How to Unlock A Read Only Word Document without Password

“I got a Word 2010 document with the editing protection. I want to modify the content and make it myself but it is impossible to do it in read only version. How can I get rid of read only in Word?”

Have been requested to answer a question on a forum, I doubt there must be someone who also wants to do the same thing as the user. Here, you can get two useful methods to unlock a read only Word document without passwordand edit it in your way.

• Method 1: Open the read only Word document with WordPad
• Method 2: Remove edit protection from Word document with a click

Method 1: Open the read only Word document with WordPad

As is known to all, you can add the modify password to protect the Word document when you save the content. Also, you can enable the editing restriction with a password to lock the editing permission. No matter which way you do, you can open the read-only Word document with WordPad and edit the content.

Step 1: Open the locked Word document with WordPad.

Right-click the Word document with editing protection and click Open with. After that, it will show you several choices; choose WordPad as your option.

Step 2: Edit the content in WordPad.

When the restricted Word document is opened in WordPad, it is unlocked automatically. You can add, delete and change the layout as you like. 

Step 3: Save the content.

Go to File > Save and choose the first option. Then your read only Word document is unlocked. You can reopen the Word document with Microsoft Word and edit it directly.

Method 2: Remove edit protection from Word document with a click

If the first method fails to work for you locked Word the document, you can use iSunshare Word Unprotect Genius to remove the edit protection from Word document with just a few clicks.

Step 1: Install iSunshare Word Unprotect Genius on your computer.

It is free for you to download the software from iSunshare official webpage. You just need a few minutes to install it on your computer following the guides.  Moreover, it is in a small size.

Step 2: Run the computer and add the locked read only Word document.

After you start the software, you can quickly know what to do next. Click the Add button and select your Word document with the editing protection to open.

Step 3: Remove editing protection from Word document

You just need to click the Remove password button and the software will create another copy of the content without password for you instantly. You can do anything on that unprotected Word document.

Related Articles:

1. 2 Ways to Lock Word2010/2013/2016 Document with Editing Protection
2. 5 Methods to RemoveRead Only from Word Document
3. How to unlock a Word document that is locked for editing 
4. How to Lock Word Document with Full or Segment Protection