You never know when one of your files might reach someone it was not meant to reach – perhaps through an email forwarding, a USB stick left on a desktop, or perhaps even an unauthorized user access your computer.
Should that happen, password protection is all that stands between your data and the people you do not want to see. It is an extra layer of security that you can add to your most sensitive files without too much hassle.
How you do this depends on the software you are using to create the file in the first place. Some applications have password protection features built-in, while in other cases you will need to lock your files using another method.
Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint
In Word, Excel, or PowerPoint for Windows, open the file that you want to password protect, and then select File and Info. You should see a Protect option at the top of the next list: Click this button, select Encrypt with passwordand enter your password.
Passwords can be up to 15 characters long and are case sensitive, so double check what you enter. If you forget the password for a document, spreadsheet or presentation, you will not be able to enter it again – you will have to start over.
If you are using Office on macOS, the process is a little different: Open Review tab in the ribbon menu at the top, then click Protect button to enter a password. (The button will be labeled slightly differently depending on the program you are in.)
Google Docs, Sheets and Slides
There is no password protection feature as such in Google Drive because your files are already password protected: The password associated with your Google Account which you use to sign in and view your documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
If you choose to share a file from Google Docs, Sheets or Slides – via the large Share button in the upper right corner when working on something – you can either invite specific users to view it (via their email addresses) or generate a link that anyone can use.