How to Make MS Word 2016 Docs Fillable but Not Editable

When you are working in an environment where you need to collect data using the form and you are using forms created in MS Word.

Sometimes during editing or entering data in the forms changes the layout of the form or sometimes users who are filling the forms removes any of the portions mistakenly or intentionally and makes things difficult.

So, the best solutions are to set up the forms and then lock the document so that no one can edit the document and it will remain as a fixed layout.

In this article, I will explain how we can make a word document as a fillable document or a form and lock it for further editing using the password. But before that, you need to enable developer tab in Word.

Make MS Word 2016 Docs Fillable Not Editable

Open MS Word and then click File option on the menu bar.

Then click Options.

In the options window, click on Customize Ribbon on the left-hand side. Now click the Developer checkbox to enable developer mode. Once done, click OK.

Now you can see that you will have a new tab Developer on the top.

In Developer mode, you will have forms related options available in the control section. You can use those controls to make your document as fillable. Once your form is ready you can protect the document.

To protect the data, select all of the data in the document by pressing Ctrl+A and then click Restrict Editing under the developer’s tab.

Under Restrict Editing options, check to Allow only this type of editing in the document and select Filling in forms from the drop-down list and then click Yes, Start Enforcing Protection.

It will ask you to enter the password. Enter your password two times for document protections. Click Ok.

Now your form is fillable but no one can change the document layout or add/remove options.