It appears that Word's password protection is not really good, at least until Office 2003, if I read this SU entry correctly. I'm under the impression that Acrobat's PDF password protection should be better (it says 128-bit AES for Acrobat 7 and higher). Is that true?

Of course, it depends on the strength of the password used, but assuming I protect my PDF with a password like sd8Jf+*e8fh§$fd8sHä, am I on the safe side?

Like, say, for sending confidential patient information - not really valuable, but potentially highly sensitive.