I forgot my password in a word document.  If you've recovered it from
microsoft or someone else, please send me exact instructions.

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Request for Question Clarification by skermit-ga on 11 Jul 2002 23:05 PDT

Which version of Microsoft Word was the document created in (Office97,
Office2000, OfficeXP, Office for Macintosh, etc.)?

Hi Audi,

Microsoft Office stores passwords in different versions of Word in
different ways. In the later versions of Word, only a "Brute Force"
attack is possible to recover some encrypted passwords. The best way
to recover a password is to use a piece of software which has been
specifically written for the purpose.

In my experience, the single best piece of software I have used is
"Advanced Office 2000 Password Recovery" from a company called
Elmsoft. This program will try and retrieve your password by reading
the actual bytes in the file in which the password is stored. If this
fails, you can run a brute force attack using a dictionary of words or
randomly generated letter "strings". You can download a demo version
from their site - but unfortuantly it only shows you the first 3
characters of your password. Often this is enough to jog your memory
and figure out the rest!

You can find a link to the download site of "AO2000pr" at elmsofts
website:
http://www.elcomsoft.com/ao2000pr.html

I have tried various other programs to recover my users passwords from
documents but none has bought me more sucess that this product.
Although it says it is for Office 2000, it will also work with
Office-XP (Word 2002).

Good luck

Molloch