These protections can be very useful when you want to keep the content of the document private. You can also restrict editing on the document, meaning that someone can only read the document but they can't modify it in any way.
You can lock a Word document by setting a password so that someone can't access the document. But as easy as it is to share and collaborate on a Word document, Microsoft has also included features that are meant to restrict the number of people who can collaborate on a document. A single Word document can be edited by multiple people, with each person's edit clearly marked, making it very easy for users to collaborate on a single project. If you use Microsoft Word a lot, you may already be aware of various options you have in document sharing.
