So someone sent me a word document that was write protected, and I needed to edit the file, I had no password, and no way of asking for it…So I looked around the web, and they mentioned that there was a pretty easy way to do this:



Create a new blank document, then insert file, and insert the file that is protected.



Sure this works, however if your file has images or headers and footers, they sometimes get lost in the process. So there has to be a better way.



Here it is:



Save your protected file in RTF format. Then using good old Notepad, open that file up. Look for the following string of text:

formprot/allprot/

Delete that, save the file, open the file, and now you can edit your file.


This has been tested only with Office XP. If you notice some different behavior let me know.



-dm