By Jennifer | Last Updated
The best feature in Microsoft Word documents is the password protection feature. This feature is especially useful for people who make and share confidential documents. This feature allows you to protect your documents from being opened or edited at will.
However, if you forget your password, this feature may cause you problems. You will not be able to open the document or make any changes to it. Suppose you have a password-protected Word document that you need to open or edit, but you can't remember the password, what should you do?
There are multiple ways to solve this issue. And the ways are all very straightforward. If you need to remove password from Microsoft Word Document, this post will provide you with a step-by-step tutorial.
Step 1: Rename the extension of the encrypted word document from .doc or .docx to .zip, then click Yes in the pop-up dialog box to confirm the file extension change.
Step 2: Open this .zip file with Windows Explorer.
Step 3: Click on the Word folder, find the file named settings.xml and remove it from the list. Next, change the filename extension back to .doc or .docx and you should now be able to edit the Word document.
If you know the correct password used to restrict editing of Word documents, the process of removing the password takes only three steps.
Step 1: Open your password-protected document, enter the correct password and click OK to open your document.
Step 2: Click the File→Save As option. In the Save As dialog box, drop down the Tools options and select the General Options from it.
Step 3: Remove the password from the Password to open box. Click OK to complete the change. With this method, a newly saved file can be opened without a password.
If you forget the password you set for a word document, iSunshare Word Password Remover is a good choice. It is an expert in word removal and can remove the password of *.doc files in seconds.
Step 1: Download and install Word Password Remover on your PC.
Step 2: Click the Open button in the upper left corner to open the word document (.doc format) you need to decrypt, and then click the Remove Password button. It will start removing forgotten or lost passwords from the encrypted Word doc document. After about a few minutes, you will see a dialog box pop up telling you that "File decryption was successful". This indicates that the password of the Word document was successfully removed.
One thing I must tell you before you use this method is that it will only work if you are using Microsoft Office Pro 2010.
Step 1: Open your password-protected Word document with Microsoft Office pro. Click on Save as type and select Rich Text Format(.rtf) from the drop-down options, then click on save.
Step 2: Open the newly saved word document with Notepad. Press Ctrl + F and it will pop-up a Find dialog box. Type in passwordhash and replace it with nopassword. Save your changes and close Notepad.
Step 3: Open the .rtf file with Microsoft Word, click Review > Restrict Editing > Stop Protection in the menu bar and uncheck all the options on the right.
Step 4: Finally, the password should be removed and then you can change the file format back to .doc or .docx.
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