Lock mxd ?

[PROBERT68]

Dan Patterson‌, Darren Wiens and others ???

Is there a way around for me or my supervisor to lock the mxd to prevent from other user to  messed up the ArcMap mxd we worked on ? I worked on a lot of map books and when I review the PDF  and I found that  the mxd map scale and the PDF map scale do not match. I was just wondering if we could lock the mxd ? I googled it but it is so many different approach to that.

Any suggesting to that ?  Can be done in manually, or write a code ,etc

Thanks !

[DarrenWiens2 · Accepted solution]

What exactly do you mean by "lock"? For example, you can set an mxd file to read only through file explorer to disallow other users from saving over it. Or, do you mean you want to disallow a user from making any changes to an open mxd (I doubt that's completely possible)?

If you export the data driven pages to PDF, is the scale correct, or are the data driven page extents not set correctly?

I'll add, my current solution to making sure no one edits my maps is that I've got a completely separate drive to house all GIS data/maps, but I'm almost a one-person GIS department.

[PROBERT68]

I really do not know if it was through the Data Driven Pages to PDF, or by export to PDF from each ArcMap. It was dated in 2016.

"lock"  to lock the MXD to prevent someone making any change in it.

[PROBERT68]

Found out why the MXD and PDF map scale do not match. It is because when you have two Data Frames in ArcMap. When you set a new data frame it becomes activated and that is what it sets the map scale bar to the Layout. You would need to double check with the Map Scale at the Standard toolbar and ensure your Layers set to activate.

[AbdullahAnter]

Do you want to lock scale and extent of map or lock MXD?

[PROBERT68]

No, the mxd itself.

[AbdullahAnter]

As Darren Wiens  

you can set an mxd file to read only through file explorer to disallow other users from saving over it.

an open your PC with any user expect administrator user.

or save a backup copy.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

short of windows file attributes changes... which can be changed by anyone under 12 ... Keep a copy of just the mxd immediately after you have saved it to a backup drive, usb drive, the cloud, whatever.  Use your operating system to copy the mxd, don't save as or save to.  Then if you find any changes that aren't yours, close arcmap, move the errant mxd and substitute with your own and restart.

[PROBERT68]

Another thing you could do is open the Windows Explorer and change the View to Details. Add the column to "Owner" so you know who made the changes etc... So that is for Windows 7 but you should be able to do this if you have Windows 8 or later.

[DanPatterson_Retired]

but a safely saved original can't be messed with by anyone as even Darren points out