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Encrypt a Word Document

August 24, 2022

You need to protect confidential information especially if you intend to transmit it via email. Hopefully, you have some method in which to send encrypted email. There is another alternative if not. You can put the confidential information in a Word document and encrypt the contents with a password. The document can then be sent as an attachment. Protecting a Microsoft Word document with a password is pretty easy. How-To Geek has a post with the steps to follow.

Go to File -> Info -> Protect Document -> Encrypt with Password. Enter the password you want to use to protect the document. Remember that security of the document will only be as good as the password you select. A simple password of ‘1234’ is definitely NOT a good choice. Duh. Use some other method to get the password to the recipient and do not include it in the same email as the encrypted attachment. Double duh. If you want to remove the password encryption, just go through the same steps and clear the password field.

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