Keep Important Office Documents Protected
In todays world, no one is safe from the prospect of theft. One of the primary targets for thieves is personal information like bank accounts, social insurance numbers and birthdays. With this information it is easy for thieves to steal an identity. Likewise, any company that generates new products or ideas needs to take steps to keep their information safe from their competition.
Take a step towards protecting yourself by placing a password on your documents. This will stop anyone from accessing them without permission. Adding a password to a document is pretty easy, and once you know how you just have to remember to add a password to every sensitive document you own to make them safe.
Those who run an office should consider setting an office-wide policy of protecting important information, as doing so will protect your company from liability should files or even a computer go missing or get stolen. Any clients you have will expect you to keep their information safe. In any MS Office 2007 program you can protect your document by doing the following:
In the top left-hand corner select the Office Button Mouse over Prepare, then choose Encrypt Document Type in your password and click Save
Older versions of MS Office additionally have password protection available, the instructions are just different:
With your document open, go to File | Save As At the top of the Save As screen select Tools | General Options You will be presented with a Save Options screen Enter a password to open / password to modify or both and click OK You will be prompted to re-enter your password(s), click OK when done Save the file
You will want to record your passwords; otherwise you will not be able to open your documents!
Finally you need to ensure that should your hard drive malfunction or get wiped clean by a power surge that you don’t lose all the files that you have worked so hard to protect. Backing up your files gives you a second chance at the files you need if something happens to your computer.
There are a few different ways to back-up your files:
1) CD-ROM: copying your files to a CD-ROM is simple and quick. Keep in mind that you’ll need to make a new CD regularly so your files are up-to-date.
2) USB Flash Drive: You can quickly copy files to small flash drive and keep it with you or in a safe place. Remember to regularly back-up your files so that they are as recent as possible if something should happen, and password protect the drive in case you should lose it
3) Online Storage: Storing your files online is safe and easy, with the added bonus that your files are available wherever you are in the world. For a small monthly fee you will have a folder set aside on a secure sever that only you can access.