Adobe - How to Password Protect a PDF (CC)

Video Instructions (CC)

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NOTE: This requires Adobe Acrobat and is not available if you only have Adobe Reader. Please contact [e-mail] for assistance if you only have the reader.

Written Instructions

Password protecting a PDF with Adobe Acrobat

NOTE: This requires Adobe Acrobat and is not available if you only have Adobe Reader. Please contact [e-mail] for assistance if you only have the reader.

Step 1 — Launch Adobe Acrobat, click the File menu in the upper-left corner, and select Open. Choose the PDF file you want to password protect from its respective save location and click the Open button.

Step 2 — Click the File menu again when viewing the open document, followed by Properties and Security.

Step 3 — Click the drop-down menu beside Security Method, then select Password Security from the list of resulting list of options.

Step 5: A window should appear prompting you for a password. Check the box beside Require a password to open the document and enter your desired password in the corresponding text field. Considering you’re sending this password to others, it’s probably best to choose one that you don’t use for other services. Recent versions of Adobe will even rate how difficult your password will be to guess, so try to pick a password that gets a strong rating, one that includes a combination of lower-case letters, capitalization, and numbers.

Press OKAY and accept any other dialogue boxes that appear to return to your document.

Step 6: You must SAVE your document now to finalize your security (password) settings. Once done, that's it! Your document will now require a password to open. Ensure you test it.

(below are more advanced functions to restrict certain functions only)

Restricting edits and printing with Adobe Acrobat

Password protecting a PDF document isn’t necessarily a catch-all. The Document Security menu of Adobe Acrobat, for instance, will additionally allow you to password protect certain tasks such as editing and printing. Below is a brief rundown on how you can enable said features in Adobe Acrobat.

Step 1 —  Open the PDF document as you would normally and access the Security panel as previously outlined.

Step 2 — Select Change Settings to access the Password Security menu. From there, check the box beside Restrict editing and printing… and enter a password in the box to the right of Change Permissions Password.

Here’s an overview of the available editing limitations.

• Inserting, deleting, and rotating pages: This allows the person with access to the document to get rid of parts of the document, add pages, and flip the pages around.
• Commenting, filling in form fields, and signing existing signature fields: This allows the person to leave comments on the document, fill in sections that have boxes to add text, and electronically sign the document.
• Any edits except extracting pages: this allows others to make any necessary changes to the document except for cutting it down.

That’s it! Now your PDF is password protected. When opened, this password prompt will automatically appear.