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How do I change the password on a protected PDF document?I have a protected [secured] PDF document that my lawyer sent me and I want to save it on my iMac but I want to change the password from what she thought would be memorable to something I know I'll remember in six months. How can I easily do that? That's a bit of a tricky one though I surmise that the easiest solution is to simply do a "save as" and assign a new password as you go, then delete the old version with the password you can't remember. I'm a big fan of experimentation, however, so let's see what we can figure out... First off, when you have a secure PDF here's what it looks like in the Finder: Double click it, and you'll probably move into the Apple Preview app, which will show you a nice red screen: ![]() The fact that it shows there are 30 pages to the document is a bit of a security glitch in my opinion: you should know nothing about an encoded/protected document until you validate the password, but that's a different story I suppose. Enter the correct password and it'll show you the document "in the clear", without any privacy or protection. Just as you'd expect. Now choose File -- > Save As...: ![]() And the ensuing dialog gives you the option you need: ![]() That's not too difficult, but let's also try the same thing in Adobe Reader, just out of curiosity... ![]() Digging around, there's also no way to change the password on an existing PDF document that's been encrypted / secured, so apparently the best answer to your question of how to change the password on a PDF document is to use "save as" to specify a new password than delete the old one. Not elegant, but certainly functional. One tip: when you do delete the old version, make sure you empty the trashcan (or, better, use secure delete -- switch to the Finder, then off the Finder menu you'll find "Secure Empty Trash...") to ensure that it's not sitting around forgotten on your system.
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Mac OS X Help
(Article 9417,
Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: adobe reader, data security, encrypted pdf, encryption, privacy, secure pdf Previous: Why is my iPhone 3GS playing back audiobooks in shuffle mode? Next: What is "article spinning" software? Reader Comments To Date:
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