How To Add Password To Pdf On Mac

How secure is your data really? When yous send a PDF file, how do you know the file is secure?

Password protection is ofttimes one of the start things that comes to mind when considering "document security." Protecting a PDF file with a countersign is an easy way to ensure that a sent file is protected.

Why protect PDF files with a password?

Countersign protection is not perfect. Information technology is just the well-nigh basic level of PDF protection. This level of protection does not foreclose people from sharing their countersign, or passing on the document together with the password in an online forum. Some companies even completely nullify their use of password protection by sending the certificate and the password to admission it in the same email!

Password protection on its own doesn't let yous to track the document or to meet who has opened it. If the content is open to being copied, in that location is nothing to prevent the recipient from doing so and spreading the information elsewhere. This is why 1 of our recommendations is that you employ password protection along with other security means, such as preventing copying and printing, and tracking your document.

How to encrypt a PDF file with a countersign

You can hands add a password to PDF documents yourself, of class begetting in mind the limitations we take simply outlined. Permit's look at the diverse methods to countersign protect your PDF.

Password protect a PDF file using Word

Many PDF files begin life equally a Give-and-take document so it makes sense to be able to encrypt them through the program. You would need to have the following steps on a PC:

Open up the Discussion doc that yous desire saved as a PDF. Go to File > Save as > Select relieve selection as PDF.
Select the "More options" link underneath the file format box, then select the "Options" button from the box that pops up.
Select the "Encrypt certificate with a password choice," then enter a password (twice) every bit prompted. Hit "Save." Now, every fourth dimension this file is opened in Office or in whatever other program, it will prompt people for the password.

Encrypting a PDF with a password on your Mac

A Mac allows you to set a password using the native, Mac OS through the "Preview" program. Here's how it works:

Double-click on your PDF medico to open in the Preview app.
Click File > Save.
Bank check the encrypt box > enter your countersign > click save.

Notation: If y'all have a PDF file in Google Docs, you tin follow this same method on a Mac later on saving a copy to your desktop to piece of work from.

Screenshot 2018-02-26 14.57.18_preview.png

Is password protection an ideal solution?

Password protection is a unproblematic solution, but it is far from ideal. You may have put a pocket-size bulwark in identify to view your document, just you do not know who has seen it, for how long or how many times they've accessed it.

The cardinal problem hither is that a password is not tied to the identity of the person viewing the file. At that place is 1 countersign for the file and it can just exist passed on to others together with the file, and you will exist none the wiser. There is also no way to revoke the file or accept information technology back if you lot're using free encryption methods such as via Give-and-take.

Another important consideration is, although the file is password protected, the contents of the file tin withal be copied and pasted into another file after it is opened.

Digify – the amend alternative

Digify offers a ameliorate alternative rather than only putting a password or passkey on a file. With Digify, the file can be encrypted using a highly secure AES-256 algorithm using your password. Digify tin also protect multiple file formats other than PDF.

While countersign protection is bachelor as a feature within Digify, there are other options bachelor too, for instance restricting access to only people you invite. This is more secure than just a password on the file, as it is tied to the identity of the person. They would need to validate their identity with a one-time code earlier they are immune access to the file.

Digify's features permit you lot greater control over the files you send:

Protect
- Restrict admission to your files. You lot can choose whether people can forward the file, or not. New recipients are as well tracked.
- Revoke access to the file at any time.
- Protect the file confronting copy and paste, or another copy being made.
- Control whether people can print, and if so, how many times.
- Place a watermark on the file, with the recipient's name on it.
- Make a file self-destruct or expire.
Track
- Know who has viewed your file, for how long and how many times
- Get instant notifications on your email and Digify mobile app once someone opens your file.

Yous tin can test these features out for yourself with a free 7 day trial of Digify. Sign up here to get started.