In this day and age, where more and more administrative functions are being ported over online web-based tools, it is an excellent choice for employees with administrative jobs to be in the know about new, up and coming technologies to further streamline daily tasks and responsibilities. PDF editing, specifically, has seen a shift in the way it is done in the past few years, thanks to browser-based web applications.
The truth of the matter is that as we become more connected as a planet, it will take time to turn everything with the help of the Internet fully. But not impossible, of course. In the world of PDF editing, online edits are becoming more and more functional. From converting, to editing, even protecting PDFs, you can now easily do it with web-based applications. That’s why in this article, we’ve taken the liberty of listing down the three important steps in protecting PDFs, no matter where you are in the world.
1. Upload file
While there are numerous PDF applications online that offer protection and encryption for PDF files, there is none more straightforward and easy to use as PDFBear protect PDF application. To go to the app, open your browser, whether it is on a work computer, laptop, iPad, or smartphone. Chrome is best used, but you can also use other default browsers like Safari and Mozilla Firefox.
Go to the Protect PDF application – from the menu of applications; it should be under the protect and encrypt category. Once you clicked on that, you should be taken to an uploader immediately. When uploading a file, make sure that it does not exceed 100MB. You can upload a direct file or drag and drop it from any of your desktop locations. Direct links aren’t supported now, but you can just download the PDF file on the link and then upload it.
2. Set password
The next step is to set the password for encryption. The user does password setting, and while it’s better to have software do it for you, because it usually generates great password combinations and remembers them for you, that technology is still far from perfect. So right now, you should be the one to choose the password.
When choosing a password for encryption, always remember to include alphanumeric elements. Don’t set a password that’s all letters, or numbers, for that matter, because they’re easy to crack. This is especially true for confidential files and documents. If its an office memo that you are encrypting, a universal password unique to the office should do. Once you finish inputting the password, repeat it for confirmation.
3. Encrypt and download
After uploading and setting, the next part is to encrypt the file. This should be done automatically after you press the “protect” button, but in some similar web applications, you will still have to set another parameter. With PDF Bear’s Protect PDF application, the process is more straightforward – after setting the password, it’s direct to encryption.
The entire encryption process should take no more than 3 minutes for short and lightweight files. But if you’re working with, let’s say, 10-25MB files, the process would probably be longer. Once that’s done, you should have a new PDF file ready to download. Download it and check if the password-protection worked. You’ll know it did when you can’t directly open the new file without inputting the set password first.
Takeaway
Protecting any file is important to ensure that the intended person who needs to read the contents of the file gets to read it exclusively. If you are tasked with this, don’t defer to third-party, dedicated PDF readers and editors to do it. Go online and see for yourself how easy and effortless the process is. This way, you won’t be tied to your work computer and will have the added ability to edit on the go.
