How to protect your Word document with a password

Want to prevent others from opening your Microsoft Word document? Here is a quick tutorial on how to encrypt a Microsoft Word document with a password.

How to encrypt a Word document

Microsoft Office is the most popular productivity software on the planet. It has all the features that you will need for your office workflow. And one of the basic key features is the ability to encrypt a document so only the authorized people who have a password can access the document.

The process of the encryption is really simple and require only a simple password that you can use whatever character length or complexity you prefer. However, you should use a long and more complex password if you want to make sure that the password is uncrackable with a brute-force attack technique.

Today, we will show you how to encrypt a Microsoft Word document with a password.

Important If you lose or forget the password, it cannot be recovered, It is advisable to keep a list of passwords and their corresponding document names in a safe place.

  1. How to encrypt a new Word document
  2. How to encrypt an existed Word document
  3. How to verify the encryption

1 How to encrypt a new Word document

If you want to set a password for a new document:

  1. Open Microsoft Word
  2. Choose a document template or a Blank document.
    Create a new black document
  3. Go to the File menu.
    Open Word File Menu
  4. Go to InfoProtect Document and select Encrypt with Password.
    Encrypt a new Word document with a password
  5. You will need to type a password and click OK.
    Enter a new Password
  6. Re-enter the same password and click OK again.
    Re-Enter the Password
  7. Now your document is encrypted with a password as you can notice the yellow box below:
    The Word document is encrypted
  8. You can now save your document and continue writing your content.

2 How to encrypt an existed Word document

It isn’t much different from the new document encryption. To encrypt an existed Word document:

  1. Open your existed Word document.
  2. When the document is loaded go to the File menu.
    Open Word File Menu
  3. Go to InfoProtect Document and select Encrypt with Password.
    Encrypt an Existed Word document with a password
  4. You will need to type a password and click OK.
    Enter a new Password
  5. Re-enter the same password and click OK again.
    Re-Enter the Password
  6. Now your document is encrypted with a password as you can notice the yellow box below:
    The Word document is encrypted

Important You will need to save your document in order to apply the encryption to your document.

3 How to verify the encryption

Now your document is protected with a password. To make sure the document is protected:

  1. Open the protected Word document.
  2. You will see a Password popup as below.
    Type the Password and click OK
  3. Type your password and click OK to gain access to the document.