TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
On 7/24/00 11:30 AM, Tom Johnson (johnsont -at- starcutter -dot- com) wrote:
>About the best you can do is make it as hard as possible to edit.
I disagree. If you're concerned about the document being hacked and
edited, "about the best you can do" would be to digitally sign it, as PGP
and other products might do, with a lengthy checksum. That way, anyone
who wants to can hack and edit however they want, but only your
unmodified original will satisfy the digital signature.
Why go to great lengths to do something that can be cracked anyway
(obscuring the document at 72 dpi, making it read-only, etc.) when you
can easily make your original the only "real" version? Life's too short
to worry about who's changing your text. Prevent bad consequences, and
move on.