Introduction
We have covered how to generate separate PDF files from a word mail merge using VBA in an earlier article. Now we are going to protect each of the generated PDFs with their own unique password. Unfortunately, VBA does not allow you to add a password when saving PDF files, so we had to find a different way.
In this article, we will provide you with a script and a walkthrough to enable you to password protect multiple of PDF files, each with its own unique password.
- The files and passwords are provided by you in a CSV file.
- The process is controlled using a PowerShell Script (PowerShell is Microsoft’s modern version of the Command Prompt).
- The processing of the PDFs is done using an open-source PDF library called PdfSharp.
This method is free – you do not have to purchase any additional software.
The Video
Coming Soon
The Super Quick Version
- Create a CSV file listing the full file paths of all the PDF files you wish to protect, along with a password for each. The headings for these columns should be “FilePath” and “Password” (other columns will be ignored). Please see video on emails with attachments for how to copy file paths in Windows.
- Click the green button below to download a Zip file containing the script.
- Extract the script “Bulk Password Protect PDF Files.ps1” to your chosen location (e.g. your Desktop).
- Right click on the script and choose “Run with PowerShell” (this option does not appear in the Zip file view, you have to extract the script).
- You may see text asking if you wish to add Nuget and PdfSharp, select yes for both. Documentation can be found on the Microsoft website here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/nuget/ and on the PdfSharp website: http://www.pdfsharp.net/
- A select file dialog box will appear, select the CSV file you created in the first step.
- Watch the progress on the blue screen.
- Once done you will see a message about the log file created to store the results – press enter to finish the process.
- Thats it, you are done.
Many thanks to empira Software GmbH (http://www.pdfsharp.net) who created PdfSharp and published it as Open Source software.
The Code
PowerShell Script
#############################################################################
#
# Script created by Imnoss Limited
# Last Updated: 2021-10-27
# Please feel free to share while retaining attribution
#
# For full instructions on how to use please visit:
# https://imnoss.com/batch-protect-pdfs-with-different-passwords/
#
#############################################################################
# If you are viewing this in the PowerShell ISE, highlight the row below and press F8 to
# enable the script to be run after saving.
Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Scope Process
# clear the blue part of the screen (makes it easier to see what is output from the script and what is the script
Clear-Host
Write-Host @"
Script created by Imnoss Limited
please visit https://imnoss.com/batch-protect-pdfs-with-different-passwords/ for more information
Many thanks to empira Software GmbH (http://www.pdfsharp.net) who created the PdfSharp library and published it as Open Source software
Starting PDF Password protection script...
"@
# First try installing the PDFSharp library
try
{
# Check for NuGet being registered as a package source, and register if not
if ( -not (Get-PackageSource -ProviderName NuGet -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue))
{ Register-PackageSource -Name MyNuGet -Location https://www.nuget.org/api/v2 -ProviderName NuGet -Trusted -ErrorAction Stop}
# Check for the PDFSharp library being installed, install if not
if ( -not (Get-Package -Name "PDFSharp-gdi" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue))
{ Install-Package -Name PDFSharp-gdi -RequiredVersion 1.50.5147 -ProviderName NuGet -Scope CurrentUser -ErrorAction Stop}
# The package should be installed, so try grabbing it, then use the package file path to identify the desired DLL file
$pdfSharpPackage = Get-Package -Name "PDFSharp-gdi" -ErrorAction Stop
$pdfSharpFolder = $pdfSharpPackage.Source.Substring(0, $pdfSharpPackage.Source.LastIndexOf("\"))
$pdfSharpPath = (Get-ChildItem -Path $pdfSharpFolder -Recurse -Include "PdfSharp-gdi.dll" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue).FullName
Add-Type -LiteralPath $pdfSharpPath
Write-Host "PDFSharp library successfully imported"
Write-Host ""
}
catch
{
$errorType = if ($_.InvocationInfo.InvocationName) {$_.InvocationInfo.InvocationName} else {$_.Exception.Message}
$errorCode = switch($errorType)
{
"Register-PackageSource" {"Nuget could not be registered as a source"; Break}
"Install-Package" {"The PDFSharp package could not be installed"; Break}
"Get-Package" {"The PDFSharp package was not installed correctly"; Break}
"Cannot index into a null array." {"Could not find DLL library"; Break}
"Add-Type" {"The PDFSharp package could not be added as a library"; Break}
default {$_.Exception.Message}
}
Write-Host "An error occurred: $errorCode"
Read-Host -Prompt "PDF files cannot be password protected, press Enter to exit script"
Break
}
try
{
# add in the system open file dialog library so the dialog can be displayed
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
# set the initial directory for the open file dialog
# "special folders" like the desktop or documnets folders can be specified, the full list of special folders
# can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.environment.specialfolder
# alternatively this can be changed to a hard coded path, e.g. $InitialDirectory = "D:\Letters"
$InitialDirectory = [Environment]::GetFolderPath('MyDocuments')
#InitialDirectory = $InitialDirectory
# set up the open file dialog with a
$FileBrowser = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.OpenFileDialog `
-Property @{ Title = "Please select your list of PDF files and passwords"
Filter = "CSV/Text files (*.csv;*.txt)|*.csv;*.txt|All files (*.*)|*.*"
FilterIndex = 1 }
$button = $FileBrowser.ShowDialog()
if (-not ($FileBrowser.FileName)) {Throw "File dialog cancelled"}
# read the CSV file into variable $csv
$csv = Import-Csv -Path $FileBrowser.FileName -Delimiter "," -Encoding UTF8
# check for the key columns of 'FilePath' and 'Password', if not found throw an error
if(-not($csv | Get-Member -Name "FilePath")) {throw "FilePath"}
if(-not($csv | Get-Member -Name "Password")) {throw "Password"}
# create a file path for the results - this is the same as the input CSV file path, except that the file name ends with
# 'Results' followed by the date and time the script is run - this should ensure a unique results file each time the
# script is run, and avoid problems updating the input CSV which may occur if the file is open in e.g. Excel
$outputCsv = "$($FileBrowser.FileName.Substring(0, $FileBrowser.FileName.LastIndexOf('.'))) Results $(Get-Date -Format "yyyy-MM-dd hh.mm.ss").csv"
Write-Host "CSV file read"
Write-Host ""
}
catch
{
$errorType = if ($_.InvocationInfo.InvocationName) {$_.InvocationInfo.InvocationName} else {$_.Exception.Message}
$errorCode = switch($errorType)
{
"Add-Type" {"Could not add FileDialog library"; Break}
"New-Object" {"Could not create a FileDialog to select CSV"; Break}
"File dialog cancelled" {"File dialog cancelled"; Break}
"Import-Csv" {"The CSV could not be imported, it may be locked"; Break}
"FilePath" {"Could not find the column 'FilePath' in the CSV file"; Break}
"Password" {"Could not find the column 'Password' in the CSV file"; Break}
default {$_.Exception.Message}
}
#Write-Host "An error occurred while running $($_.InvocationInfo.InvocationName): $($_.Exception.Message)"
Write-Host "An error occurred: $errorCode"
Read-Host -Prompt "PDF files cannot be password protected, press Enter to exit script"
Break
}
# initialise some tracking numbers
$fileCount = 0
$successCount = 0
# loop through each row ($r) in the csv.
foreach ($r in $csv)
{
# increment the $fileCount
$fileCount += 1
# wrap everything in a try block
# the PDFSharp library produces errors in its own format, so we will parse any error codes in the catch block and then output
# to the console and also to the results file
try
{
# check if the PDF file exists, throw an error if not
if(-not(Test-Path $r.FilePath)) { throw "Error: `"PDF file does not exist`""}
# open the PDF in PdfSharp
$document = [PdfSharp.Pdf.IO.PdfReader]::Open($r.FilePath)
$securitySettings = $document.SecuritySettings;
# Set the UserPassword (password to open), it is possible to set the owner password which prevents e.g. editing, but we have not done that here
$securitySettings.UserPassword = $r.Password
# save the pdf file
$document.Save($r.FilePath)
# update $result to reflect success and increment the $successCount
$result = "Success"
$successCount += 1
}
catch
{
# extract from the error message from PDFSharp the bit after the colon
# also clean up, removing the double quotes, new lines, and the full file path if present
$result = "Error: " + $_.Exception.Message.Substring($_.Exception.Message.IndexOf(":") + 2).Replace("`n","").Replace("`"","").Replace(" '$($r.FilePath)'", '')
}
# write the row to $outputCsv file
$r | Select-Object -Property "FilePath" | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name "Result" -Value $result -PassThru | Export-Csv $outputCsv -Delimiter "," -Append -NoTypeInformation
# Output the the result and a new line to the consol window
# Output the file name of the PDF being protected to the consol window
Write-Host "Protecting file: $($r.FilePath.Substring($r.FilePath.LastIndexOf('\') + 1)) | $($result)"
}
Write-Host ""
Write-Host "$successCount of $fileCount files have been password protected"
Write-Host "The full results can be found here: $outputCsv"
Write-Host ""
Read-Host -Prompt "Press Enter to finish"
The Long Version
Coming Soon
To add a macro to Word you will need to be able to see the Developer tab. If you don’t have this appearing, that’s perfectly normal for Word, they hide it by default. To make it appear is you just right-click anywhere in the ribbon and select “Customise the Ribbon”. In the dialogue box which appears make sure the checkbox next to Developer in the right-hand column is checked. Once done press Ok, and the Developer tab will appear in the Ribbon. This contains the Visual Basic and Macro buttons on the left-hand side.
Click the Visual Basic button in the Developer tab to open the Visual Basic editor where we will add our macro. If you do not see a window called “Project” then click on the View menu and select “Project Explorer”. This will bring up the Project window. In this window right-click on “Normal” and in the contextual menu select “Insert” and then “Module”. A new file called “Module1” will appear in the Modules folder under “Normal” (the file may have a different number if Module1 already exists).
The middle of the window will be a white canvas – this is the editing space for the new module. Copy the Macro from this article and paste it into the middle of the VBA editor.
