terry1966
Discussion
Question about read only documents with Microsoft Office
8 min read
leader2
Yes terry that video was excellent! Thank you so much for providing it and for all your information. You guys have been really helpful. Thanks again Lee, Tomk and terry. If anyone has anymore suggestions you can post them, but I think this is a great solution.
Lee
It might be best to download the user manual, as you get lost in instructional videos that involve doing more than a few things.
[Download PDF version] Foxit Reader 4.2 User Manual from this google page
Cheers,
Lee
[Download PDF version] Foxit Reader 4.2 User Manual from this google page
Cheers,
Lee
leader2
Thanks for your reply Lee. Actually I was able to understand the instructional video. I think I will be able to create PDF's now. I really appreciate you all's help in this. As always keep the suggestions coming. I am learning something and it will really help my mom.
leader2 
Doug
Good information and help from all of the above! Kudo's to all. 
The idea of creating a document that can be distributed widely to others, has been plagued by the ease with which the receiver can edit/change the content of the document, from the very beginning of electronically filed documents.
The problem has been obviously important in the business world, where price quotes, purchase orders, invoives, shipping authorizations, shipping labels, product descriptions, product warranty, return and service policies, legal and government documents, tax forms, trade-marked creations, original artwork and similar have real-world consequences.
Early on, Adobe became a major provider of .pdf (portable document file) scripting.
Adobe still enjoys the widest name-recognition in the industry for secure document publishing and distributing.
You have probably stumbled upon websites and download resources that have notation to the effect that you must have Adobe Reader to display a downloaded document file.
This is no longer true, since folks such as Nuance, Foxit, Primo and others provide Readers which are as good or better than what Adobe provides.
And then the second wave of .pdf handling utilities came on the scene as "editors" whereby documents could be created in .pdf format, and created .pdf documents could be changed/edited without spending the many hundreds of dollars required to purchase an Adobe application.
Suddenly, .pdf files were no longer invulnerable to being changed!
PrimoPDF, recommended by TomK, is an example from this second wave of applications.
PDF creaters then had to ratchet up the complexity of documents they wished to secure as immutable standards.
They did this with various levels of encryption, and with special features such as "water-marks".
And applications with encryption capability and water-marking capability generally cost more money than the average casual reader wishes to pay for the privilege of doodling or simple changing.
Thus for the time being, opportunistic quick-change artists, are stymied by either encryption coding or special features.
Unless your Mother expects to become involved in serious commercial distribution, the use of simple .pdf and/or creating a graphic image of the document (jpeg, tiff, etc.) should be enough to discourage the average opportunist.
However, determined would-be editors are going to find a way to defeat most of the lower-end .pdf and image files, using their own free applications.
For business, I own the relatively low-end Foxit Editor, and FoxitPhantom Standard, with which I can create encrypted and water-marked documents.
If some opportunistic customer tries to change the price structure or the terms of warranty on my business documents, it's going to be relatively obvious enough so that it won't stand up in Court…. unless they are really good and have high-end application utilities. And even then, it would be possible for me to demonstrate that the document was clearly outside of my ordinary common business practice, standards, and terms.
But your Mom may simply want to offer a work of art and personal expression and preserve it as a free distribution to friends and associates.
For that, a low-end .pdf and or graphic image should be sufficient.
The idea of creating a document that can be distributed widely to others, has been plagued by the ease with which the receiver can edit/change the content of the document, from the very beginning of electronically filed documents.
The problem has been obviously important in the business world, where price quotes, purchase orders, invoives, shipping authorizations, shipping labels, product descriptions, product warranty, return and service policies, legal and government documents, tax forms, trade-marked creations, original artwork and similar have real-world consequences.
Early on, Adobe became a major provider of .pdf (portable document file) scripting.
Adobe still enjoys the widest name-recognition in the industry for secure document publishing and distributing.
You have probably stumbled upon websites and download resources that have notation to the effect that you must have Adobe Reader to display a downloaded document file.
This is no longer true, since folks such as Nuance, Foxit, Primo and others provide Readers which are as good or better than what Adobe provides.
And then the second wave of .pdf handling utilities came on the scene as "editors" whereby documents could be created in .pdf format, and created .pdf documents could be changed/edited without spending the many hundreds of dollars required to purchase an Adobe application.
Suddenly, .pdf files were no longer invulnerable to being changed!
PrimoPDF, recommended by TomK, is an example from this second wave of applications.
PDF creaters then had to ratchet up the complexity of documents they wished to secure as immutable standards.
They did this with various levels of encryption, and with special features such as "water-marks".
And applications with encryption capability and water-marking capability generally cost more money than the average casual reader wishes to pay for the privilege of doodling or simple changing.
Thus for the time being, opportunistic quick-change artists, are stymied by either encryption coding or special features.
Unless your Mother expects to become involved in serious commercial distribution, the use of simple .pdf and/or creating a graphic image of the document (jpeg, tiff, etc.) should be enough to discourage the average opportunist.
However, determined would-be editors are going to find a way to defeat most of the lower-end .pdf and image files, using their own free applications.
For business, I own the relatively low-end Foxit Editor, and FoxitPhantom Standard, with which I can create encrypted and water-marked documents.
If some opportunistic customer tries to change the price structure or the terms of warranty on my business documents, it's going to be relatively obvious enough so that it won't stand up in Court…. unless they are really good and have high-end application utilities. And even then, it would be possible for me to demonstrate that the document was clearly outside of my ordinary common business practice, standards, and terms.
But your Mom may simply want to offer a work of art and personal expression and preserve it as a free distribution to friends and associates.
For that, a low-end .pdf and or graphic image should be sufficient.
leader2
Ok Doug thanks for your information. It was really helpful.
I told my mom about the suggestion and she was interested in using it for future projects.
Thanks to all to who contributed to this thread. I appreciate your help.
leader2 