Use passwords to help protect documents

You can help prevent unauthorized users from opening a document or from modifying a document even if they have permission to open it.

Caution

When you create a password for a document, write down the password and keep it in a secure place. If you lose the password, you can't open or gain access to the password-protected document.

Word doesn't encrypt the data that is hidden in a document. Given sufficient time and knowledge, a user can modify data in any document that he or she has access to. To help prevent modification of data, and to help protect confidential information, limit access to any Word documents that contain such information by storing documents in locations available only to authorized users.

Do any of the following:

Require a password to open a document

Require that others enter a password to modify a document

Protect a document during review

Change a document password