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Setting Security for PDF documents

When creating PDF documents, you can use password security to control who has access to the PDF and the kind of access they have when they open the document in PDF software applications.

This security applies only to the PDFs generated from Time and travels with those documents. It is completely separate from the Protection rights and levels set in Time and has no relationship to Time' protection.

There are two passwords that may be used.

  • The first controls who can change the security permissions and is called the Owner password in Time. In Adobe this is called the Permissions password. Anyone with this password who opens the document in PDF-creation software can change the permissions for other users at any time. It is recommended that the owner password be set on all financial statements published in PDF format as a minimum.
  • The second password controls who can open the document and the changes or activities that user may carry out in the PDF software. It is called the User password in Time and the Document Open password in Adobe products.

The two passwords may be the same, though this is not the best choice. If they are the same, then by entering the password to open the document a user can enter the document security settings without reentering the password. He has full rights to the document just by entering the "document open" password.

The security settings and passwords should be set up each time the document is produced. If the PDF document is regenerated from Time and the new copy overwrites the previous one, it overwrites any security settings enabled on the previous document.

If you forget the passwords, they cannot be retrieved. Therefore, record the password(s) chosen in a log and store it in a safe location.

Next

To set security settings on the PDF document