This tip comes from DocumentSnap reader A.S. (thanks!).
If you want to add a password to a PDF document, that functionality is built in to Mac OSX’s Preview application.
For Windows users, you can use a free program like PDFCreator to do something similar.
Here we go:
- Load up your PDF in Preview
- Go to File -> Print
- Click on the PDF icon in the bottom left and choose Save To PDF
- Hit the Security Options button
- You now have options to set a password to open, set a password to be able to copy text (cool) and even set a password to be able to print
- Now when you go to open the PDF, the user gets prompted for the password
Do you use any other methods to password protect or, even better, totally encrypt your PDFs before sending them to someone? Leave your strategies in the comments.
Also, if someone has a clever way to automate this process for a bunch of PDFs at once (using Automator or an Applescript?) that would be great too.
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Great tip; but if I save this to my iDisc, then try to open on my iPhone, it's just blank!