Restrict permission to confidential information in Office files using IRM

Among many new value added features of the Microsoft Office 2007, restriction the permission to use of many types of office documents is a notable one. You can restrict permission to content in documents, workbooks, and presentations by using Information Rights Management (IRM). For information on how you can restrict permission to content in e-mail messages, see Restrict permission to confidential information in e-mail messages in the help of your MS Office System. Most of the contents of this article is adapted from Microsoft Office Word 2007. For detail visit the help and support in the program.

For information on how to set a password to open or modify a file, see Set a password to open or modify a document, workbook, or presentation. There are other articles that describe using passwords to protect formatting in documents and protect worksheet or workbook elements.

The purpose of IRM and its limitations:
Information Rights Management (IRM) allows individuals and administrators to specify access permissions to documents, workbooks, and presentations. This helps prevent sensitive information from being printed, forwarded, or copied by unauthorized people. After permission for a file has been restricted by using IRM, the access and usage restrictions are enforced no matter where the information is, because the permission to a file is stored in the document file itself.

IRM helps individuals enforce their personal preferences concerning the transmission of personal or private information. IRM also helps organizations enforce corporate policy governing the control and dissemination of confidential or proprietary information.

IRM helps to do the following:

• Prevent an authorized recipient of restricted content from forwarding, copying, modifying, printing, faxing, or pasting the content for unauthorized use

• Prevent restricted content from being copied by using the Print Screen feature in Microsoft Windows

• Restrict content wherever it is sent

• Support file expiration so that content in documents can no longer be viewed after a specified period of time

• Enforce corporate policies that govern the use and dissemination of content within the company

IRM can't prevent the following:

• Content from being erased, stolen, or captured and transmitted by malicious programs such as Trojan horses, keystroke loggers, and certain types of spyware

• Content from being lost or corrupted because of the actions of computer viruses

• Restricted content from being hand-copied or retyped from a display on a recipient's screen

• A recipient from taking a digital photograph of the restricted content displayed on a screen

• Restricted content from being copied by using third-party screen-capture programs

Configure your computer to use IRM

To use IRM in the 2007 Office release, the minimum required software is Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) Client Service Pack 1 (SP1), which can be installed on your computer either by you or your RMS administrator. The RMS administrator can configure company-specific IRM policies that define who can access content and what level of editing is permitted for a document, workbook, or presentation. For example, a company administrator might define a rights template called "Company Confidential," which specifies that documents, workbooks, or presentations that use that policy can be opened only by people inside the company domain.

Install the Windows Rights Management Services (RMS) Client

1. In Microsoft Windows, click the Start button, and then click Control Panel.

2. Do one of the following:

   • Microsoft Windows Vista : Click Programs, and then under Installed Programs, click Install a program from the network. In the list of programs, click Windows Rights Management Services Client, and then click Add.

   • Microsoft Windows XP : Click Add or Remove Programs, and then click Add or Remove Programs. In the left pane, click Add New Programs. From the list of programs, click Windows Rights Management Services Client, and then click Add.

Alternatively, when you first try to open files that have been rights-managed by using IRM, the 2007 Office release prompts you to download the Windows Rights Management Services Client. For more information about the Windows Rights Management Services Client, visit the Windows Rights Management Services Web site or search Google for more results.

Download permissions

The first time that you attempt to open a document, workbook, or presentation with restricted permission, you must connect to a licensing server to verify your credentials and to download a use license. The use license defines the level of access that you have to a file. This process is required for each file with restricted permission. In other words, content with restricted permission cannot be opened without a use license. Downloading permissions requires that Microsoft Office send your credentials (which includes your e-mail address) and information about your permission rights to the licensing server. Information contained in the document is not sent to the licensing server. For more information, read the Privacy Statement.

Restrict permission to content in files

Authors can restrict permission for documents, workbooks, and presentations on a per-user, per-document, or per-group basis (group-based permissions require Microsoft Active Directory directory service for group expansion). Authors use the Permission dialog box to give users Read and Change access, as well as to set expiration dates for content.

Most of the contents of this article is adapted from Microsoft Office Word 2007. For detail visit the help and support in the program.