A Consideration for Password-Protecting PDF Files

A few emails came in and got me thinking about use cases for passworded PDF files. One person wanted to know how to change the pop-up/alert in her PDF reader to let users know the password was their email address. Another person just wanted to know how to change the wording on the WooCommerce Thank You page and in order confirmation emails.

Unfortunately, we cannot use PDF syntax to tell a PDF reader to use different wording in the password pop-up. That would be neat, but probably still buggy since there are dozens and dozens of different PDF reader applications (Acrobat/Reader, Foxit, Nitro, Preview, your browser), all with their own way of displaying that pop-up.

So we must alert our customers in other ways that their password will be their email address, or what it will be. That way they will not be knocking down our doors, frustrated and wondering what their password is! There are two places where wording can be added which customers are likely to see and read: the order confirmation (Thank You) page and the email order confirmation. Here are ideas for how to add customized text to those pages:

The Thank You Page

Tyches Softwares does a very thorough job explaining how to customize the page that is shown to customers after they’ve successfully completed their order. Ideas include using redirects, adding custom functions to WooCommmerce hooks, template adjustments, and even just adding 3rd party plugins to do the job for you.

Order Confirmation Emails

The tutorial by Tyches linked above actually does a really good job explaining how to change up the Thank You page, but their advice also applies to emails. Both have overrideable WooCommerce templates, and include ample hooks. You can read a little more about how to adjust email language over at Cloudways. The juicy bits of advice start about half-way down the page where it says “Overriding Custom Email WooCommerce Template”.

Usually I will use filter hooks so that I don’t need to keep updating my template changes every time WooCommerce issues a template update. Filter hooks are rarely deprecated. However, this isn’t easy for people who aren’t familiar with HTML/CSS/PHP programming languages, and so I might recommend using plugins to adjust language and appearance on these templates.

For Thank You pages, one that looks promising is NextMove Lite – Thank You Page for WooCommerce. There are others, so do your research, checking out support forums, reviews, and frequency of maintenance.

For email confirmations, check out this list of plugins which could help you customize WooCommerce email templates. Kadence WooCommerce email designer is not on the list yet has 20,000 users, so perhaps the list is old. Check it out also.

So in summary, all we can do to let our customers know their password is to tell them. And we are best to tell them in places they are likely to read: receipts. When designing these templates, you can bold the text, make it red in color, and maybe even make it 100px tall! Do what you need to do so they can’t miss it.