Accessing Data in a Password-Protected Document

I recently saved a Microsoft Word 97 document in password-protected form, but I've forgotten the password. I need to access the data in this file, which would be difficult (and expensive) to recreate. How can I recover the file?

To recover your file, you need to use third-party password-recovery software designed specifically to recover Word documents. Such utilities include InterTek Electronic Commerce's WordLockSmith and Word ReadOnlyFix (available for the reasonable costs of $5 and $3, respectively, at http://www.intertek.org.uk/downloads) and Passware's Word Key (available for $40 at http://www.lostpassword.com/word.htm). Passware also makes password-recovery products for other Microsoft Office applications.