Lock Specified Sections of Word Documents in C#, VB.NET

Section protection allows users to be able to edit only the forms (if any) rather than any other content within it. When we protect a document, we can specify that the specific sections of the document be protected. This is useful in case we want to protect parts of a Word document.

Following code snippets demonstrate the same.

Step 1: Initialize an instance of Document class.

Document doc = new Document();

Step 2: Add two sections to the document.

Section s1 = doc.AddSection();
Section s2 = doc.AddSection();

Step 3: Append some text to section 1 and section 2.

s1.AddParagraph().AppendText("section 1");
s2.AddParagraph().AppendText("section 2");

Step 4: Protect the document with AllowOnlyFormFields protection type.

doc.Protect(ProtectionType.AllowOnlyFormFields, "123");

Step 5: Unprotect section 2.

s2.ProtectForm = false;

Step 6: Save the document.

doc.SaveToFile("Protect_Section.docx");

Result:

Run the program, we should get the file in which section 1 is protected to allow only editing in form fields while section 2 can be edited freely.

How to Lock Specified Sections of Word Documents in C#, VB.NET

Full Code:

[C#]

using Spire.Doc;
namespace LockSection
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Document doc = new Document();
            Section s1 = doc.AddSection();
            Section s2 = doc.AddSection();

            s1.AddParagraph().AppendText("section 1");
            s2.AddParagraph().AppendText("section 2");

            //protect all sections
            doc.Protect(ProtectionType.AllowOnlyFormFields, "123");
            //unprotect section 2
            s2.ProtectForm = false;

            doc.SaveToFile("Protect_Section.docx");
        }
    }
}

[VB.NET]

Imports Spire.Doc
Namespace LockSection
	Class Program
		Private Shared Sub Main(args As String())
			Dim doc As New Document()
			Dim s1 As Section = doc.AddSection()
			Dim s2 As Section = doc.AddSection()

			s1.AddParagraph().AppendText("section 1")
			s2.AddParagraph().AppendText("section 2")

			'protect all sections
			doc.Protect(ProtectionType.AllowOnlyFormFields, "123")
			'unprotect section 2
			s2.ProtectForm = False

			doc.SaveToFile("Protect_Section.docx")
		End Sub
	End Class
End Namespace