Do you ever create documents on your computer that you don’t want anyone else to be able to open? Most of use do. Or maybe you want to send a document by email but want to make sure only the intended recipient can open it. Follow these simple instructions to restrict access to certain documents on your computer to only those with the password.

This process needs to be completed for each document you wish to place a password on.

1. Open the Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Publisher, etc) document you wish to protect.
2. On the menu, select FILE > SAVE AS
3. Select TOOLS > GENERAL OPTIONS
4. A new window will pop up. Somewhere in that window you will see a place to enter a “Password to open”. Each window will be slightly different based on the document you are saving and the version you are using due to a variety of options. Type in your desired password, click OK, Reenter password, click OK, click Save (if you are prompted to replace an existing file, choose yes) Close the original document.  Next time the document is opened there will be a prompt to enter a password.
5. If you would like to restrict modification to the document you can also enter a “Password to modify”. This will add a second prompt for a password to allow only the users who know this additional password to make modifications to a document. If this password is unknown (but the password to open is known) the user can choose to open as a read only document but will be unable to make changes or save to the original document. (They will be able to save the document by giving it a new name however)
6. Additionally, you can also choose to let anyone have access to view the document without a password but restrict modifications to the document to those with a password by leaving the password to open blank and only entering a password to modify.

That’s it. Don’t forget your password or you won’t be able to get back into your document without extra effort and cost.

If you do forget your password, you have two options. The first is to buy  password recovery software ($20-$100) or hire somebody (like me ) to recover it for you.