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With LibreOffice I Will Password Encrypt my Secret Text Note
I’ve been struggling to find a simple, secure way to protect a text note containing my Facebook password. (I have a complex Facebook password so need to keep it in a note so I don’t forget it)
Ever since TrueCrypt reached end-of-life support, I’ve been trying to find another solution. I wrote about How to Symmetric Password Encrypt a File on Mac with GPGTools GPGServices and then Decrypt it on Windows with Gpg4win Kleopatra. (http://wieldlinux.com/?p=58) I used that for a while and felt it was secure. But it needed keys in addition to passwords, and it took a lot of mouse clicks and keyboard strokes to encrypt or decrypt the file, and also the user interface that I used on Windows vs. Mac was different, and then one of the client apps broke and I didn’t know how to easily fix it.
Thus I’ve been looking for an alternative file encryption solution that works on Mac and Windows.
Now I’ll use LibreOffice’s (.odt/.ods) "File > Save as… > Save with password" functionality to encrypt my text note. It needs only a password to encrypt or decrypt a file (no keys needed in addition to the password). It takes only a couple of mouse-clicks and keyboard strokes to do. The user interface is nearly the same on Windows/Mac/Linux. So far it hasn’t broken on me.
Descriptive screenshot of encrypting and decrypting an .ods spreadsheet:
This article says that it’s secure and tells how to do it:
Password Protect Your Documents When Using LibreOffice
This article tells more about it and what encryption is used and in what version:
(SHA-256 as of LibreOffice Version 3.5)
[LibreOffice] "Release Notes 3.5" > "Different Encryption Algorithm"
LibreOffice’s “Save with password” functionality is a
simple, secure way to protect my secret text note.
*2015-01-21 edit: previously published at http://w̶i̶e̶l̶d̶l̶i̶n̶u̶x̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/2015-01-01-libreoffice-encrypt-text-note.html
*2015-07-29 edit: White space cleaned up to improve this post’s readability, cosmetic change, and fix broken hyperlink.
[2019 edit: Moved to: https://i̶n̶v̶e̶s̶t̶o̶r̶w̶o̶r̶k̶e̶r̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/2015/... .html.]