If you ever create a Word or Excel file containing private or sensitive information, or if you create files that you intend to transport with you on an external hard drive or USB pen drive, it’s always a good idea to make sure they’re password protected.  How do you find the options however?

Depending on what version of Office you’re using they’re in different places.  I’ll focus on Word and Excel documents for the purpose of this guide, as they’re the ones you’re most likely to want to protect.

Office XP or Office 2003

In the various Office applications the security settings are in different places.  In Word you will find them under Tools and Security Options in the Save As window.

In the Excel Save As window they’re under Tools and then General Options.

The password options will also look slightly different but you will have two options.  Password to Open and Password to Modify.  Unless you don’t want people changing the information in your files a password to open will be sufficient.

Office 2007

In later versions of Office, and we can assume this is the same in version that will come after Office 2007, Microsoft simplified the process of finding this.  You will find it in the same place in all Office applications.  In the Save As dialog box it is located under Tools and General Options.

Again you have the same options to protect the document when its opened and / or protect it from changes.

Putting a password on your documents is an easy thing to do and only needs to be done the first time a document is saved, after which it becomes automatic.  It can save your blushes though and maybe save you a lot more.