The Knowhow
How to password protect Word documents on a Mac
There may be times you want to keep documents on your Mac private - whether you are working on confidential files or writing down your inner most thoughts you'd rather no-one else could read. Here's a way that you can password protect files on your Mac:
Surprisingly, there's no one click step to password protect a document in OS X but it can be done in Microsoft Office for Mac or iWork.
It's not fail-safe but should keep casual snoops out.
For Microsoft Office for Mac
- Click the Word menu
- Select Preferences
- Under Personal Settings, click Security on the left side
- Enter a password in the box where it says Password to Open
- Click OK
- When asked type in the password again to confirm it
- Click OK
You can also set a password to modify the document:
- In Security, type a password in the box where it says Password to modify
- Click OK
- Type in password again when asked
- Click OK
In Apple iWork
- Open your document in one of the iWork programs
- Go to Inspector
- Click the Document tab
- Check the box at the bottom next to Require Password to Open
- Type in your password
- Type it again to confirm it (you can add a password hint here)
- Press Set Password
As with all passwords remember to set one that would be difficult for others to guess but one you remember.
