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Office Word users can stop a Word document from being altered. And it is the simplest and most effective element of efficient and affordable document management.

Anyone who has ever worked in an office has seen and used rubber stamps to mark documents. Documents are routinely stamped DRAFT, CONFIDENTIAL, COPY, RECEIVED and so forth. When a document is distributed in an office, everyone understands the purpose of the stamp: people may scribble their comments on the document marked DRAFT before it returning it to the originator or keep a “confidential document” from laying on the top of their desk or in the printer tray. Likewise, information workers try not to leave a document marked CONFIDENTIAL lying beside the photocopier.

Electronic documents are also marked in similar ways. For instance the header and the footer often contain information about the purpose or intent of the document. However, if such information is in the footer, it can go unnoticed unless the document is viewed “full page” or scrolled down to reveal the footer. And even then, it may not be noticed as it should.

The problem with this form of management is that photocopy machines can remove most branding and labeling and not leave a trace. The consequences of that could be catastrophic for a business. For example a document which is clearly stamped as COPY could be copied again by the machine and the COPY stamp removed. In this way a copy of a document is transformed into an “original.” Or, a document that was for “internal use” ends up in an external environment. The ramifications of unidentified documents defy description. But, the consequences to your job and/or your business are universally negative when such an easily preventable “mistake” happens.

The watermark scheme should also be as clear in its intent for the user as the plain old CONFIDENTIAL stamp was.

In today’s office environment, the automation of Word can simplify your EDM needs (Electronic Data Management). There are now add-ons which help create your documents with whatever markings are appropriate for the document intent. Those markings remain if the document is exported into distribution (PDF) versions. The document intent remains clear and unambiguous to all recipients, no matter whether they get an electronic copy or a paper version.

Now, there is a Microsoft Word add-in called StampIt for Word that has been designed to meet the document identification and security needs for today’s business. With this add-in, paper or PDF documents can easily be marked – at the time they are created – with the proper and necessary identification. Recipients of either paper or electronic versions will now have no question about the document intent.

Automating the Microsoft Word WordArt functions for small business document management provides a quick and remarkably effective method of paper and PDF document security. StampIt is available to try FREE and works will Word 2000 through 2007.