How to Password Protect a Word Document

Storing sensitive information in a Word document? Here’s how you can protect it with a password.

By Aman Rashid | Updated: 28 September 2020 20:53 IST

Besides Word, you can also encrypt documents on PowerPoint and Excel

Highlights

Documents containing sensitive data should always be encrypted
You can password protect your Word documents to keep prying eyes away
You can also password protect PowerPoint and Excel files

If your workflow involves storing sensitive information on Microsoft Word or other Office apps, you might want to consider password protecting your documents. For instance, you might have to store a Word document containing sensitive information in a public folder for others to easily access. In this case, you probably should encrypt the file and share the password only with those who need to access the document. Follow this guide as we tell you how to password protect a Word document.

Microsoft Word: Password protect a document on Windows

It is always recommended to put a secure password on your documents that contain sensitive information. Now, follow these steps to password protect your Word document on Windows.

Launch Microsoft Word on your Windows machine and open a document.
Go to File > click Protect Document > click Encrypt with Password.
Now enter your desired password and click OK. You'll again have to re-enter your password to confirm, do that and hit OK.
With this done, you have password protected your Word document. Now, when you close and reopen your document, it won't open without entering the password.

Microsoft Word: Encrypt a document on a Mac

Follow these steps to put a password in a Word document on a Mac.

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Launch Microsoft Word on your Mac and open a document.
In the ribbon up top, hit Review > click Protect > click Protect Document.
Now set your desired password for opening the document and click OK. You'll be asked to re-enter the password to confirm, do that and hit OK.
You can also set a password for modifying the document as well.

This is how you can encrypt your document in Microsoft Word, so that if anyone tries to break in into your account, they will not be able to steal your sensitive information. Besides, you can repeat these same steps on a PC or Mac to password protect a PowerPoint presentation or even an Excel Workbook.

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Further reading: Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft, Encryption, Password Protection, Document, PC, Windows 10, Mac, macOS