Last night, my best friend Ann told me she was so helpless because she just got a read-only password-protected word file from her boss. She has no idea to sidestep the password because her boss gets really mad every time she asks him to unlock the word file or send her an unprotected version?
Ahem! I think this is so common for office staffs. Or if you forgot your password to open a Microsoft Word Document, what can you do to bypass this situation?
Okay, here I’ll offer you some suggestions to crack the locked Microsoft Word files. Everyone who thinks this is illegal, and then you can go shopping instead. 
Related: How to Unprotect an Excel Sheet Without Password
1. Try your best to guess the password
You could spend months or years to guess what your word document password is and the result maybe never ever get it. Unlike the movies, it doesn’t tell you when you get a character correct. So you could spend the rest of your life guessing. Or……
2. Crack a Read-Only word document
First, open the document and do a “Save As…” specifying Rich Text Format (RTF). It’ll end up being called something.rtf.
Now open the RTF file by double-clicking on it. It should look identical to the original Word file.
Final step: save the RTF file with a new name as a Microsoft Word format document.
That’s all there is to it. You’ve sidestepped the read-only lock on the file your boss sent you and are good to go.
In terms of actually breaking the password on a file that has it set as the “open file” password, that’s beyond the scope of what I’ll write about here. But I will say that there are some Google searches that can probably help you track down plenty of tips on doing just that.
Also See:
- How to apply different Passwords or Permissions to separate Ranges in Worksheets in Excel
- Consolidate Data from Multiple Worksheets into a Master Worksheet in Excel using VBA
- How to Download/Extract Product Details from eBay Shopping Website in Excel
- How to convert Numbers to Words in Indian Currency Format – VBA Macros