Office Document Encryption (Office and Adobe)

Office Document Encryption

Overview

Word and Excel documents that contain confidential and sensitive data such as Social Security Numbers must be encrypted and password protected before being attached to an email or otherwise transmitted.

Please give the recipient the password via a telephone call or written communication, rather than via email. Note: please retain the password so you can open your own document in the future.

The encryption process differs between Office 2003, Office 2007 and Office 2013. Staff with Adobe Acrobat writer software installed on their computer can also encrypt Adobe PDF documents.

 

Office 2013:

1. Open / create your Word or Excel document.
2. Click : File
   
3. Click : INFO section
   
4. Click : Protect Document
   
5. Click : Encrypt with Password
   
6. Type in the password
   
7. Save your document.

 

Office 2007:

1. Open / create your Word or Excel document
2. Click the Office button on the upper left of your screen
3. Click : Prepare
4. Click : Encrypt document
5. Pick a password for the document. Save your document.

 

 

Office 2003:

6. Open / create your Word or Excel document.
7. Scroll to “Tools” on the command bar.
8. Select “Options” from the drop-down menu that opens.
9. Click on the “Security” tab under the “Options” menu.
10. Click on the “Advanced” button to choose encryption for your document. Select “RC4, Microsoft Base Cryptographic Provider v1.0.” Click on “OK.”
11. Set the password. There are two passwords you can set by typing them into their corresponding fields: a “password to open” and a “password to modify.” At a minimum enter a password for “password to open.” Click on “OK.”
12. Save your document.

 

 

If you have Adobe Acrobat Acrobat installed on your computer, you can encrypt PDF files. Adobe Reader and DoPDF cannot do this. Adobe Reader can, however, open an encrypted PDF that someone else has sent you.

 

From Adobe Acrobat:

1. Open/create PDF
2. Click File and select “Properties”
3. Click : Advanced tab
4. Click : Security
5. Click: Encrypt with password (not encrypt with certificate)
6. If you get a prompt, select Yes to add encryption
7. On the Password Security window, you can choose security level. If you know the recipient as Acrobat 9.0 or later, you can choose Adobe 9; otherwise choose the default, Adobe 7. The default of Encrypt all document contents is fine.
8. Click in the box: Require a password to open the document
9. Click : OK
10. Save the file