#MICROSOFT OFFICE 2004 SAVE AS PDF HOW TO#
#MICROSOFT OFFICE 2004 SAVE AS PDF PASSWORD#

#MICROSOFT OFFICE 2004 SAVE AS PDF PASSWORD#

If you forgot the password to your password-encrypted Word document, it is possible to recover the file.

#MICROSOFT OFFICE 2004 SAVE AS PDF HOW TO#

How to hack a password-protected Word document Users will have to press “Stop Protection” and enter the password before they can edit the document.

You’ll see that when you try to edit text the “Restrict Editing” sidebar will appear. Press “Yes, Start Enforcing Protection” and enter a password.If you don’t want users to edit the Word document then select the option ‘No changes (Read only)’. In the “Editing Restrictions” section, choose the type of editing you’d like to allow via the dropdown.Open the “Review” tab of your ribbon and click “Restrict Editing”.

You can also enable it very quickly via the “Review” tab. Microsoft Word’s editing protection isn’t good for much, but it will stop you or a recipient from accidentally changing the contents of a document. How to password protect a Word document to restrict editing Next time you open it, you will be prompted to enter the password before you can view its contents. Enter the password a second time to confirm it.Enter a strong, unique password and press “OK”.Click on the “Protect Document” button and choose “Encrypt with Password” from the list.

With the document open, press “File” in your ribbon, then “Info”.

Though as we discussed password-protecting a document in Word will not stop leaks or unauthorized sharing, it can be useful to protect documents before they are opened. How to password protect a Word document to prevent opening We will now show you how to password protect a Word document to prevent opening and editing and how easily you can unlock a doc and remove those restrictions. The restrict editing tool, then, is mostly there to prevent somebody from editing a document accidentally, rather than offering any real protection.

screenshot it and run it through an OCR tool.

save it as another document type and then convert to Word.

copy and paste content into another document.

However, in this case it’s worse than that because the document has already been decrypted. So, what about Word’s in-built editing protection? Is that effective at preventing sharing? Restrict editing in Word: is it effective?Īs you would expect, Word’s restrict editing feature has the same issue as any other password protection: sharing and cracking. But even then, due to the human nature present in password choice, it is of limited effectiveness. Ultimately, then, password encryption only protects documents from being intercepted and when they are sitting on the recipient’s PC, unopened. If there are no additional editing or copy protection controls, a user with the password can just copy the content to another file or into an email or text chat and share the file that way. The same applies to the contents of the document itself. This could be intentional, in the case of an internal leak, or unintentionally, through social engineering, the storage of the password in an insecure location, etc. Any legitimate user that you give the document to, along with the password, can share both of those things with an unauthorized party. The bigger issue, however, is not that passwords are crackable, but that they are shareable. And make no mistake – after decades of passwords being used for everything from social media to bank accounts, tools have become very effective at cracking them. This fact applies to Word documents just as well as it does to other Office docs, PDFs, password-based folder encryption, etc. Instead of requiring a long, complex, and randomly generated encryption key, all an attacker needs is a human-created, often short and simple, encryption password. The issue shared by all password-based encryption mechanisms is that they take a strong encryption algorithm (such as AES) and make it far less secure. The problem with password-based encryption This does not use encryption and is instead enforced by the software, which disables the ability to type, delete characters, and modify formatting. Microsoft Word has another, lesser-used password protection that controls whether or not users can edit. Entering the password allows a user to decrypt the document and therefore view and edit it. While the document remains encrypted, it cannot be read – presenting itself as a jumble of numbers and letters to anybody who does not hold the decryption key. Microsoft Word uses simple yet effective encryption for its document protection.

Given the sensitive nature of some of these documents, it’s natural that businesses want to secure them. It’s used for anything from note-taking to documentation, contracts, reports, and legal documents. How does Microsoft Word password protection work?ĭespite heavy competition from the likes of Google Docs, Microsoft Word has remained the text editor of choice for many businesses.

Microsoft office 2004 save as pdf