I think there are services that will attempt to crack it, and/or software that can be downloaded from the internet. Be careful - if you google (or "bing") something of that nature, you often get various dubious or even dangerous links in the results.

Mac or PC? If MAc, do you use keychain?

This is a PC.

Below is a link to help you with MS Word PW Recovery

Here is a link that might be useful: How to recover password

" I am the sole author and owner of this document, and the sole user of this computer. "

Why then did you think a password was needed?

I was going ask the same question as Snidely. I literally hate passwords. I didn't mind years ago when you could just put in words and I used the same password on everything. Now you have to have a capital letter, a number, etc.. That's very annoying. I always trouble with those.

Many years ago, I had a upsetting, disagreement with a close family member. That night I wrote a long, rambling letter bringing up every thing this person did from the beginning of time. I was upset and, maybe its a female thing, I wrote this ridiculously long letter using Word so I could password protect it. I had thought I would sleep on it and reread it the next day before sending. I didn't want to send an email.

Well, needless to say, the next day the problem resolved. Everything was wonderful, I totally forgot about the letter.

Long time later (maybe a year), I'm cleaning out my computer and find this cryptic Word doc that I couldn't open. I was deleting a bunch of junk. Then, I remembered that letter ! It was not something I would want on my computer (as life with this person was wonderful). So, I tried to delete it, couldn't. Needed a password. Had no idea what that could be. I was upset when written and heaven knows what I came up with.

That letter still sits on this computer. I could never figure out the password. Back then, I thought I would have a new computer (this one is XP) and I would wipe the drive. Well I'm still using this machine and hope I can finally wipe it out and get a new machine.

On another note, I worked in the medical field for years. Sometimes I would write letters for patients from home (rather than the office computer) in the evening to save time at work. I would password those letters, copy them on a flash drive and taken them to work. Copy to the work machine then delete from the flash and the home machine. Not ideal, probably not the best thing to do, but I did it. Any patient letters were always password protected.

I sympathize with the OP as I've been there many times. If I did that now, I would write the password down. I didn't back then and never found a way to open that personal letter.

I'll wait for Windows 10 then wipe this drive.

Hope you find a way,
Jane

Unfortunately, Windows hides the good stuff that used to let you control the file system.

If all you want to do is delete it ... download and burn any of the Linux versions that can run from a DVD (Linux Mint is one I have used for this, and it's not too strange for long-time Windows users.).

Restart the computer with the Linux DVD running, let Linux load, open the file manager, go find the file and right click on it - select "ROOT ACTIONS" and delete it. You are using a non-windows operating system so the usual; MS-Word and Windows protections aren't in effect.

If you want to open it and retrieve the information, have you tried doing it with LibreOffice? I don't know it it will work, but it's worth a try. It comes with Linux Mint.

Did you figure it out ?

There are many MS Word file password cracking apps.
See these articles :

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-applications-for-easy-password-recovery/

http://www.openwall.com/passwords/microsoft-word

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/tp/word-password-recovery.htm

Or google for "crack ms word password" or "online crack ms word password".

Many programs are not free, but have trial versions.

Libre Office4 is Free, I am a author and I only use Libre, no MS Office for me, no need to get Linux to download it either. I run W7 and also W8.

Thanks for the information. I haven't done anything at this point as I'm still using the computer. I had planned to flollow LazyGardens instructions. I just want it deleted. I might check out those password crackers! I don't even care about finding the password, I just want to delete it.

Thanks all,
Jane

If you just want it deleted, then you can use the small free killbox program.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/pocket_killbox.html

There are methods using the command line as well, if you're comfortable with that.

http://www.pchell.com/support/undeletablefiles.shtml

Otherwise, lazygardens has it right :

Just download any version of Linux - Puppy (very small download), or Mint etc and launch one of the file managers onboard (like Explorer) - i.e. Nautilus, Dolphin, whatever - find the drive and file, right click and delete it.

You can even install Linux on a flash drive using "Universal USB Installer" if you like and run it from there, as long as your computer will boot from flash drive.

See http://www.pendrivelinux.com/, then the "Windows" tab, for directions.

Probably "killbox" is easiest though.

If it is worthy of using a password to protect it -- store it instead on a flash drive and keep the drive in your stocking drawer without a password.

Or use a password manager like Lastpass or 1password, etc.

Under "my computer", find the file you wish to delete. Right-click on the file name and check its properties. If it is set to "read only", you may need to change this to delete it.