Re: Word Password Protection Bug

[John McGhie]

Hi John:

Sorry, I was testing to see if the Word 2008 bug with password protection
had been resolved. It appears that it has.

Microsoft has a list of known bugs: It's a database, and they do not share
the contents with us :-) In the Help for Word 2008, there is a "Known
issues in Word 2008" topic that lists the top 20. That's as close as you
will find.

There is still an outstanding issue with passwords created in Windows. Some
forms of those cannot be opened on the Mac.

All I can suggest is that you Maggie one of those documents and see if that
fixes it:

The Maggie:

1. Create a new blank document
2. Carefully select all of the text in the bad document EXCEPT the last
paragraph mark
3. Copy it.
4. Paste in the new document.
5. Save under a new file name and close all, then re-open.

This technique for de-corrupting is known as "Doing a 'Maggie'", after
Margaret Secara from the TECHWR-L mailing list, who first publicised the
technique.

Save first without a password, then save again with the password. The
password is stored in the document Default Section Break. That can corrupt.
The Maggie replaces the default section break, so it may clear the problem.

Cheers

On 28/10/09 8:48 PM, in article 59b7f...@webcrossing.JaKIaxP2ac0,
"J-...@officeformac.com" <J-...@officeformac.com> wrote:

> Thanks for your posting, John. I checked and I'm up to date with all patches.
>
> Your reply doesn't make sense to me, though, because my quandary is
> machine-specific and not something you would be able to recreate on your
> machine.
>
> To describe the problem more specifically, I use Word for my invoices. I open
> a previous invoice, change the information, and save it as a new invoice. I
> needed to make a change to a recent invoice, so I opened it, and it asked for
> my password to modify or open as read-only, like it always does, and I type in
> the same password I've been using for 10 years, and it says the password is
> incorrect. I went back and began to open older invoices, all protected with
> the same password, and all of them tell me the password is incorrect. i know
> for 100% certainty it is wrong. How do you explain that?
>
> And what did you mean by saying in your other post that it was a bug in Word
> 2008? Is there a list of known bugs you were referring to?
>
> Thank you for your help,
>
> John
>
>> Hmmm...
>>
>> It works OK here, in Word 2004 11.5.5. And Word 2008 12.2.1 under OS 10.6.1.
>>
>> I can't say whether it works in 10.5 on a PowerPC.
>>
>> Check that you are fully up-to-date with all the patches, for both OS 10.5
>> and Word 2008.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>>
>> On 28/10/09 10:16 AM, in article 59b7f...@webcrossing.caR9absDaxw,
>> "J-...@officeformac.com" wrote:
>>
>> &gt; Version: 2008
>> &gt; Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
>> &gt; Processor: Power PC
>> &gt;
>> &gt; Hi Folks,
>> &gt;
>> &gt; Strange problem here. Suddenly (it seems) any Word documents that I have
>> saved
>> &gt; with a password can not be unlocked.
>> &gt;
>> &gt; I have only ever used the same password for over 10 years. Now NONE of
>> the
>> &gt; documents that have passwords on them can be unlocked. Obviously
>> something has
>> &gt; become corrupted.
>> &gt;
>> &gt; In this thread
>> (http://www.officeformac.com/ms/ProductForums/Word/1710/0),
>> &gt; John McGhie (an "MVP") states that "It's a bug in Word 2008."
>> &gt;
>> &gt; Is that true? So what do I do now??
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
>> matters unless you intend to pay!
>>
>> John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
>> McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
>> Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
>> +61 4 1209 1410, mailto:jo...@mcghie.name
>>
>>
>>

--

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:jo...@mcghie.name

[J-...@officeformac.com]

John,

Thank you for your help. "The Maggie" did the trick. Funny, I used to use a hard drive cloning method called "The Monte", also named after it's creator.

Thanks again,

John

[John McGhie]

Thanks for letting us know :-)

That's important: we often have no direct experience of a specific problem,
so it is really valuable to us to find out what works (and what doesn't!).

Cheers

On 7/12/09 6:48 PM, in article 59b7f...@webcrossing.JaKIaxP2ac0,
"J-...@officeformac.com" <J-...@officeformac.com> wrote:

--

The email below is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless I ask you to; or unless you intend to pay!

[C@discussions.microsoft.com Stephen C]

This suggestion doesn't help with documents created in Word for Windows by
someone else that have been password-protected and emailed to me in that
form. Is there any sign of a work-around that will enable me to open them?

[Rob Schneider]

What suggestion? What problem? What problem do you have?

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

[CyberTaz]

There is no "sign of a work-around" � That would involve circumventing the
protection scheme which [for all practical purposes] would render the
protection scheme worthless :-)

Windows OS offers Digital Rights Management & Information Rights Management
(DRM/IRM) which is used by Office 2007. That encryption methodology is not
supported on the Mac OS & it isn't something that can simply be 'plugged in'
by way of an update. If that's what has been used in the documents in
question they cannot be opened on a Mac or even by other Windows users who
don't subscribe to the technology.

Windows users who need to collaborate with those outside their "inner
circle" need to understand that. If security is a valid issue they need to
use a method that is accessible to those who need to work with the files.

As an aside: Please refrain from posting issues as a REPLY to the post
submitted by another individual. This issue has nothing to do with the gist
of the original message, the thread is very old, & you've bypassed
submitting any software/OS info that could be important. It's better for you
as well as the responders & those searching the group for solutions if you
post your question as a NEW MESSAGE. Thanks for understanding :-)

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

On 3/5/10 11:30 AM, in article
CC0D2DE8-FB9D-473B...@microsoft.com, "Stephen C" <Stephen