How to Unlock a Word Document under Windows

Seth Teller, August 2009

Some authors (for example, of forms to be filled out) "lock" their documents under Windows. This is incredibly annoying, as it prevents you from fixing errors or adding anything (e.g., addenda) to the document.

If you web-search on "unlocking word document," you get a bunch of pages with advice that doesn't work under Windows XP. (I know, as I've tried them all.) Here is a method that actually works.

1. Save the document as ".xml" format.

2. Open the .xml doc in wordpad, emacs, or your favorite text editor.

3. Search for the string w:enforcement="1".

4. Replace the "1" with a "0" [i.e., disable enforcement].

5. Save the document from your text editor.

6. Open the .xml document in Word.

Your Word document can now be edited normally. Enjoy!