Problems with Word 2000 Form

[stars]

I created a template which is a protected form for one of my users to create job procedures. Because these procedures need to be accessed by our programmers periodically, they are kept on a department network drive. To protect against editing, there is a password to open and modify with read-only recommended checked.

Last week, one of supervisors noticed that she was able to open several documents w/o a password (using her computer). She opened several others and was asked for a password. When she checked the document, the passwords were in place. However, when the person who originated the documents opened the very same documents, she was asked for a password each time!

I'm not sure what could be causing this to happen unless there is some corruption in the template, or a virus. Anyone have any suggestions as to the cause??

Regards,
Stars

 

[Doroth]

This may be a bit off the wall, and basic, but I will put it out there as a possibility. I am not sure how the supervisor accesses the files so this may not be at all correct. But, I have come up with one possibility.

Suppose the supervisor has saved some of these forms to her computer before. Suppose she opens the forms through Word and uses the most recently accessed files list that is on the file menu. If she had the version that was saved on her computer opened more recently than the one saved on the server, it could be unprotected because it was a duplicate copy that had been unprotected.

Another possibility is that somebody forgot to re-protect it, and then the document was re-protected by one of those who found the problem.

I am thinking really basic here so please forgive me if you have thought these through already.