I am using Office 2003 on Windows XP.

I know that MS-Excel's security has been described as being as "strong as
tissue paper".

However, if you go to [Tools] then [Options] tab then [Security] tab then
click [Advanced], you have the option of using an encryption method which
would seem to offer a much greater form of security than a simple password.
It says that if used, a user would then need a "public key" to decrypt the
file.

However, I applied an encryption method on a test file, but I still only
need the file password to open the file. Does encryption actually encrypt the
file - or the file password?

Does anyone know how this is supposed to work? How do you encrypt a file and
then obtain a key? Can this not be done at the user level?

Does anyone know of any encryption software they can recommend. The reason
is, my family is scattered across the country and we wish to share some
personal information. We all know and like MS-Excel and want to send
information a bit more securely. We just want reasonable security - it
doesn't need to meet any sort of standards or anything. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance for any input.