This modification is not allowed because the selection is locked :s

Anonymous
2010-02-13T21:14:19+00:00
Please check out Microsoft<br> Word message: "You can't make this change because this selection is locked."  for the latest information on this topic.

Hiya.

So I keep getting the above message only on my Microsoft WORD Document. When I open the Document everything is locked - I cannot click anywhere.

Initially I thought it was beacuse I was using the trail version, so I installed a full version of Office Home and Student 2007 (My sister lend me her disk, it had 2 download licenses remaining, so I used one). Everything else: Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote is working fine. But the WORD document is still locked.

I would really appriciate your help.

Thanks.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2010-02-13T21:37:52+00:00

Hi. I cracked it, and thought i would share it with you.

All I had to do was to close the document, write click on properties > Advance and uncheck 'File is ready for archiving' and 'Allow this document to have file indexed in addition to ....' > click on ok and it worked.

ta mch.

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 279.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2011-08-24T12:46:01+00:00

    When you view the file list in Windows Explorer (My Computer), right-click on the filename and choose Properties, then click on Advanced... In the Advanced Attributes dialog, clear the check box for "File is ready for archiving."

    Note that there is no guarantee that this will work. If you are unable to edit any documents, then the strong likelihood is that you have not activated the product or have a trial version that has expired.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-08-24T10:53:15+00:00

    hican u explain more clearly for me~i cant find it~~~where can find the properties???and click where to unlock it???

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-07-05T11:52:30+00:00

    I had the same problem. Turns out that my free trial was up so until I have the money to pay for the full version I found a quick + easy way to edit my documents.

     When you pull up My Documents + go to open the one you want DON'T double click it, RIGHT CLICK on it instead + choose Open W/. You can use regular WordPad or if you have another program. 

    I know plain wordpad doesn't have all the bells + whistles but it gets the job done for now. Just a quick fix, hope it helps.

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-06-16T14:21:09+00:00

    I encountered this same issue, but the File Is Ready for Archiving solution did not work.

    It appears that in my case, the document had already been archived so I required an additional step to resolve the locked selection. I had to click on the Windows Button > Prepare > and unclick the Mark As Final option. That freed up all of the locked ribbon buttons as well as the document text for editing.

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