Most people already know the ins and outs of creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, but how many of those people know how to make sure their files are accessible for their viewers? Finishing the creation of your file doesn't exactly mean that you are ready to publish your work to your audience. Section 3.6.4 of our LabSim goes in depth on exactly how to add security to your work and make your work accessible for all people so it can published.
First and foremost, sensitive information may be included in your work. To prevent this information from being accessible to unwanted people, it is highly recommended to encrypt your file with a password to be shared by people you choose. Personal metadata, such as your name, is also recommended to remove. To remove personal metadata, simply inspect your document and click the "Remove All" button by the "Document Properties and Personal Information" section. To further increase security, making sure others can't edit your file is essential. To do this, click the "Mark as Final" button in the "Protect" section, making viewers of your file only able to read it.
After securing personal information, we must also look another important factor: making sure our work can be accessible for every single person in your audience. Such an example would be people who don't have Microsoft Office to begin with. If people don't have Excel and you are trying to share a spreadsheet with them, they won't be able to access your spreadsheet unless you turn your embedded charts into images. And if they don't have the latest version of Office, you must check for backward compatibility. Backward compatibility gives users access your files, even if they don't have the latest version of Office. To delve into the matter further, we must include people with disabilities into our audience. If any of our viewers are visually impaired, we can add alternate text into our images or charts, which basically adds a text description to the image or chart.
In summary, the process of protecting our document and making sure everyone can easily access our files is just as important as the process of creating such files.
