Hi Carol,
This is a long shot, but could you possibly have had the caps lock pressed when you created the passwords?
Another long shot - would you by any chance be using a system that gives you access to previous versions of files? Or do you create automatic backups?
If the password isn't too long (say, six characters or less), you could probably find a password cracking program online to "break into" your files. The longer the password, however, the more time it would take to succeed. And in case you were going to ask -- no, I don't know the names of any such programs.
Good luck,
Lynn
