How To: Used Protected Word Documents in Pfx Engagement

Issue: How do I (or my firm) implement protected Word documents within Pfx Engagement?


Background: Some firms may have specialties in niche industries where standard workprograms, such as those published by PPC, are not tailored enough to fill the need for these firms. Some may decide to develop their own workprograms for their engagements. The question has come up, "How do I ensure the workprograms' text doesn't change from the approved content?" One possible solution is to use protected Word documents.

Resolution: Protecting a Word document effectively makes the document a form in which text can be added to fields. Nothing else on the document can be changed. This also means that the integration with Pfx Engagement is broken unless the following steps are performed.

Before proceeding, at least one person will need to install the Protected Files Utility, available on the Pfx Engagement install media.

1. 1. Create the Word document to be protected.
   
2. 2. Add all the fields necessary for the Word document to be completed by a user. Either form fields or VBA fields may be used.
   
3. 3. Protect the document (instructions here). Remember the password used to protect the document.
   
4. 4. Open the Protected Files Utility.
   
5. 5. Navigate to the Word document that was just protected and select "Open".
   
6. 6. Type in the password used to protect the Word document.

All Pfx Engagement toolbar functionality now works for the person who just ran the Protected Files Utility. That utility creates a hash file in the C:\Pfx Engagement\WM\ directory* which contains the password and a GUID associated with the password. It also adds the password's GUID to the custom properties of the Word document (right-click, select "Properties", go to the "Custom" tab) so Pfx Engagement knows which password to use to allow the toolbar functionality.

If the same password is going to be used on multiple Word documents (or Excel documents for that matter), the easiest way to "add" the password to a new document is to copy the the custom property from one file to another manually. It is possible to automate the copy process using a VB script (a web search will reveal the code) but it is pretty complicated. It may be overkill if the firm(s) is only updating a few documents on an annual basis.

Also, to allow all Pfx Engagement users the ability to use the toolbar with these protected Word documents, the hash file created by the Protected Files Utility will need to be copied to the C:\Pfx Engagement\WM\ directory* on each users machine which can be performed manually or using a login script developed by your IT folks.

Considerations and Limitations: If this sounds like a great solution to your problems, there are a few cautions to consider. First, tickmarks cannot be inserted within text fields. Usually, from what I've seen, they can be added but they replace the text field entirely. Second, spell check does not work within text fields. Third, users cannot copy from protected text. This becomes an issue if staff copy some words from the workprogram steps to use in the response to the step. Forth, inserting multiple workpaper references using the Insert Workpaper Reference tool from the toolbar is not easy. Sometimes workpaper references end up outside the text field which prevents any user, including reviewers, from selecting the workpaper reference to open it.

* This is the directory in which Pfx Engagement is installed if you accept the default. Your installation may be located in a different root directory.