IRM (Information Rights Management) is currently a free service, which you can use on any computer. You do need a Microsoft .NET passport, which is free to obtain. It can also be used in a network environment; Microsoft Windows Server 2003 now offers Windows Rights Management Services. (If you’re in this type of environment, you may see more options for Information Rights Management than we describe here.)

 

You must also have the Information Rights Management software installed. The easiest way to do this is to click the permissions button () on the standard toolbar. Once you do that, this screen will appear:

 

 

You can click the Learn more about this feature link to open the Information Rights Management homepage in your default Internet browser. You can also click Yes to download and install the latest version of Information Rights Management, or click No to return to the Word screen. (We’re not going to cover the actually installation of the IRM client as it can change at any time.)