[MS Office - 2007] password protect a word document

[RabbieBurns]

how do I password protect a word document. I dont want to mess with all the user rights crap and installing addons etc. I just want a simple password. Can it be done?

[nc-]

Just go to tools - options - security tab.

sorry this is for old office. below is for 2007.

[mb2k01]

• Click on the Office Button at the top of the page.
• Click Save as.
• On the Save as Pop-up window, click 'Tools' then scroll down to General options (on the bottom right) and choose a password.
• Choose a password for opening a document.
• Choose a password for modifying a document.

[Domino]

you may as well just pray though - it'd be about as effective...

[mb2k01]

It's not that bad...
If I was wanting to transmit heavily confidential data I wouldn't rely on it alone, but as a simple prevention for most people it's fine?

you may as well just pray though - it'd be about as effective...

[Domino]

sorting out the file permissionings would be more effective.

Its easily defeated by loads of free software out there, so not a good idea in my book.

or stick anything potentially sensitive in an encrypted zip archive - 7zip being a good bet for this

[RabbieBurns]

It was to email so I just zipped it and passworded that.

I found what I was looking for under the "prepare" option of the menu button though.

Thanks for all the replies

[jhawklyn]

It's not that bad...
If I was wanting to transmit heavily confidential data I wouldn't rely on it alone, but as a simple prevention for most people it's fine?

Lets say the document is named 'Fred'

Well, users can open the document and use 'save as' to call the file: 'Fred1' - then from windows explorer rename 'Fred' to 'FredOld' and Fred1 to Fred. voila. The protection is by-passed.

So, the protection will work for 'some', perhaps even 'most', but not too well against any computer savvy user...

[PiqueABoo]

Eh? Word 2007 encryption is good isn't it? As in uses AES and if you want to brute-force a half-decent password it's a relatively[1] very, very slow process.

[1] Compared to some classic brute-force rates.

[mb2k01]

Eh? Word 2007 encryption is good isn't it? As in uses AES and if you want to brute-force a half-decent password it's a relatively[1] very, very slow process.

[1] Compared to some classic brute-force rates.

That's kind of what I was getting at above. The downside of Word 2007 passwording is the fact there are multiple programs out there (if someone searched hard enough) that would bypass or reset passwords so that they could gain access