However, if the author has left the company, or if they wrote the document many years ago and have forgotten the password (it happens!), then you may need to break the password protection to access the document’s contents and functions.
protected form fields, formatting tools etc.).
Now, why would you want to unlock a password-protected Word document? Surely the author/company has locked it for a reason? Yes, in many cases, that’s correct and you shouldn’t try to circumvent the password protection - instead, ask the author/company for the password if you need to access elements of the document (e.g. I spotted this 2009 article ( ) a few weeks ago, and have now had time to test it - it works!
