How do you unlock old files?

I assume that the stories have been written in Microsoft Word, and to the best of my knowledge there are no methods for circumventing such protection. However, there are quite a number of programs designed to recover passwords. Most of these are commercial software but there are a few freeware programs available as well. Here is a link to a freeware program that may be of help: http://www.freewordexcelpassword.com/ I have not tried this program and therefore cannot vouch for it's effectiveness, but it should be worth a try.

Yep, you can find a lot of password recovery/retrieval programs around the web. I've actually had installed Passware Recovry Kit (Passware Kit) about 3 years ago and it was very effective. I never had to use it as a need, though. I only knew it was effective because I tested it =') If you haven't yet, you could start by Googling "password recovery"... (the first respondent provided you with one of the results I came up with, on freewordexcelpassword.com ='). Add the word "free" :')