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PageFour Help - Privacy

Have you ever written something you really did not want anyone else to read? Maybe it was a diary entry where you wrote about your husband's unusual eating habits; maybe it was your true opinion of the management team at work; or perhaps the final folder of your seventh novel - the one where we find out who lives and who dies, and what that whole prophecy thing was all about anyway.

Many word processes have features that enable individual documents to be password protected, but PageFour allows a password to be set at a global level. All you have to decide is which, if any, pages are to be protected. You only need to remember one password, and you only need to enter it once - the first time you open a password protected page.

In this Section

Password Protection

The first time you open the Notebook, a password will not be set. To add a password, go to the Tools menu and select Change Password. The following dialog will appear.

Password Dialog

The space for you to enter your current password will be greyed out if you have not yet set a password. Simply type your new password into the two spaces provided. Passwords are not case sensitive. Once you have added your password, you will be able to protect any pages you wish at a single click.

Should you decide you no longer need the password (you may live alone or have complete trust in everyone around you - if so, congratulations), it can easily be switched off by opening the same dialog you used to add the password, and simply leaving the new password fields blank. This will remove the password protection from every protected page in your notebooks, allowing them to be opened freely by anyone.

As with any password protected data, it is vital that you not lose the password. Once you have set a password, your protected pages cannot be opened without it, so you should find a safe place to store it or take a course in long term memory enhancement techniques.

To password protect a page, select the page you wish to protect and choose the Password Protect option from either the Notebook or right click menu. You are then free to express your creative opinions on your boss and boyfriend, without fear of ever having to face the consequences.

Removing the password is simply a case of selecting the Remove Password option from the same menus.

It really is that simple.

The default setting for privacy is to leave the decision to password protect a page up to you. You can however, change this setting so that every new page is password protected automatically. Simply open the Options dialog from the Tools menu and select Privacy. Do remember though, that if you forget your password, there is no way to open protected pages.

Locking and Unlocking the Notebook

How many times have you closed a document when you went to make a cup of coffee? It may not have been the most sensitive data in the world, but there are times when you just do not want anyone passing by to be able to read what you are currently working on. Perhaps you were lampooning the boss, or comparing your husband to a lethargic gorilla, but whatever the reason, privacy is important to all of us.

Enter Password Dialog

PageFour allows you to lock the Notebook by pressing a single key, thereby saving you the hassle of closing it down, reopening it a few minutes later, searching for where you were in a page, etc.

Locked Notebook

Once you have set a password for your Notebook, you can lock the Notebook by pressing the F4 shortcut key. This locks all the functionality of PageFour apart from the current page, preventing anyone from opening other pages or folders. Any attempt to do so will immediately prompt the user to enter the password.

When PageFour is locked, a small picture of a key appears at the top left of the notebooks pane.

Clicking on this picture or pressing the F5 shortcut key will allow you to unlock the Notebook and continue working.

Lock and Unlock options are also available on the Tools menu.