Patent ID: 7389473

Claim:
A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable components, comprising: a first component that is arranged to edit an electronic document having editable objects; a second component that is arranged to: define a global protection element for the electronic document, wherein the global protection element defines document-wide user permission for the editable objects of the electronic document, and set an override to override the global protection element, wherein setting the override includes defining a first location for the start of an editable object region for which a level of editing permission for a specific user is associated and defining a second location for the end of the editable object region for which a level of editing permission for a specific user is associated; a third component that is arranged to associate a user identifier for the specific user with the object region that is defined by the first and second locations, wherein the user identifier indicates the specific user having the level of editing permission indicated by the unique identifier; a fourth component that is arranged to: encode the global protection element into the ML format, wherein the global protection element includes an edit attribute that indicates a document-wide user permission for the editable objects, and encode the override into the ML format, wherein the override includes a start permission tag for at least one editable object of the electronic document, wherein the override includes an end permission tag for the at least one editable object of the electronic document, wherein the override includes a specific user identifier that causes an override of the global protection element for the at least one editable object for the specific user in accordance with the level of editing permission of the override while other editable objects of the electronic document are enforced according to the global protection element; and a fifth component that is arranged to output an ML file according to the ML format.