Quicktip: Unprotect Word Documents

1. Open the protected Word document (note that this quicktip does not address if you need a password to open the document).
2. Click File –> Save As and save it as an RTF document (if you get any compatibility errors just click through them)

1. Right-click on the document and select Open with and then choose NOTEPAD.

1. It will probably take a while for Notepad to fully open it.
2. Hit Ctrl-F and search for the term passwordhash

1. Remove everything after passwordhash until you hit the bracket }

1. Close and save Notepad.
2. Open the document back in Word.
3. Go to Review –>Restrict Editing –>Stop Protection. Save the document back as a Word document and you’re done!

Note that you can’t do this process directly by editing the doc or docx.

Now wasn’t that easy?