Is there a way to lock a pdf file so that someone can't edit or delete the file without a password?

I have these older Parts manuals that we keep on file but I want to ensure that they can't be edited or deleted by accident.

Any suggestions.

I think that you can do this with the Adobe PDF full product.

However - It won't stop people circumnavigating your lock by opening the PDF's with another programme (Hrumph - Design review - shh)

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http://www.cadsetterout.com
@CadSetterOut

I think that you can do this with the Adobe PDF full product.

However - It won't stop people circumnavigating your lock by opening the PDF's with another programme (Hrumph - Design review - shh)

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http://www.cadsetterout.com
@CadSetterOut

I think I was securing mine will full version Adobe, and Comodo Signature. I have not use it for some time though, so I'm a bit rusty.

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John Evans
Autodesk Certified Professional
http://designandmotion.net

I am able to stop anyone from editing the file with Adobe but I cannot find a way in windows to keep the file from being deleted. Someone can just up and delete the file and then its gone if done over the network. I of course have backups but I don't want to try and make sure every file is always there.

I really want windows to have a file password protection that would limit someone from deleting the file. I have tried to do this with Security in Windows but for some reason I cannot get it to work

Maybe I'm missing something, but could you not apply a read-only right to the folder that contains the pdfs? Or lockout the network drive to everyone but you?

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Steve Bahr...since 1962.

There are multiple versions that are contained in each folder. I only want to lock down the "old" versions in the folder from editing. Locking out the network drive will not work in our situation.

You need to use Windows user policy on the file. User can only read the file but nothing else. Only Admin, Owner and System has full access to file.

Oh how I am dumbfounded by how complicated Windows sometimes makes simple problems

You need to create a PDF/A document which is intended for long term archival that does not allow editing. I use the free PDFCreator (http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/).

Here's a bit about the PDF/A document format: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF/A


Of course, this doesn't prevent someone from deleting or over-writing the file... just editing. You should use Vault.

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Website: CADToolbox.com
Twitter: @cadtoolbox

I never thought of using Vault. We might be implementing it here this year so that is an option.

I agree....anything I need protecting I just keep checked out to myself within our Vault. Does not matter what type of file it is.
In the "free" version of the Vault I do this my having it physically checked out on my machine. We are going up in version of the Vault next year (Maybe Pro) and I am hoping there is a method of doing this without having to have a physical copy of the files on my station.

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Todd Hudgins