[peter_cph]

Hi all ... greetings from Copenhagen

I tried to open a Word file today using Word X for Mac OSX and to my surprise it says it is password protected. I don't recall protecting it and I have no idea what the password could be.

Assuming there must be a way to open the file anyway, I ask for any hints and clues available.

Thanks in advance,

Peter

[OptimusG4]

You should just be able to hit cancel or whatever and open it in read-only format. Then do a Save As to save it without a password. Also, check your preferences in Word to make sure you don't have pass-protect on.

[peter_cph]

If it only was that easy, but unfortunately it will not let me open it at all, if i don't provide it with the correct password.

I have checked my preferences and i use Word all the time and I have never had this happen to me before.

Grrrrrr

But thanks for the suggestion anyway.

Peter

Originally posted by OptimusG4:
You should just be able to hit cancel or whatever and open it in read-only format. Then do a Save As to save it without a password. Also, check your preferences in Word to make sure you don't have pass-protect on.

[CharlesS]

Are you able to open it using TextEdit?

[Mr. Blur]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
Are you able to open it using TextEdit?

interesting thought....i just tried it as a test with a word doc made in office x...when i did the "save as.." as picked the pw option, there is a choice to make it for pw to open or pw for read-only...i chose to open...well....textedit would not open it. but i suspect there must be a way, after all it is microsoft - not exactly known for having no holes in their security features.

[peter_cph]

I tried to open de document in BBEdit, but the contents were kinda scrambled ... like it is encoded or something.

Originally posted by Mr. Blur:
interesting thought....i just tried it as a test with a word doc made in office x...when i did the "save as.." as picked the pw option, there is a choice to make it for pw to open or pw for read-only...i chose to open...well....textedit would not open it. but i suspect there must be a way, after all it is microsoft - not exactly known for having no holes in their security features.

[Turnpike]

That's because BBEdit doesn't handle .doc... but it also means that the pass protection is definitely within the .doc itself, and not applied later.

I would try opening it up in various WORD-COMPATIBLE apps, to see if they just don't understand the pass protect part of the .doc but will give you the rest. If it isn't anything sensitive, you could put it up and let other people download it and try to break it... but if it is at all sensitive/private, don't, because even if we can't break it, as you said it can be opened in any other program that displays text, but kinda scrambled (even stuff you erased in the .doc might show up...)

[Sod Off Sadr]

there are a couple apps that purport to break a Word password.