How to password protect your Microsoft Word documents

Do you need to add a password to your Microsoft Word document to keep the contents safe from prying eyes?

In this post, we’ll walk you through a few quick steps & show you how to password protect your Word documents.

How to set a password for an Office document

To add an encryption password to Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, use these steps:

1. Open the Word document.
2. Click on File.
3. Click on Info.
4. On the right side, click the Protect document menu.
5. Select the Encrypt with Password option.
6. Type a password to protect the document.
7. Click the OK button.
8. Retype the password.
9. Click the OK button.

Once you complete these steps, every time you open the document, you’ll be prompted to enter a password to decrypt its contents.

When setting up a password for an Excel, PowerPoint, or Word document, consider that without a password it’ll be virtually impossible to open the document, so make sure to keep the password in a safe place.

How to remove a password from an Office document

To remove the password of an Office document (Word, Excel, or PowerPoint), use these steps:

1. Open the Word (Excel or PowerPoint) document.
2. Type the current password to access the file.
3. Click the OK button.
4. Click on File.
5. Click on Info.
6. On the right side, click the Protect document menu.
7. Select the Encrypt with Password option.
8. Clear the current password.
9. Click the OK button.

After completing the steps, anyone without a password will be not able to open and edit the Office document.