Word docx - was password protected - cannot open

[Malcolm and Rosemary Harrison]

I run XP SP2 and Office 2007. My wife has been using a sensitive Word 2007
file for some time, which she password protected, and the contents of which
she was able to access using that password (which she can remember and is
the correct password). Recently, she says she was prompted by Word to get
it to provide stronger or better protection - she thinks the word 'double'
protection may have been mentioned, and perhaps the word 'encryption' was
used. That's all she can remember. Now it will not open. Out of my depth
here. To experiment, I saved the document on a USB and tried to open it
using a program called Office Password Recovery Pro. It said the file is
not password protected, which it was. So evidently it is no longer password
protected, put it that way. That made me think that perhaps the file is now
encrypted. I have Googled decryption of Word docs, but I don't wish to
experiment with any of these results, as encryption scares me. I understand
Word 2007 does use encryption for passwords, but I can't get my head go
beyond that. Any ideas? Thanks for any help/advice

 

[Graham Mayor]

Password protection against opening encrypts the document.
As you already know the password, a password recovery tool (even if
compatible with Word 2007) is not going to be of any value.
There was an update a while back that caused a few problems with password
protection. There was a hotfix for that
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;970942&sd=rss&spid=11377
which was rolled up uinto SP2 but that introduced other issues and was fixed
by another hotfix http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970942/ Whether this will
help I cannot say.
Word 2007 format is actually a zip file. If you rename you copy to
filename.zip you should eb able to open it with WinZip or WinRar and examine
the XML files that make up the content, which may point a way forward.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Malcolm and Rosemary Harrison]

Graham

Many thanks. I note in particular what you say about a zip file, and will
try that. Meantime, when I happened to copy the file to the desktop, and I
tried the password again, hey presto!, the file opened. Does the desktop
operate perhaps outside the rules, to use that word, governing Explorer and
its contents?

 

[Graham Mayor]

No - the desktop is merely a folder location. There are however issues
related to opening from removable media. I'd quit while you are ahead

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Malcolm and Rosemary Harrison]

Many thanks.

I don't follow you about the 'opening from removable media'.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Graham is warning you about opening Word files directly from a floppy, USB
flash drive, etc. Don't do it! Always copy them to the HD first. And don't
save directly to removable media, either. Always work on files from the HD
and then Send or Copy back to the removable drive.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Graham Mayor]

Opening documents from removable media (also saving to and printing from)
results in temporary files being created in the working folder. If there is
not sufficient space to create them or you remove the media before they have
been deleted correctly the document will be irrecoverably corrupted without
warning. This is more of a problem with floppy discs, but can occur with
flash memory. ALWAYS copy to and from the removable media and work directly
from the hard drive.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Malcolm and Rosemary Harrison]

Thanks, guys. I was not aware of what you say and am most grateful you have
said it.