How To Protect A Excel File Document With A Password
The biggest issue with sending attachments with your emails is that you lose all control
once you hit send. One way to ensure some slight control is the use of a password with
your document which is basically the go-to option for many of us.
Why do you need to protect a Excel File document with a password?
Most companies send out some seriously personal or top-secret information such as a
company’s financial statements via a Excel File attachment. In most cases a Excel File
document needs a password to try and give it a higher difficulty to see what is in the
document to outsiders. Take, for example, healthcare information or financial statements
of a publicly traded company. All of which share and send documents that are highly
confidential and regulated in the respective industries. There is a requirement that
documents are secured.
Password protection is by all means not perfect and it should be considered the most basic of protective measure you could take to protect your Excel File document. Bear in mind that when most Excel File documents are password protected, the actual password itself will be sent right inside the same email as the attachment. Now, that seems incredibly counterintuitive when the point of it is to ensure that there is high security measures in place.
Even if you password protect your Excel File document, you cannot see what is happening with it. For all you know the document and password are now floating around a forum somewhere being copied and shared over and over again. When you start to use additional security features such as IP locking, expiration dates, and disabling downloads alongside password protection you inevitably decrease the chances of losing the documents or it getting into the wrong hands.
Password protection is by all means not perfect and it should be considered the most basic of protective measure you could take to protect your Excel File document. Bear in mind that when most Excel File documents are password protected, the actual password itself will be sent right inside the same email as the attachment. Now, that seems incredibly counterintuitive when the point of it is to ensure that there is high security measures in place.
Even if you password protect your Excel File document, you cannot see what is happening with it. For all you know the document and password are now floating around a forum somewhere being copied and shared over and over again. When you start to use additional security features such as IP locking, expiration dates, and disabling downloads alongside password protection you inevitably decrease the chances of losing the documents or it getting into the wrong hands.
How to encrypt and secure a Excel File document with a password
There are multiple ways of adding a password to your Excel File documents, but
consider the huge limitations, which have been mentioned above, that are in place with just basic password protection of your Excel File document.
consider the huge limitations, which have been mentioned above, that are in place with just basic password protection of your Excel File document.
Password protect a Excel File document with Excel
To protect a Microsoft Excel (Excel) file document with a password, follow these steps:
Open the Excel file in Microsoft Excel.
Click on the "File" menu and select "Info."
Click on "Protect Workbook" and select "Encrypt with Password."
Enter a password in the "Encrypt Document" dialog box and click "OK."
Re-enter the password in the "Confirm Password" dialog box and click "OK."
Once you have set a password, the file will be encrypted and can only be opened by someone who knows the password.
Note: The above steps are for Excel 2016 or later version. The steps may vary slightly for older versions of Excel.
Open the Excel file in Microsoft Excel.
Click on the "File" menu and select "Info."
Click on "Protect Workbook" and select "Encrypt with Password."
Enter a password in the "Encrypt Document" dialog box and click "OK."
Re-enter the password in the "Confirm Password" dialog box and click "OK."
Once you have set a password, the file will be encrypted and can only be opened by someone who knows the password.
Note: The above steps are for Excel 2016 or later version. The steps may vary slightly for older versions of Excel.
Encrypt a Excel File document with a Mac
In the Preview app on your Mac, open the Excel File you want to password-protect.
Choose File > Export, then select Encrypt.
Type a password, then retype it to verify the password.
Is password protection the best solution to protect your Excel File documents?
It is the most simple solution that you can have for your Excel File documents. But as
mentioned in the paragraphs above, there are plenty of reasons why passwords are not the
best if you really want to maintain document security.
A key problem is the lack of identification between the document and who is using actually viewing it. You could set a unique password for each person that you send the file to but that would take a pretty long time to do a simple task. Also, how will you share the password? Sending the Excel File via email and then texted the password might work but its still not the best solution for securing your documents.
A key problem is the lack of identification between the document and who is using actually viewing it. You could set a unique password for each person that you send the file to but that would take a pretty long time to do a simple task. Also, how will you share the password? Sending the Excel File via email and then texted the password might work but its still not the best solution for securing your documents.
Try a dedicated secure document management platform such as HelpRange
Sending heavy attachments should be avoided as not only do you risk the chance of
getting dropped into the spam box you also lose control of your document. Using a
platform like HelpRange helps you manage your Excel Files in a far more secure and
efficient way.
Using a passcode is just one security feature. You can also:
Set an expiration date
Lock to a single IP
Enable one viewer at a time
Disable document downloads and printing.
Plus you get user data so you who who, when and where someone is viewing your document.
There’s also the analytics side of the platform that provides fantastic insight into the number of page views, time spent on a page, downloads and an engagement score. All of this makes it incredibly easy to see how someone is using your document.
Using a passcode is just one security feature. You can also:
Set an expiration date
Lock to a single IP
Enable one viewer at a time
Disable document downloads and printing.
Plus you get user data so you who who, when and where someone is viewing your document.
There’s also the analytics side of the platform that provides fantastic insight into the number of page views, time spent on a page, downloads and an engagement score. All of this makes it incredibly easy to see how someone is using your document.