Encrypt Office for Mac Documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

Owned by
Mike Grosshandler
Last updated: Nov 08, 2023
2 min read

Action

Sensitive data sent in email to non-albany.edu addresses travels over the public internet in plain text. It is highly recommended that such data be encrypted using the procedure below before attaching the document in email. 

Instructions

For Microsoft Word

  1. Click the Review tab. Select Protect and then Protect Document.

  2. Type in a password under the Set a password to open this document field and then select OK.

  3. Reenter the same password and click OK.

The document is now encrypted and password protected.

For Microsoft Excel

  1. Click on File and then Passwords.

  2. Enter a password and then click OK. Excel will ask for the password twice to verify that you know it.

For Microsoft PowerPoint

  1. Click on File and then Passwords.

  2. Check the box next to Encrypt this presentation.

    3. Enter a password to encrypt the file with. PowerPoint will ask for the password twice to verify that you know it.

Additional information

If you are e-mailing, it is recommended to use an alternative form of communication (e.g. phone call) to share the password used to encrypt the file. For example, do not send the password in the same email as the encrypted file.  

Keep a plain-text copy of the encrypted document as a safeguard against losing or forgetting the password. Without the password, you will not be able to open and read the encrypted version of the document.