I am using Office 2003 on Windows XP.

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 greater 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?

Thanks for your assistance.

Did you open the file on the same computer that you encrypted it with? If
so, it probably recognizes its own encryption. Other than that I don't know.
--
JNW


"quartz" wrote:

I am using Office 2003 on Windows XP.

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 greater 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?

Thanks for your assistance.