macOS Monterey up the game for the Preview app in a pernicious path : you’re able to better control over PDFs . In Big Tyre and earlier releases of macOS , you had to swear on Adobe Acrobat or another PDF - redaction program to set control .
Now , Preview in Monterey aright lets you produce an proprietor / permissions password and pick which element of a PDF may be qualify and whether it may be print by those who get the PDF . you’re able to also set a separate substance abuser / open password that must be entered when opening a PDF to view or play upon it ; previously , this watchword was the only option usable in Preview .
These change also explain why Monterey incapacitate File > Export as PDF : Apple now better observes the permissions embed in a PDF . Before Big Sur , you could choose File > Print and then Save as PDF to get around these restrictions . In Big Sur , Appleblocked that pathway , but still let File > Export as PDF . In Monterey , PDFs lock up against file adjustment or printing process can neither be printed nor exported to create an editable single file .
Monterey changes up the PDF permissions game, starting with the Save dialog.
Let ’s look first at PDF word and then at subject matter - level permissions .
Set an owner and a user password
Before Monterey , Preview let you lay out a password when you used File > Save As for a PDF file or chose single file > Export as PDF . However , this word only operate whether someone possessing it could reach the file cabinet . Any extra file controls had to be set in another program .
By adding PDF - degree license ascendence to Preview , Apple also had to update how you put a parole for the file .
When you choose filing cabinet > Duplicate and then relieve the file , chooseFile > Export > PDF , orFile > Export as PDF , or hold down selection and chooseFile > Save As , Preview ’s selection in the Save dialogue no longer admit the password fields , replacing them with a Permissions button .
The Save dialog’s Permissions button brings up the options at left, as doesFile > Edit Permissions. The Inspector’s Encryption pane reveals permissions and other settings, and lets you click to unlock the document if you have the owner password.
clack this button , and you’re able to singly dress Require Password To Open Document at the top and Owner Password at the bottom . The password that opens a file does n’t give up its owner to modify a PDF ’s permissions — only the proprietor password has that privilege . ( Apple calls it the “ owner ” password ; Adobe , the “ permissions ” watchword . )
Save a file without clicking Permissions , and all permission are available , and no countersign is required to reach the PDF .
Click Permissions , and you must set an proprietor word and pick among the permit describe in the next section . An owner password isalwaysrequired to fructify a user password , even if you enable all permissions .
Choose permissions
The PDF format lets you apportion a single file with other people that preserves its precise appearance at the clock time of creation . But you may not always want people to have the ability to manipulate the file . Adobe , the format ’s creator , provided several different preferences . Preview for Monterey plunk for limiting :
Apple also lists interchange text file attributes , like the creator or keywords , but this permission can not be localise or modified as a disjoined detail in the permissions list .
you could arrange these permissions at the time you initially hold open or export a PDF . you may also chooseFile > Edit Permissionslater as long as you have entered or possess the owner watchword .
If you have n’t launch the file by entering the owner password , chooseTools > Show Inspector , click the ignition lock ikon at the top to expose the Encryption sentiment , and click the lock picture to the right hand of Unlock as Owner . record the proprietor password . you’re able to now click the Edit push button to theFile > Edit Permissionsdialog .
View permissions
When you give a filing cabinet in any fashion — with no password , a user parole , or an owner parole — you may use the Inspector pallet ’s Encryption view to see what permissions are available to you , and to enter the owner password if you have it .
This Mac 911 clause is in reaction to a question submitted by Macworld reader Samuel .
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