PDF files are a fantastic was to store computer documents. They can be opened on near enough any computer and the file will look the same as it was originally intended. All sorts of computers: Windows, Linux, Mac, even PDAs and mobile phones.
It's also possible to keep your PDFs from prying eyes by password protecing them. Before the PDF can be opened, the person who wants to read the file needs to enter a password.
Which is all well and good until the moment you need to open a password protected PDF file but you've stored the password in a "safe" place. Like in your home email and you're trying to open the file at the office. Or maybe the email with the password has been deleted. Or you thought "I'll always remember that password" and never wrote it down. Maybe the PDF password was set by a colleague who doesn't work for your company any more.
The other products that get protected by passwords are ebooks that you've just bought. For whatever reason, the product's owner is paranoid and thinks that every customer has the ulterior motive of stealing their product. Personally I think that treating customers like thieves will make them more open to sharing files. And I then promptly re-name the file with the password included so that I won't have to remember where the password was stored. I didn't always do this and some early PDFs I've bought are still locked as not only have I lost the email but the firm I bought the ebook from no longer exists.
Often you only realize a password has been lost at the last minute. So you need to retrieve the password quickly.
There are several ways to get around this problem.
You can simply ignore the file in the hope that your failure to open it won't matter.
If you've got time on your hands, you can start to enter all your "favorite" password combinations. Usually in the vain hope that you'll quickly find the password you used to protect the file.
You can download an inexpensive PDF password recovery program that will do all the typing for you and will find the lost PDF password for you in a matter of minutes.
Check out one of the best PDF password recovery programs I've found.
