PDFs are the most commonly used document format, especially for confidential materials. While you create a PDF document, the format remains the same and won’t change. If you have created a PDF file with confidential content, you may want to password protect a PDF file with a passcode of your choice so that the file cannot be accessed by whom you don’t want to. This article will tell you how to password protect a PDF file and secure the PDF file from being accessed by unknown persons.
How to password protect a PDF file and secure it?
While there are several ways to secure PDF files, we are going to see free methods to password protect a PDF file.
Method 1 – How to Password Protect a PDF file using Microsoft Word?
This is a very easy and free way to secure PDF file within a minute. Almost every user has Microsoft Office installed on their PC. We are going to use Microsoft Word to do this.
- Step1: Open Microsoft Word from a start menu.
- Step2: Select Open Other Documents from the left side menu and then click on the Browse option.
- Step3: Select the PDF file that you want to encrypt with password.
- Step4: Once the file is opened, click enable edit optioned shown in the popup notification.
- Step5: If asked, click on Enable Edit if you want to edit the document.
- Step6: Now, click on select save as option from the menu and then browse the location where you want to save the file.
- Step7: In the save as screen window, select Save as type as PDF from the drop-down menu.
- Step8: On the same window, click on the ‘Options’ button and select the last option as Encrypt the document with a password and click OK.
- Step9: Now, enter your desired password, Re-enter to confirm the password, and click OK to save it.
- Step10: Now click on the Save button to save the PDF with password protection enabled.
Navigate to the file location and check if the PDF file is asking password upon opening.
Must Read – How to export Chrome passwords in 2 minutes
Method 2 – How to password protect a PDF file using PDFMate Free Software?
Well, the 1st method to password protects a PDF using Word only allows this single feature. But, if you want to merge the PDF files, Split files, enable print protection along with Password to protect, you can use this method.
PDFMate is free software that allows you to do various PDF-related tasks mentioned above. You can also convert a PDF file to various formats with this tool. This app
- Step1: Download and Install the PDFMate PDF converter on your PC – https://www.pdfmate.com/.
- Step2: Upon installing, click on Add PDF button from the main screen of the software.
- Step3: Browse and open the PDF file which you want to secure.
- Step4: Now, your PDF file appears in the list on the main screen.
- Step5: At the bottom of the Output File format section, select the PDF file format( as you want to save the PDF in the same format only).
- Step6: Now select the file you want to add a password to and click on the ‘Advanced Settings‘ option at top right corner.
- Step7: From the list of settings options, select the PDF option from the left side menu and then tick mark on the ‘Open Password‘ option under the ‘Security‘ section.
- Step8: Type a password you want to set. You can also set a permission password to allow for editing, copying, and printing.
- Step9: Once done, click OK to save changes.
- Step10: At the bottom, you can set an output folder or simply remember the default output folder where a password-protected file will be saved.
- Step11: Click on Convert to save the file with the password added.
Navigate to the file location and check if the PDF file is asking password upon opening.
Method3 – How to Password Protect a PDF file in Mac OS?
To secure a PDF file from a Mac is even easier and free. Every Mac contains a Preview App, which allows you to see the images saved in your Mac. But this app is actually a hidden editing app that can be used to password protect a PDF file.
- Step1: Open a Preview App on your Mac.
- Step2: Click on the File option to open the drop-down menu and then select the Open option.
- Step3: Now browse and select the PDF file which you want to password-protect.
- Step4: Edit the document if you want to, and then From File option, select Export.
- Step5: Now, Tick mark on Encrypt option and then type a password of your choice.
- Step6: Click ‘Save‘ to enable password protection to a PDF file.
Done, you have secured a PDF file using your Mac.
Also Read – How to Password Protect a Flash Drive on Windows 10 or Mac?
Summary –
Protecting a PDF file is important for some confidential content. You can easily password protect a PDF file with inbuilt tools in Windows PC and a Mac. This guide on How to password protect a PDF file explaining all available free and fast methods of the same. I hope you enjoyed the article and found it useful for you. Do comment down your Questions, queries in the below section.
