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Exporting/Publishing PDF's with Restricted Access

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    Exporting/Publishing PDF's with Restricted Access

    I have a number of workbooks in my organisation that I would like to protect such that users within my company have the ability to change, copy and export the documents.
    Currently I have no real restrictions on the documents, providing the above permissions to anyone who can access the documents, which is clearly not ideal or secure.
    As such, I have been looking to implement the restricted access features built into excel, however I have hit a number of snags.
    The main restriction is I am unable to export/publish the documents as PDF's without removing restrictions. Both the "Publish as PDF or XPS" command and the "Save-As PDF" features don't seem to work on restricted documents. The only workaround I have noticed is using a PDF printer, however this isn't all that practical with the way we use our documents.
    Supplementary to the above, providing someone with the "Full Access" status allows them the ability to remove permissions themselves, which limits the security of the document. And the "Change" status is further restrictive as it limits additional features such as the "Change Picture" feature.

    Are there any other practical workarounds to the above? The only thing I can think of is creating my own restrictions through macro's (which themselves require passwords to access and change), however this would only be practical in documents that require macro's in order to function.

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    Re: Exporting/Publishing PDF's with Restricted Access

    What specific restrictions are you looking to impose?

    Various solutions depending on your version of office, your operating environment (Windows, Office Web, Mac) and if the files are stored locally or on the cloud. Please provide further info and can advise further
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    Re: Exporting/Publishing PDF's with Restricted Access

    Thanks for the reply.
    Best case scenario would be complete restriction (i.e. document can't even be opened) for every user that does not fall within a specified list.
    The users that have access should effectively have no limitations in the use of the workbook (i.e. function like an unrestricted document) with the exception of removing the restrictions.

    Everyone in my organisation make use of windows devices that have Office 365 for business (2021 update). All our documents are stored on a local server.

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    Re: Exporting/Publishing PDF's with Restricted Access

    the easiest way to restrict that is the access to the folder being limited permissions, rather than anything in excel

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    Re: Exporting/Publishing PDF's with Restricted Access

    Quote Originally Posted by davsth View Post
    the easiest way to restrict that is the access to the folder being limited permissions, rather than anything in excel
    This still wouldn't prevent documents from being intentionally or accidentally distributed from someone with access.
    And in any case, this is already in part implemented as our server access is restricted to people in our organisation.

    As an additional note, we are a small team (3 at the moment), so the solution won't need to cater for a large number of users.

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    Re: Exporting/Publishing PDF's with Restricted Access

    Thanks for clarification Vixyl.

    Unfortunately I don't think there is an out the box solution within Excel that will meet your specific needs.

    Options may be
    • Custom solutions using VBA
    • Third party document control software
    • Using password encryption instead of restricted access. But obviously no security if password is leaked/hacked/disclosed

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