How to Password Protect a Document in Word 2010

Digital documents, such as those created in Microsoft Word 2010, are becoming more and more common in a lot of situations and are starting to replace physical documents.

But this also means that important information is being stored in a format that can be duplicated and shared much easier, so it’s important to learn how to encrypt files that contain important information.

Word 2010 allows you to encrypt your files by adding passwords to them, making these files much more difficult to open and read for someone that doesn’t have the password that you set.

Require a Password to Read a Document in Microsoft Word 2010

The strength of the password that you use is entirely up to you, but, as with all passwords, it is much more difficult to break a password if it contains combinations of letters, numbers, capital letters and symbols.

With that in mind, follow the steps below to learn how to password a protect a file in Microsoft Word 2010.

Step 1: Open the document in Microsoft Word 2010.

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

click the file tab

Step 3: Click the Info tab at the left side of the window.

click the info tab

Step 4: Click the Protect Document drop-down menu at the center of the window, then click the Encrypt with Password option.

click the encrypt with password option

Step 5: Enter your password, then click the OK button.

how to password protect a file in word 2010

Step 6: Retype the password to confirm it, then click the OK button. It is a good idea to save the document now to ensure that the password protection is applied.

re-enter the password

Make sure that you save the document before you close it. Otherwise the password encryption will not be applied to the file, and it can be opened by anyone with access to the file.

Now that you know how to password protect a document in Word 2010, you can make it easier to restrict that document’s contents to the people that you want to view it.

If you need to move a lot of documents around between different computers, then a USB flash drive or a portable external hard drive can come in really handy. They also act as a simple backup solution if you want to ensure that you have more than one copy of an important document.

We have also written about how to protect a worksheet in Microsoft Excel 2010 as well.

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