As an attorney, you know the importance of discretion and confidentiality — and also the unexpected ways in which information can go astray. Imagine, for example, that another attorney sends you an e-mail message with a contract attached to it. You review the contract and send it, with comments, to your client for review. Unfortunately, you send it to the wrong e-mail address, or even worse, you accidentally send it back, with your confidential comments, to the attorney who sent it to you in the first place.

How can you help protect sensitive information?

Usually, sensitive information can only be controlled by limiting access to the networks or computers where it is stored. However, once that information is sent to another user (for example, another attorney), there are typically no electronic restrictions on who can view it or what can be done with it. This distribution of content easily allows sensitive information to reach people who were never intended to receive it.

Microsoft Office 2003 offers a new feature, Information Rights Management (IRM), that helps you prevent sensitive information from getting into the wrong hands. IRM essentially helps you control your files even after they have left your desktop.

 Note   You can use Information Rights Management to create content with restricted permission only in Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2003, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2003.

Creating content with restricted permission using IRM

IRM allows you to create a document, workbook, or presentation and restrict who has access to it. For example, you can create a document that can only be viewed by your client, your support staff, or by other attorneys in the office who are working on the same matter. In Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, you can restrict permission for documents, workbooks, and presentations on a per-user or per-document basis, using the access level method or the permission policy method.

Access levels

You can give a set of permissions to users or groups by assigning them access levels — Read, Change, or Full Control. (On the File menu, point to Permission, select Do Not Distribute, and then select options in the Permission dialog box.)

• Users with Read access can read a document, workbook, or presentation, but they don't have permission to edit, print, or copy it.
• Users with Change access can read, edit, and save changes to a document, workbook, or presentation, but they don't have permission to print it.
• Users with Full Control access have full authoring permissions and can do anything with the document, workbook, or presentation that an author can do: set expiration dates for content, prevent printing, and give permissions to other users. Authors always have Full Control access.

Permission policies

You can also restrict permission for documents, workbooks, and presentations by using any custom permission policies that your administrator has created. (On the File menu, point to Permission and select a custom permission policy.)

More information

• Create content with restricted permission
• View content with restricted permission
• Rights Management Add-on for Microsoft Internet Explorer