How to lock a file

satimis · #1 9th March 2005, 03:48 PM

Hi folks,

How to lock a file of following format

1) .txt or .doc
2) .html or .htm

so that it can be read only. Copying its content with copy/paste command is not allowed, nor duplicating it. Kindy advise.

TIA

B.R.
satimis

Quella · #2 9th March 2005, 04:11 PM

The only way I can see this working would be with a tool like Acrobat Reader, or some for of file encryption. If the text can be displayed on the screen, it is very dificult to prevent someone from scraping it or snaping an image of the files contents.

Just my 2 cents

satimis · #3 9th March 2005, 11:46 PM

Hi Quella,

Tks for your advice.

Quote:

The only way I can see this working would be with a tool like Acrobat Reader,.....

You can select the contedt in .pdf file.

I came across such files on web. I was not allowed to high-light their contents and paste the same to another file. I'm interested to learn how to do it.

However I can print such a file as a .pdf file. So if we can stop this last job then the file shall become read only. To touch it is impossible.

satimis

Quella · #4 10th March 2005, 11:49 AM

There are ways of protecting a PDF (not the best security in the world mind you) so that people can't select, print, etc the document. These are user settable, but noting really prevents one from taking a screen shot (capture) and printing it out. If the content can be displayed, it can be gotten some how, it just depends on the amount of time and trouble people desire to spend on it.

Quella

Jman · #5 11th March 2005, 06:41 AM

You can password protect a Word doc (I think) but this doesn't allow the kind of read only access you want.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quella

it can be gotten some how, it just depends on the amount of time and trouble people desire to spend on it.

Quella

This is true of any lock.

james_in_denver · #6 11th March 2005, 08:25 AM

It's really pointless, if you can display a doc, then you can screen-grab it or print it.

(google "xwd" to see what I mean).

If you are that concerned about the contents of a file, then perhaps you are just better off "read" protecting the document.

If you are talking about embedding that feature in a browswer, then yes, there are some features that prevent you from dowloading/linking to the href, but once displayed, I don't there there is any means available to prevent a "screen-dump" or "screen print" from capturing the contents of the document.