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.

Go to your Help and Support tab in the Start Menu, then type in the "Search"
box:
"Generating encryption keys and certificate requests". Then you will be as
confused as I am.

"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.

Okay....thanks. Yeah.

So, I guess the deal is, this functionality is useless, unless you and/or
your organization are willing to fork over $500+ for a digital certificate to
some third party CA.

I think there is some freeware out there that enables you to encrypt a file
using a variety of encryption methods (Blowfish, TwoFish, RC4, and AES seem
to be some of the buzzwords), but I don't know which ones are good/bad,
strong/weak.

Does anyone out there have any suggestions?

"JLGWhiz" wrote:

Go to your Help and Support tab in the Start Menu, then type in the "Search"
box:
"Generating encryption keys and certificate requests". Then you will be as
confused as I am.

"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.