How to Password Protect a Document in Word 2013

Microsoft Word documents can often hold personal or important information. A normal Word document can be opened by anyone with a copy of that document, however, so you may decide to add some protection to a document in Word 2013 if it contains particularly sensitive information.

Word 2013 includes a tool that allows you to encrypt a document with a password of your choosing. Our guide below will show you where to find this tool so that you can add password protection to your documents.

Password Protecting a Document in Word 2013

The steps in the article below will show you how to add a password to a document in Microsoft Word 2013.

Once you have added the password, you will need to save the document for the password to take effect. The next time you open the document, you will be prompted for the password that you will create in the steps below.

There is also a great program from MacPaw called Hider2 that you can use to encrypt files and add password protection on your Mac. Check out Hider2 here.
How to Password Protect a Document in Word 2013

Here is how to password protect a document in Word 2013

  1. Open the document in Word 2013.
  2. Click File at the top-left corner of the window.
  3. Click the Info tab at the left side of the window, click Protect Document, then click Encrypt with Password.
  4. Enter the password that you want to use.
  5. re-enter the password to confirm it.
  6. Click the Save option at the left side of the window to save the document with the password.

These steps are also shown below with pictures –

Step 1: Open your document in Word 2013.

Step 2: Click the File tab at the top-left corner of the window.

word 2013 file tab

Step 3: Click the Info tab at the left side of the window, click the Protect Document button, then click Encrypt with Password.

how to password protect document word 2013

Step 4: Type the password that you want to use, then click the OK button.

enter password

Step 5: Type the same password again, then click the OK button.

confirm password

Step 6: Click the Save option at the left side of the window to save the document.

save the document

Now you can close your document, and the next time you open it, you should be prompted with a password dialog box like the one shown below.

password prompt in word 2013

Now that you know how to password protect a document in Word 2013, you can make it much more difficult for people with access to your computer to see the information in a document.

Did you copy and paste content from a Web page or another document into Word 2013, and now you have weird formatting that you are having trouble changing? Learn how to clear formatting in Word 2013 and start with text that includes default formatting instead.

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