I need to email a few pdf files from my MacBook to a company that's windows based. The files are not big but have important data. How can I easily just lock a file with a password and email it to them? Do I need to download an app anyone knows about? I do not want to sit there and have to use terminal.
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Easy way to password lock a folder for emailing?
- Thread starter FlyingTexan
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If you need to encrypt/password protect a group of files for emailing, RAR and 7Zip archives both support this function. You'll need to download software to do this, and the people receiving the files will need to download software that supports decrypting and unarchiving whatever format you choose. There are other formats, some better, that support this, but those are probably the most simple to find and use for most cases.
If you're sending much more sensitive information or files that will be larger than your email provider's limits, I'd definitely recommend avoiding email for sending these kinds of things in general and instead encrypt files and upload them to a reputable file sharing service that requires authentication to view and download files. I believe Dropbox and OneDrive at least support this.
If you're sending much more sensitive information or files that will be larger than your email provider's limits, I'd definitely recommend avoiding email for sending these kinds of things in general and instead encrypt files and upload them to a reputable file sharing service that requires authentication to view and download files. I believe Dropbox and OneDrive at least support this.
I often have to send encrypted .zip files.
So, I wrote a simple Service using Automator which prompts for a password. To use it, you just have to right click on files in Finder, choose Services and then the name of the script, it prompts for a password and creates the .zip. No software to install, and Windows users can open them no problem.
Instructions are here on a blogger site I set up to keep track of these little tidbits because it is easy to forget over time. It can zip files or folders, but the default compression in Finder is not all that great so if you need to trim the size for emails, you might want to look into WinZip for Mac, or other archive utilities.
So, I wrote a simple Service using Automator which prompts for a password. To use it, you just have to right click on files in Finder, choose Services and then the name of the script, it prompts for a password and creates the .zip. No software to install, and Windows users can open them no problem.
Instructions are here on a blogger site I set up to keep track of these little tidbits because it is easy to forget over time. It can zip files or folders, but the default compression in Finder is not all that great so if you need to trim the size for emails, you might want to look into WinZip for Mac, or other archive utilities.
I use a program named Keka to encrypt files. It's free.
As others have mentioned, just zip up the folder then encrypt that. Can create an encrypted zip via the command line version of zip, but obviously not as easy as dedicated program, and not sure what encryption algorithm is used.
In the future, an option is to create the PDFs and add a password to them. Standard Mac Print dialog box. File > Print, then click the PDF drop down lower-left, Save as PDF. At the bottom of the form that pops-up will be a "Security Options" at the bottom. Set the password there.
As others have mentioned, just zip up the folder then encrypt that. Can create an encrypted zip via the command line version of zip, but obviously not as easy as dedicated program, and not sure what encryption algorithm is used.
In the future, an option is to create the PDFs and add a password to them. Standard Mac Print dialog box. File > Print, then click the PDF drop down lower-left, Save as PDF. At the bottom of the form that pops-up will be a "Security Options" at the bottom. Set the password there.