If youāre sharing a document and you want to avoid changes being made to it, you can force Word to prompt the user to open the document as read only when they open the file. Weāll show you how to enable this setting.
Open the file you want opened as read only and click the āFileā tab.
On the backstage screen, click āSave Asā in the list of items on the left.
On the āSave Asā screen, select a place on the left. If the folder in which you want to save your document is listed under āCurrent Folderā or āRecent Foldersā, click that folder.
If the folder you want is not listed under āCurrent Folderā or āRecent Foldersā, click the āBrowseā button under the list of āRecent Foldersā on the right.
On the āSave Asā dialog box, navigate to the desired folder, if necessary, and change the filename if you want to save the file under a different name. Select āGeneral Optionsā from the āToolsā drop-down menu.
On the āGeneral Optionsā dialog box, select the āRead-only recommendedā check box so there is a check mark in the box and click āOKā.
Click āSaveā to save the document with this setting.
This procedure also works in Excel. The āGeneral Optionsā dialog box is a bit different, but the option is the same.
Anyone who opens the file in Word or Excel will now be prompted to choose āOpen as Read-Onlyā.
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