Install a Program or Go Online
These four programs must be installed on your computer before you can use them to password protect a PDF file. You might even already have one of them, in which case it’ll be quick and easy to just open the program, load the PDF, and add a password. However, if you’re looking for a much faster (but still free) way to make the PDF have a password, skip down to the next section below for some free online services that can do the exact same thing.
Password Protect a PDF With PDFMate PDF Converter
One absolutely free program that can not only convert PDFs to other formats like EPUB, DOCX, HTML, and JPG but also put a password on a PDF, is PDFMate PDF Converter. It works on Windows only. You don’t have to convert the PDF to one of those formats because you can instead choose PDF as the export file format and then change the security settings to enable a document open password.
Password Protect a PDF Using Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Acrobat can add a password to a PDF, too. If you don’t have it installed or would rather not pay for it just for this, feel free to grab the free 7-day trial. You can optionally choose Permission Password, too, to set up a PDF owner password to restrict editing, copying, and printing from the PDF. The PDF can be saved to the same location as the original or you can choose Custom to pick a different folder.
Password Protect a PDF With Microsoft Word
It might not be your first guess that Microsoft Word can password protect a PDF, but it’s most certainly capable of doing so! Just open the PDF in Word and then go into its properties to encrypt it with a password. At this point, you can continue through these steps to save the PDF with just a document open password, but if you also want to restrict editing and printing, stay on the Password Security - Settings screen and fill out the details under the Permissions section.
Password Protect a PDF Using OpenOffice Draw
OpenOffice is a suite of several office products, one of which is called Draw. By default, it can’t open PDFs very well, nor can it be used to add a password to a PDF. However, the PDF Import extension can help, so be make sure to install that extension once you have OpenOffice Draw on your computer.
Password Protect a PDF Using an Online Service
Use one of these websites if you don’t have those programs from above, aren’t willing to download them, or would just prefer to add a password to your PDF in a faster way. It might take several seconds for Draw to open the file, especially if there are several pages and lots of graphics. Once it’s fully opened, you should take this time to edit any text that might have been altered when Draw attempted to import the file. You can also put a password in the last two fields if you want to protect the permissions from being changed.
Soda PDF lets you upload from your computer or load the file directly from your Dropbox or Google Drive account. Smallpdf is extremely similar, except it defaults to 128-bit AES encryption. Once your PDF is uploaded, the encryption process is quick, and you can save the file back to your computer or your account at Dropbox or Google Drive. FoxyUtils is one more example. Just upload the file from your computer or a cloud storage site, choose a password, and optionally put a check in any of the custom options like to allow printing, modifications, copying and extracting, and filling out forms.
Encrypt PDFs on macOS
Most of the programs and all of the websites from above will work just fine for password protecting PDFs on your Mac. However, they really aren’t necessary since macOS provides PDF encryption as a built-in feature!
