Password Protect an Excel File.... how?

bennyhill · Newbie Joined: 27 Oct 2006 Posts: 2

Hi, all

I am new in OOo

My computer is using OOo 2.0.1 and my business partner is still using Office....

So, I have to convert my OOo document to Excel format before I sent to them...

I have a question

Can I password protect my excel file when I using OOo? Becuase I saw the password protect checkbox was dimmed when I choose "Excel" as file extension.

If the answer is noway... any other way to protect my excel file?

Anybody help?

Thanks a lot!

9point9 · Moderator Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 3875 Location: UK

No, OOo will not password protect an Excel file. There are 2 different forms of password protection on Excel files, dependant upon the version. Before Office 2003 Excel used unencrypted files which meant that password protection was pretty useless. OOo could read password protected Excel files without the user knowing the password as OOo could read right through the file. Excel 2003 uses encrypted files so password protection is hard to crack and as yet OOo has no work of handling them.

If you really must use an Excel file then you could put the file in a password protected ZIP file. They are encrypted so are as strong as the password you put on it. Alternatively, must you password protect a file that is being emailed? Surely the email account is password protected anyway, does that make the password protection redundant? Just a thought.
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OOo 3.2.0

OOoSVN, change control for OOo documents:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ooosvn/

bennyhill · Newbie Joined: 27 Oct 2006 Posts: 2

okay... thanks..

That's not a good news... but anyway your idea was good...
I'm okay with OOo but other office users will think : "What's up with your office program? Why you can't put a password on the file?"

Hope openoffice can make more better, if they want to compete with MS.

Thanks a lot and have a good day.

David