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Using Top 2 Best Methods Lock PDF From Editing

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Published By Nilesh Kumar
Debasish Pramanik
Approved By Debasish Pramanik
Published On January 17th, 2024
Reading Time 4 Minutes Reading
Category Adobe PDF, PDF Tips

When a confidential file or any crucial report is required to be shared between the members. The has to ensure the security of the PDF file. So that everyone can access the data but cannot edit them or perform any type of action. For that, the owner can lock PDF from editing. This implies that everyone with whom you share the file will be able to access it and view its contents, but they won’t be able to make any changes.

Though some users might be unaware of this feature. Adobe PDF gives the option to protect PDF from editing and make sure that there is no modifications made. In this post, we will be covering the simple and straightforward methods to lock a PDF file.

What Are the Common Benefits of Locking Your Adobe PDF Files?

  • Confidentiality: Securing your PDF prevents unauthorized access, ensuring that crucial data is safe and secured.
  • Data Integrity: Locking a PDF file ensures that no one can edit or alter confidential PDF file data, preserving the document’s originality and accuracy.
  • Restricted Access & Controlled Sharing: Option to restrict those who can only access data and authorized users get the option to protect PDF from editing and printing.
  • Client Communication: When sharing documents with clients or partners, password protection enhances professionalism and demonstrates a commitment to safeguarding information.

How to Manually Lock PDF From Editing?

By using Adobe Acrobat, users can easily restrict editing of PDF files. Follow the steps mentioned and protect PDF from editing

  1. Create a PDF first with Adobe Acrobat Pro.
  2. Now select the Protection option from the Tools menu.
  3. After that, press Encrypt with a password after clicking the Encrypt button.
  4. To confirm, press the Yes button at this point.
  5. After that, select an option by clicking the Compatibility drop-down menu.
  6. Select Encrypt All Document Contents from the menu.
  7. Select “Restrict editing and printing of the document” in the drop-down menu.
  8. Afterwards, uncheck the option next to “Enable Copying Of Text, Images, And Other Content” and enter the password. Select OK by clicking.

If a file already exists then open that file and start following from the 2nd step and you will be able to lock PDF from editing.

Note – One needs to purchase the professional version of Adobe Acrobat to use the application and restrict editing of PDF files.

You may find some online tool that also provides similar kind of PDF locking solutions. However, they do not equally protect your PDF files and the chances of data breaching increase. So, it is always suggested that one should choose trustworthy tools to lock PDF from editing that are available online for free.

Few users might not have the professional version or cannot afford to lose data by using the online free tools. For those users, we have an automated solution that can put restrictions on PDF file and safeguard the data present in them.

Use Alternative Solution to Protect PDF From Editing Without Adobe

One can consider using the PDF Lock Software, which is a helpful tool to lock PDF from editing, printing and other actions. It helps to disable the form-filling or commenting in PDF documents. Users just need to load the files that they want to lock rest of the tool locks the PDF files and it encrypts PDF file password by using the AES 256 bit. Also, the user has the option to save the file at any location.

Download Now Purchase Now

How to Use this Software to Restrict Editing of PDF Without Adobe?

  1. To protect the PDF files, initially download the tool and insert the PDF files to protect PDF from editing.

lock PDF from editing

2. Once the files are added, use the Change button and mention the destination path to save the lock files.

set the path to save the file

3. After that, go to the Settings section and tick mark the “Apply Document Restriction option”. And apply the password

apply required settings

4. Once all the required settings are applied, hit the Lock button to lock PDF from editing.

lock PDF from editing

Also Read: How to Extract Links, URL & HyperLinks from PDF File

Conclusion

Whenever confidential PDF files or reports are generated, they need to be secured in case of sharing those files. This ensured that no one could edit or make any modifications. For that, we have covered some methods in this post which will help users to choose the best and most suitable way to lock PDF from editing. Here we have discussed some manual solutions with an automated method that can handle multiple files and unlock them easily.

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By Nilesh Kumar

As a Chief Technical Writer, I know the technical issues faced by home and professional users. So, I decided to share all my knowledge via this blog. I love to help you with challenges while dealing with technical jargon.