier is possible, I just don't have access to them). I posted the information I believe you're looking for in "Computer Resources" in response to Sarah51's question about Icon Passwords. Just click HERE; I hope this is useful information.

Great answer from sonnet26. One thing to keep in mind. Any image that is displayed on a monitor can be copied with a screen shot using the "Print Scrn" key. Once the screen shot is made, it can be opened in any graphics program and edited or saved.

There is really no way to prevent that except to not put your image into a computer file.

I hope this has been helpful.

Dwight

That would help with copy/paste stealing of your work.