How can I secure an emailed Quote from being edited by the recipient?

Question

Hi, I'm a newbie with LiveCycle Designer ES 8.2.
I have just finished creating a Quote Template.
After I finished creating the Quote Template I saved it as an Adobe Static PDF Form (.pdf).
I double clicked on the saved file and it opened in Adobe Acobat 9 Pro.
I then e-mailed it to myself as a test and found that after downloading the file from my email, I could edit the text and numbers.
It will not be a good idea to email an editable Quote to a client.
What should I do that a Quote Template created in LiveCycle Designer ES 8.2 is secure from being edited by the client once the client received it per email?
I did not find the answer to my problem from the Help Menu, or overlooked it.
I will really appreciate it if someone can educate me in this.

Answer 1

Hi Leah,
you can protect a pdf from being edited in Acrobat Pro using the security features. (Advanced -> Security).
The easiest way is securing the file with a password and allowing no edits.
Here's the link to the online help:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Acrobat/9.0/Professional/WSD012A4E1-51D1-4bcd-BA9F-EF03C6F20BB 6.html#top
Of course that also means the recipient can't fill any forms any more (unless he removes the security with the password).
A word of warning: as with all kinds of security the safety of it is only relative. There are tools out there which allow you to remove this protection in seconds.
(which probably would be illegal under these circumstances)
Background: the pdf specification only suggests that any pdf compatible application should care about the edit password. You practically can't enforce it. The tools I spoke of just ignore the security and save a new file.
The only way to improve this is to use digital certificates or to set an open password.
Regards,
Mike