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!
I protected my document from opening, copying and printing. When I tried to copy an image, however, the password window would not recognize my password. I re-created the document a second time, and again, I could open and view the document, but I could not print or copy, even after entering my password in the appropriate window. In that window, there is no "OK" button, either. You just enter the password and, I guess, hit the Enter key, but with no results.
This happened to me with the same password declared for both opening and printing, I had to go through the same steps, declared two different passwords and it works perfectly. Hope this helps