Preclude editing and cut-n-paste from documents

[bluealhunter]

Might be a bit off-forum, (sorry) but I've been asked the following question and figured if I was asked maybe one of my colleagues have also. So...

"If one was to require .pdf files not be part of a contract deliverable, are there some other programs (besides Adobe Acrobat) that would create file types that would preclude the file from being edited, cut-n-pasted from, etc.?"

Thanks

 

[DPlank]

AFAIK, you can cut n paste from pdfs.

Also AFAIK, you can't make the files do this in Office.

There are options in Lotus Notes which prevent cut and pasting emails, but these options also prevent forwarding the email etc.

Cheers,
Dave

Probably the only Test Analyst Manager on Tek-Tips...therefore whatever it was that went wrong, I'm to blame...

animadverto vos in Abyssus!

Take a look at Forum1393!

 

[macropod]

DPlank,

PDF files can have their security set to prevent copying. However, if the user can still print the PDF, they could then scan & OCR it, then edit the result. Alternatively, Alt-Print Screen would create an image that could be given the OCR treatment.

Although you could use macros in Word to prevent copying & printing, those are easily bypassed.

I suppose you could convert a document to a multi-page TIFF, but even that could still be OCR'd.

In Summary: If you distribute a file, there's no practical way of stopping someone else from making an editable copy.

Cheers