Text documents created in MS Word are sometimes protected by password, good, the possibilities of the program allow you to do. In many cases, it is really necessary and allows you to protect the document not only from editing, but also from its discovery. Not knowing password, open this file will not work. But what if you forgot the password or have lost it? In this case, the only solution is to remove the protection from the document.
In order to unlock a Word document to edit from you, some special knowledge and skills will be required. All that is needed is the presence of the most secure file, the Word installed on your PC, any archiver (for example, WinRAR) and the NotePad ++ editor.
Lesson: How to use NotePad ++
Note: None of the methods described in this article guarantees the 100 percent probability of opening a secure file. It depends on a number of factors, including the version of the program used, the file format (DOC or DOCX), as well as the level of protection of the document (password protection or only editing limit).
Password recovery by format change
Any document contains not only text, but also information about the user, and together with them and a number of other information, including a password from the file, if any. To find all this data, you need to change the file format, and then "look" into it.Change file format
1. Run the Microsoft Word program (not file) and go to the menu "File".
2. Select "Open" And specify the path to the document you want to unlock. Use the button to search for a file. "Overview".
3. Open to edit it at this stage will not work, but we do not need it.
All in the same menu "File" Select "Save as".
4. Specify the place to save the file, select its type: "Webpage".
5. Click "Save" To save the file as a web document.
Note: If in the document that you re-save, special formatting styles are applied, a notification may appear that some properties of this document are not supported by web browsers. In our case, it is the boundaries of signs. Unfortunately, nothing remains like this change to accept by clicking on the "Continue" button.
Password search
1. Go to the folder in which you saved a secure document as a web page, the file extension will be "HTM".
2. Click on the Right Mouse button and select "To open with".
3. Select Program NotePad ++..
Note: The context menu may contain "Edit WITH NOTEPAD ++". Therefore, select it to open the file.
4. In the program window that opens in the section "Search" Select "Find".
5. Enter in the search bar in the corner brackets () tag W: UnprotectPassword. . Click "Search More".
6. In the highlighted text fragment, find a row of similar content: W: UnprotectPassword> 00000000 where digits "00000000" located between tags, this is a password.
Note: Instead of numbers "00000000" Specified and used in our example, there will be completely different numbers between the tags and / or letters. In any case, this is a password.
7. Copy the data between the tags by highlighting them and clicking "Ctrl + C".
8. Open the original Word document protected by a password (not HTML-copy) and insert a copied value in the password line ( Ctrl + V.).
9. Click "OK" To open the document.
10. Record this password or change it to any other you definitely do not for sure. You can do it in the menu "File" — "Service" — "Document Protection".
Alternative method
If the above method did not help you or for some reason he did not suit you, we recommend trying an alternative solution. This method involves converting a text document to the archive, changing one element contained in it, and the subsequent conversion of the file back to the text document. Something similar we have been done with the document to extract images from it.Lesson: How to save pictures from document Word
Change file extension
Open the folder containing a secure file, and change its extension with DOCX on Zip. To do this, follow the following:
1. Click on the file and click F2..
2. Remove the extension Docx.
3. Enter instead of it Zip. and press "ENTER".
4. Confirm your actions in the window that appears.
Changing the contents of the archive
1. Open the ZIP archive, go to the folder Word. and find a file there "Settings.xml".
2. Remove it from the archive by clicking on the button on the quick access panel, through the context menu or by easy moving from the archive at any convenient place.
3. Open this file using NotePad ++.
4. Find through the search located in the corner brackets tag W: DocumentProtection ... , where «…» - this is the password.
5. Delete this tag and save the file without changing its initial format and name.
6. Add a modified file back to the archive, agreeing to replace it.
Opening a secure file
Change the archive expansion with Zip. again on Docx . Open the document - Protection will be removed.Restoring a lost password using the Accent Office Password Recovery utility
ACCENT OFFICE PASSWORD RECOVERY - This is a universal utility to restore passwords in Microsoft Office Package Documents. It works almost with all versions of programs, both with old and the newest. You can download the introductory version on the official website, to open a secure document of the basic functional will be enough.
Download Accent Office Password Recovery
By downloading the program, install and run it.
Before proceeding with the recovery of the password, you must perform some manipulations with the settings.
Setup ACCENT Office Password Recovery
1. Open the menu "Setup" and select "Configuration".
2. In the tab "Performance" In chapter "Application Priority" Click on a small arrow located near this section, and select "High" a priority.
3. Tap "Apply".
Note: If all items are automatically marked in this window, do it manually.
4. Click "OK" To save the changes and exit the settings menu.
Password recovery
1. Go to the menu "File" programs ACCENT OFFICE PASSWORD RECOVERY and press "Open".
2. Specify the path to the protected document, highlight it with the left click of the mouse and click "Open".
3. Press the button "Begin" On the shortcut panel. A password recovery process to your selected file will be launched, it will take some time.
4. Upon completion of the process, a window will appear on the screen, in which the password will be specified.
5. Open the secure document and enter the password that was specified in the report. ACCENT OFFICE PASSWORD RECOVERY.
On this we will finish, now you know how to remove the protection from Word document, and also know how to restore forgotten or lost password to open a secure document.