Is there a way to time-limit, encrypt, password protect or otherwise
make a Microsoft Word document unreadable after a certain amount of
time?  I'm a consultant who will sometimes do writing samples for
prospective clients--I'd like to give them time to look at the sample,
but also want to get paid.  Of course, they could copy and paste it
into another document (if they knew that they needed to, which I
wouldn't tell them)  What I'm looking for is a way to electronically
protect (to whatever degree possible) my work.

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Clarification of Question by mavencom-ga on 08 Jun 2004 10:35 PDT

Vballguy, your assessment is correct.  I'm looking for a way to limit
the life of the document.

Crythias, turning it into a JPG is a good idea...that way, I'd get the
satisfaction of at least knowing it would be a real pain in the butt
for them to 'steal' the work! ;-)

Thanks, all, for your comments.

Mavencom, I'd suggest you use Adobe Acrobat Reader to send a "locked"
copy of your work. I don't believe Word has a lock or a time-lock
built in.

Kriswrite

If you're unfamiliar with the capabilities of Acrobat, it will allow
you to restrict a range of issues, including making changes, printing,
or even copying-and-pasting.

You'll need the full version of Acrobat to encode it from Word (an
easy process once you have it), and your recipient will simply need
the reader, which many computers have pre-installed, and which is
otherwise a free download from www.adobe.com

I think the poster is looking for a way to limit the life of a document.

I do NOT believe it is possible to set a future date for a MS Word or
Adobe Acrobat file to "Expire" where you would not be able to read it.
 Further, even if someone came up with some sort of mechanism to do
this, it would be relatively easy to just set the system clock back a
week or two then copy the text to a new document.

In addition, assuming that it is plain text, it would be relatively
easy to just copy the text to a new document that did not have an
expiration date.

Don't forget that you own copyright on all documents that are fixed in
one media or another. A business who steals your copyrighted work is
not to be trifled with.

Hm. You could make a .jpg of the Word Document (one page:
alt-printscreen, paste in a program like Irfanview -FREE- and save as
JPG with compression quality of around) and make it fairly lousy jpg
compression quality (30% or less) (Use Word to include a watermark!).
They could "read" it, but it would be of no use unless they eyeball
transcribed it.

I believe one important key is the expiration.
in any case. Do not send a document. 

Make an image (tiff, jpg). This can be as simple as faxing it to you
self and using a computer as the reciving fax machine or scanning...

The post the image on a webpage and send them the link. When time is
up remove the webpage.

Poconoc-bert

If you could convert your file into an HTML, and protect the same
through TimeHASP (Hardware Lock), your problem would be solved :)

The HTML would encrypted, and it would only work till the time you
specify in the hardware lock.

As the html files cannot be copied, because it is encrypted and only
work if there is a Hardware Lock, and corresponding browser :)