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How to password protect your PowerPoint presentations

Learn how to password protect a PowerPoint presentation and get additional tips for keeping your online files safe even as you share them with your colleagues and contributors.

As the most versatile and widely used presentation software, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations often contain valuable content that requires protection. From company earnings results to trade secrets, students’ projects, or the questions and answers to a quiz, it’s essential for PowerPoint users to safeguard their sensitive data and confidential information, so that they won’t be easily accessed by hackers or unauthorized parties in general.

Why should you add password protection to your PowerPoint files?

A password is the easiest way to add a layer of protection to any of your files, and it’s an effective deterrent to ward off those who aren’t supposed to access them. If you’re sharing sensitive information at your work, or delivering a confidential presentation, a password will reduce the chance of a data breach or the misuse of your presentation’s contents.

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There are many ways in which your files can fall into the wrong hands: whether you store them on a removable USB drive, which can be easily lost, or email an unencrypted file to a compromised account, adding a password adds an extra layer of security. If you’re sharing a PowerPoint presentation online with multiple collaborators, consider using secure cloud storage like Microsoft OneDrive .

By taking a few minutes to implement password protection, you gain peace of mind knowing that your data is safeguarded. Be sure to share your file access with only the people who are authorized to see it.

How to add a password to your PowerPoint presentation

Adding a password to protect your PowerPoint file is easy! Follow these steps to password protect your presentation :

• Open your PowerPoint presentation and select File , then Info .
• Select Protect Presentation . Here, you have multiple options on who can access, view, or edit your presentation.
• Always Open Read-Only prevents viewers from accidentally making changes. Restrict Access allows you to select who can read, copy, or edit. Add a Digital Signature secures your file with proof that someone has opened it. Mark as Final lets your viewers know that they’re looking at the final draft of your presentation.
• To add a password, select Encrypt with Password , the second option in the drop-down menu.
• A dialog box will open. Enter your password and select OK .

Be sure to remember what your password is, as PowerPoint’s powerful encryption abilities will lock you out if you’re not able to remember your own password. You can use any word or combination of letters and numbers to secure your file and remember that all passwords are case-sensitive. When sharing your password-protected PowerPoint files via email, use encrypted emailing ( which Outlook offers ) for an added layer of security.

Taking a few moments to easily add this security layer can save you from unauthorized access and the potentially damaging impact of a data breach. Whether it’s a presentation in a corporate environment, an academic project, or some personal content, adding password protection ensures that your files will remain confidential and secure.

But don’t just stop there: PowerPoint’s advanced presentation features are effective for all subjects and audiences! If you’re looking to get the most out of conveying information, read these additional tips and tricks on how to ace your upcoming presentation , whether you’re looking to dazzle your audience , improving your public speaking skills , or you’re curious about the 30+year history of PowerPoint .

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7 Ways to Protect PowerPoint Presentation from Editing!

By: Author Shrot Katewa

Isn’t it annoying when you spend hours and hours creating a visually appealing presentation and do all the hard work, only to find out that your colleague or your manager has made changes to the presentation!

Intentional or not, now you’ve got to make the changes to your presentation again; some of which could have been easily avoided if you were able to prevent the presentation file from editing.

Here’s how to protect a PowerPoint presentation file –

• Mark the presentation as “Final”
• Restrict permission to PowerPoint
• Save the presentation as a PowerPoint Show file
• Set a password to modify PowerPoint
• Convert PowerPoint to pictures
• Convert PowerPoint to a PDF
• Convert PowerPoint to a video

There are many applications of knowing how to protect your PowerPoint presentation.

So, in this article, let’s understand the 7 different ways to protect PowerPoint in further detail such that you can ensure that the person you are sharing your presentation with, will not be able to make changes to it.

Let’s get started!

1. How to Protect PowerPoint presentation from Editing?

We shall divide the 7 ways into two groups –

• Prevent PowerPoint file from editing
• Convert PowerPoint to make it uneditable

Prevent PowerPoint File from Editing

There are actually 4 ways in which you can prevent users from editing your PowerPoint presentation.

You can either mark the presentation as final, restrict the presentation by allowing access to specific users, save the presentation as a PPS file or set a password for your presentation.

All the 4 methods and the process to use them are explained elaborately in the following section –

Method 1 – Mark the Presentation as Final 

By marking the PowerPoint presentation as final, the PowerPoint file will become “Read-only” .

Although this method doesn’t restrict people from editing your file. However, they will not be able to save changes to the original file. When using this method, PowerPoint will force users to save another copy of the presentation file; thereby protecting your presentation.

This method is especially helpful when you share the presentation over the same network within your organization or even when the presentation is saved on a cloud. It is also helpful when more than one person is working on the same presentation.

It is not a perfect fix, but a quick fix to the problem for sure.

The process of marking your PowerPoint presentation as final is given below –

Step-1: Click on the “File” tab

The first step of the process is to click on the “ File ” tab, which is the first option in the ribbon of your PowerPoint presentation. This will take you to the backend view of the PowerPoint.

Step-2: Select the “Info” option

After you have accessed the “ File ” tab, select the “ Info ” option which is the 4 th option in the tab. This will take you to a new page in the “ File ” tab.

Step-3: Select the “Protect Presentation” option

The third step is to select the “ Protect Presentation ” option in the “ Info ” section (as shown in the image in step 2). It is the first of the four boxes on the “ Info ” page.

After you click on the “ Protect Presentation ” option, a drop-down menu will appear on your screen.

Step-4: Click on “Mark as Final”

From the drop-down menu, select the “ Mark as Final ” option. It is located at the very bottom of the dropdown menu (as shown in the image in step 2).

Step-5: Hit the “OK” button

After you click on the “ Mark as Final ” option, a pop-up window will appear on your screen.

Simply click on the “ O K” button and the presentation will be saved as final. Once your presentation is “Saved as Final”, you won’t be able to edit this presentation going forward.

Thus, I recommend that you make this change once you’ve finished your presentation.

Method 2 – Restrict Permission  

The next method is to restrict the permissions to edit a PowerPoint presentation.

In my opinion, this is one of the best ways to protect a PowerPoint presentation and to prevent users from editing the PowerPoint file!

By restricting permission, you will be able to allow specific users to access your PowerPoint presentation.

To use this feature in your presentation, follow step-1 through step-3 from the previous section and then follow the easy steps described below.

The first step is to click on the “ File ” tab to enter the backend view of your PowerPoint presentation.

Step-2: Click on the “Info” option

Now, click on the “Info” tab from the options in the left part of your screen.

Step-3: Select the “Restricted Access” option

The next step is to select the “ Restrict Access ” option from the drop-down menu of the “ Protect Presentation ” option. It is the 3 rd option in the drop-down menu (as shown in the image in step 2)

Once you click on the “ Restrict Access ” option, another drop-down menu will appear on your screen. Select the “ Restricted Access ” option which is the second option in the menu.

Step-4: Click on the checkbox

After you click on the “ Restricted Access ” option, a pop-up window will appear on your screen.

From the pop-up window, click on the “ Restrict permission to this presentation ” checkbox. It is located at the top of the pop-up window.

Step-5: Add the email address of the users

In the final step, all you have to do is type in the email addresses of the users with whom you want to share the presentation, in the “ Read ” option.

This will ensure that the users can only view the presentation file and not edit it. After that just click on the “ OK ” button located in the bottom right of the pop-up window.

Now, only the specified users will get permission to view the PowerPoint presentation.

Method 3 – Save the Presentation as a PPS file

Another method to prevent your PowerPoint presentation from editing and thus protecting it is to save the presentation as a PowerPoint Show file or a PPS file.

Saving a presentation as a PPS or PPSX will open the file directly in the presentation show mode when you open the file. Furthermore, when you exit the presentation show mode, the file will close and the user will not be able to access the content on the slides.

To save the presentation as a PPSX file, simply use the file “ Save As ” option, and choose the “ PPS ” file format from the “ File Format ” option.

I’ve written a detailed article on how to use the PPSX file in PowerPoint . If you need the step-by-step guide for the process, click on the link and check out the article for detailed guidance!

Method 4 – Set a Password to Modify PowerPoint  

You can also set a password in order to prevent users from modifying a PowerPoint presentation. This method will prompt a password before opening a presentation.

Although this method will not help if you want to prevent people from editing the file as you will need to provide the password even to view the file. And, once the password is entered, the users will be able to make the changes.

However, this method is super helpful when you want to protect a PowerPoint presentation and prevent it from being access by unintended users.

To set a password to modify your PowerPoint presentation, follow the easy steps given below –

As before, click on the “ File ” tab in PowerPoint. This will open the backend view in PowerPoint from where you can enable additional settings.

Step-2: Select the “Encrypt with Password” option

The first step is to select the “ Encrypt with Password ” option from the drop-down menu. It is the 2 nd option on the menu.

Step-3: Enter your preferred password

After you select the “ Encrypt with Password ” option, a pop-up window will appear on your screen. In that pop-up window, type in your preferred password in the “ Password ” box. After that, click on the “ Ok ” button.

Once you click on the “ OK ” button, you will be taken to a new page in the pop-up window.

Step-4: Re-enter the password

Now, all you have to do is to re-enter the password on this page and then select the “ OK ” button again.

Once done, your PowerPoint presentation will be password protected and users will have to enter the password to access your PowerPoint presentation.

Make PowerPoint Uneditable Permanently? 

In the 4 methods described above, you will be able to prevent or protect your PowerPoint presentation file. More importantly, you will be able to share the PowerPoint presentation with the intended users.

However, if sharing a PowerPoint file is not important, there are other ways in which you can protect your presentation and prevent it from being edited further!

Interestingly, the methods described below will allow you to make a copy of your presentation and make it completely uneditable!

There are 3 ways in which you can make your PowerPoint presentation uneditable permanently.

You can either convert the presentation into a picture or convert it into a PDF file or you can convert it into a video. Let’s take a look at the 3 methods below –

Method 1 – Convert PowerPoint to Picture

The first way to protect your PowerPoint presentation is to convert it to pictures.

To convert your PowerPoint presentation as a picture, you will have to use the “ Save As ” option from the “ File ” tab. Simply choose a picture file format from the “ File Type ” options in the “save as” window.

If you need further guidance on how to carry out this process, check out my other article on how to save PowerPoint as an image for full details.

Method 2 – Convert PowerPoint to a PDF

You can also convert your PowerPoint file to a PDF. This is actually one of the most common methods used when you want to prevent your client or colleague from editing the presentation.

The advantage to save PowerPoint as a PDF over saving it as an image is that when you save your PowerPoint presentation as a PDF file, it is saved all the slides in one file just as the case would be in a presentation.

However, when you save a presentation as a Picture, the slides usually get saved as individual images.

Although the process to save a PowerPoint as a PDF is quite similar to that of saving it as an image, but if you are unsure how to do this, check out our other article on how to convert PowerPoint as PDF that details the process in an easy manner!

Method 3 – Convert PowerPoint to a Video

You can also convert your PowerPoint to a Video in order to protect your PowerPoint file!

If you have a lot of animations in your presentation, and you want to retain the animations when you show it to your colleagues or the audience, but you don’t want them to edit the file, then you can convert the presentation to a video format.

This will allow you to retain the animations, and make the presentation uneditable.

Converting a PowerPoint to a video requires you to use the “ Save As ” function. However, there are a few additional things that you may need to keep in mind.

Check out our article on how to convert PowerPoint to Video for a full guide with helpful tips.

2. How to Password Protect a PowerPoint Presentation from Opening? 

You can set a password that users will have to enter before they can access your PowerPoint presentation.

The process to password protect a PowerPoint presentation is elaborately explained in method 4 of the previous section of this article. Simply follow the steps explained in the earlier section and you will be able to add a password to your PowerPoint file.

3. How to Remove Password from a PowerPoint Presentation? 

The process of removing the password from a PowerPoint file is quite straightforward. However, it is important to know the password in order to change or remove the password protection in PowerPoint.

Let’s take a look at how to remove a password from a protected PowerPoint presentation –

3a. If You Know the Password

If you remember the password to your PowerPoint presentation, open the PowerPoint file, go to the “ Encrypt Presentation ” option in the “Info” section of the “ File ” tab and follow the steps given below.

Step-1: Open the “Encrypt Password” option

The first step is to click on the “ File ” tab. Then, from the backend view, click on the “ Info ” option.

Next, click on the “ Protect Presentation ” option, and from the dropdown, select the “ Encrypt with Password ” option.

Step-2: Clear the Password from the box

Once you’ve clicked on the “ Encrypt Presentation ” option, clear the password from the “ Password ” box.

After you’ve cleared the password, simply hit the “ OK ” button, located at the bottom right corner of the pop-up window and the password will be removed immediately.

3b. If You Forget the Password

Unfortunately, there is no direct way of removing a password from your PowerPoint file.

To do this, you will have to use third-party software that will unlock the encrypted PowerPoint file for you.

The software that we would recommend is “iSunshare” . It is free to use, and you will be able to unlock more than just PPT files. To download the software from their website, click here .

Credit to cookie_studio (on Freepik) for the featured image of this article (further edited).

Password protection for presentations in PowerPoint

A password helps to prevent other people from opening or modifying a presentation.

Caution:  When you create a password for a presentation, record the password and keep it in a secure place. If you lose the password, it can't be retrieved and you won't be able open or gain access to the presentation.

Add password protection to a file

Select File > Info .

Select Protect Presentation > Encrypt with Password .

In the Password box, enter the password you'd like to use. Select OK .

PowerPoint prompts you to confirm the password by entering it once more.

Save the file to ensure the password takes effect.

Password protection isn't supported in PowerPoint for ODP (Open Document Presentation) files. 

Remove a password from a file

Removing a password from a document is a simple process, but you have to know the original password.

Open the presentation whose password you want to remove.

Clear the password in the Password box, and then click OK .

Co-authoring a password-protected file

If you attempt to open a password-protected file that someone else is currently working on, you'll be able to open it, but you won't be able to edit it. You'll see the file in read-only mode.

Add or remove protection in your document, workbook, or presentation

Require a password to open a presentation

Click File > Passwords .

Under Password to open , select the Encrypt this presentation and require a password to open check box.

In the New password box, type a password.

Note:  To create a strong password, use at least seven characters and include a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and non-alphabetic characters such as !,$, #, and %. Do not include your account name or other personal information.

In the Verify box, type the password again, and then click Set Password .

Click OK , and then save your presentation.

Tip:  To remove the password, clear the Encrypt this presentation and require a password to open check box, click OK , and then save your presentation.

Require a password to modify a presentation

You can add a password so that only authorized users can modify a presentation. Unauthorized users can still open the presentation and then save it by using a different file name.

Under Password to modify , select the Require a password to modify the presentation check box.

Tip:  To remove the password, clear the Require a password to modify the presentation check box, click OK , and then save your presentation.

Change a password to open or modify a presentation

Under Password to open or Password to modify , click Change Password .

In the New password box, type the new password.

To open a password-protected presentation: Enter the password for the file in the box.

Passwords are case-sensitive. Make sure you don't accidentally have Caps Lock turned on.

You can try again if you enter an incorrect password.

The file can't be opened without the password. If you don't know the password, you'll have to check with the person that encrypted the file. 

For ODP (Open Document Presentation) files, password protection isn't supported in PowerPoint for the web.

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How to protect / lock a PowerPoint presentation?

• September 28, 2020

Unless you protect your PowerPoint document, anyone with access to the .pptx file can open, copy and edit the contents. Here's a guide to how you can protect/ lock your PowerPoint presentations.

This post is part of our hints and tips for standard PowerPoint features.  PPT Productivity is a time saving add-in for PowerPoint.  If you’d like to boost your productivity in PowerPoint and save time aligning, formatting and reusing slides, visit our homepage and download the PPT Productivity free trial today!

To protect your document, go to the file tab in PowerPoint, select Info, then click ‘Protect Presentation’

In the drop-down menu, you will find 4 or 5 options for protecting presentations in PowerPoint (options available depend on which version of PowerPoint you are running): ‘Always Open Read-Only’, ‘Encrypt with Password’, ‘Restrict Access’, ‘Add a Digital Signature’, ‘Mark as Final’.

Note - This article is about general locking of a PowerPoint presentation. However if you want to lock specific shapes on your PowerPoint slide from being edited – visit PPT Productivity's website to learn more about the PPT Productivity shape locking tool for PowerPoint .

Choose which option best suits your needs:

Always Open Read-Only PowerPoint setting prevents accidental changes by displaying a yellow banner at the top of the PowerPoint presentation indicating that the presentation is read only. The reader will need to opt-in to editing the document by clicking the ‘Edit Anyway’ button

Encrypt with Password PowerPoint setting lets you password protect your PowerPoint presentation. A password will be required to open the document. It’s very important to note that if you forget the password, you will not be able to open the presentation.

If your organization uses Microsoft 365, you also have a Restrict Access option in PowerPoint. The Restrict Access option allows people to view the PowerPoint presentation, but prevents them from editing, copying, or printing. To use the Restrict Access option, you need to have Information Rights Access set up on your machine. Find more information about Information Rights Access .

A digital signature adds unique code to a message which only comes from the digital ID held by the true sender. If you choose Add a Digital Signature in PowerPoint, you will need to have a Digital Signature set up.  For more information about Digital Signatures visit the Microsoft Support Page .

Mark as Final PowerPoint setting sets the PowerPoint presentation status to Final. Typing, editing commands and proofing marks are turned off. A yellow banner noting that the document has been marked as final will appear at the top of the presentation. Readers will still be able to Edit the document if they click on the ‘Edit Anyway’ button.

Once you have decided which option is best for your needs, select the relevant option and save your document. Done!

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• How to Protect PowerPoint Presentation from Editing and Modifying

Updated: January 11, 2024

If you don't want others to open and modify your PowerPoint presentation, you can lock the presentation. Here, this guide will introduce several ways to protect a presentation file from being copied, edited, and changed by unauthorized others.

• Option 1: Marking as final
• Option 2: Restrict Access
• Option 3: Encrypt with Password

Option 1: Make the presentation read-only

If you want to let people know that a presentation shouldn't be changed, you can use the Mark as Final feature. When a presentation is marked as final, typing, editing, commands, and proofing marks are disabled or turned off and the presentation becomes read-only .

Step 1: Click the  File  tab to go to Backstage view.

Step 2: From the  Info  pane, click the  Protect Presentation  command.

Step 3: In the drop-down menu, choose the option that best suits your needs. select  Mark as Final .

Step 4: A dialog box will appear prompting you to save, click  OK .

Step 5: Another dialog box will appear, click  OK .

When you mark a presentation as final, PowerPoint asks you to save the file. The next time you open it, you will see a yellow  MARKED AS FINAL  message at the top of the file. If you click  Edit Anyway , the presentation will no longer be marked as final.

Option 2: Set Restrict Access to Prevent Others from Editing

If you want to prevent people from editing it, you can use the  Restrict Access  option:

Step 1: Click on File tab to go to Backstage view.

Step 2: In Info tab, click Protect Document button. And then select Restrict Access option.

Option 3: Set a Password for Modify Presentation

To protect PowerPoint 2010/2013/2016 presentation, use these steps as follows:

Step 1: Click on the File tab, choose Save As option. Select one location you will save this *.pptx file.

Step 2: In the  Save As  dialog, click the  Tools  button at the bottom and then select  General Options .

Step 3: Type a password in the  Password to modify  box and click  OK . Reenter the password to modify and click  OK  to confirm. When you return back to the  Save As  dialog, click  Save  to save this presentation.

Then the password to modify will lock this PowerPoint 2016 presentation and prevent it from being edited or modified. Keep your password in a safe place. If you lose or forget the password, Microsoft won't help recover it and you have to remove the password with a third-party utility like PowerPoint Protection Refixer .

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How to Password Protect PowerPoint (Step-by-Step)

• PowerPoint Tutorials
• Shortcuts & Hacks
• February 27, 2019

Are you ready to learn how to password protect PowerPoint presentations so that others cannot edit or copy and paste your content?

Before you get started though, please remember this. If you forget the password you created in the steps below, you will not be able to recover your password, or unlock your presentation.

Now before password protect your presentation, it’s important to first understand the difference between the two types of Passwords you can use to protect your PowerPoint presentations.

Two Types of PowerPoint Passwords

PowerPoint has two different styles or types of passwords you can add to your presentation which determine what someone can and can’t do with your presentation.

While the difference between the two pop-up windows as you can see in the picture below appears small, the difference is big.

1. Password to Open

Adding a password to open forces you (or whoever opens your presentation) to input a password to be able to not only see but edit the content of your presentation.

If they do not know the correct (case-sensitive) password, they cannot open, review or modify your presentation in any way. Just keep in mind that there is NO WAY to recover a forgotten password.

So if you password protect your presentation AND forget your password, you too will not be able to open or edit your presentation.

2. Password to Modify

Adding a password to Modify gives your clients and colleagues two different ways to access your presentation.

• They can enter the correct password and get full editing rights to your document (just like a normal presentation).
• They can choose to open your file in a Read-Only format, allowing them to view (but not edit) your PowerPoint presentation.

To give someone the Read-Only option pictured below to access your presentation, you must use the password to Modify option.

In the Read-Only version of your presentation, people can still print, save your file as a PDF and run your presentation in the Slideshow modes. To see all the slideshow shortcuts and techniques, check out our ultimate slideshow guide here.

On top of that, all of your PowerPoint animations, effects, hyperlinks, etc. will still work in the Read-Only version of your document. But other than reviewing your document, people will NOT be able to edit, modify or copy and paste any of your content.

How to add a password to PowerPoint

To password protect your PowerPoint presentation using either the Password to Open or Password to Modify options, follow the steps below.

1. Open the PowerPoint presentation you want to password protect

The only way to add a password to a specific presentation is from within the presentation itself. So as a first step, find and open the presentation that you want to password-protect.

As a best practice, I recommend creating a non-password-protected copy of your presentation and saving it on your computer. That way if you forget your password, you can always open the non-password-protected version on your computer.

To create a copy of your presentation, simply Ctrl + C to copy and Ctrl + V to paste it inside a File Explorer window.

2. Open the Save As dialog box

The FASTEST way to access the Save As dialog box from within PowerPoint is using your keyboard shortcuts. You can use either of the two keyboard shortcuts (whichever is easier for you to remember):

• F12 for Save As
• Ctrl + Shift + S for Save As

If you hit F12 and nothing happens, that means that your function keys are reversed. In this case, try adding the Function key to the sequence:  Fn + F12 .

3. Open the Tools dropdown

Inside the Save As dialog box, open the Tools dropdown (it is right next to the Save button as pictured above).

Note : The Save As dialog box is also the trick to converting PowerPoint to PDF .

4. Select General Options

Inside the Tools dropdown, select General Options . This is where you can add/remove passwords to your PowerPoint presentations.

5. Enter your password (Open or Modify)

Inside the General Options dialog box, decide which type of password to add to your presentation (see my explanation of both types at the top of this page).

Your two options are:

• Password to Open
• Password to Modify

To get started, simply click into the input box for the type of password you want to protect PowerPoint with (Open or Modify) and type your password.

Remember too that passwords are case-sensitive, so be careful you don’t have the Caps Lock key on when you enter your password. Thankfully, you get the chance to confirm your password in the next step.

6. Confirm your Password

This is your chance to confirm you have typed the correct password for your presentation. As there is no way to view the password you have typed, I recommend taking care here to make sure you type what you think you typed.

If you make a mistake and the two passwords are not the same, you get the following error notification.

Clicking OK , you can either re-type your password correctly or select Cancel to exit out of the Confirm Password dialog box.

PowerPoint will not allow you to add a password to your presentation unless you can first confirm your password.

7. Rename your Presentation (Recommended)

While renaming your password-protected presentation is optional, to me this is a critical best practice.

I personally like to add “- with Password” or “PW” or “Password to Open” to identify the document as having a password. This also helps you distinguish it from your original (non-password protected) document that you hopefully saved in step #1 above.

In this step, you can also choose where to save your password-protected document on your computer by navigating between your folders.

8. Save and Close your document

Once you have selected a location on your computer to save your password-protected presentation, click Save and then close out of your document to trigger the password.

As long as you have your document open, you will not need to enter the password to open it (as it is already open). Closing the document triggers the password gate to close, requiring a password to open it again.

9. Double-check your password works properly

Before you send off your document as final, double-check that your password properly works. This is especially important if you created a non-password-protected version of your presentation, to make sure you are working with the correct file.

Find your protected presentation on your computer and double-click it to open it up. If the document immediately opens without asking you to enter a password, it means that:

• You selected the non-password-protected version of your document
• You never closed your PowerPoint presentation after adding your password (see step #8 above)
• You made a mistake somewhere along the way and should start over

Either way, double-checking this now will save you from accidentally sending your client the wrong file.

Once your password is properly added to your presentation, opening the document forces you to enter a password to continue. Once you see the dialog box, try entering your password to make sure you have the right one.

How to remove a password from PowerPoint

Tired of always having to enter in a password to edit your presentation? Well, let’s look at how to remove a password from your presentation.

For example, you added a password to your presentation to work with a specific client, and now that project is over. So you want to remove the password so you and your team can access it without always having to enter a password.

Removing a password is very similar to adding a password. Simply follow these steps.

1. Find and open the password-protected presentation

The only way to remove a password from PowerPoint is from within the password-protected presentation.

Navigate to the file on your computer, and double-click it to open it. If a dialog box does not pop open asking you for a password to continue, it means one of two things:

• You have selected the wrong presentation
• Your presentation is not password-protected

Notice how easy it is to see which presentation is password-protected in the picture above? That is why I recommend adding a qualifier in the name of any PowerPoint presentation you password protect.

2. Enter the correct password and click OK

Regardless of whether you have a Password to Open or a Password to Modify, enter the correct password and click OK to get full editing rights to your document.

You cannot remove a password in the Read-Only version of PowerPoint that you can access with the Password to Modify .

If you do not know the password to the presentation, you cannot remove the password from the document (sorry). This is why I recommend saving a non-password-protected version of your file first.

3. Open the Save As dialog box

Once you have successfully opened the password-protected presentation, now you can remove the password. To get started, hit F12 or Ctrl + Shift + S to open the Save As dialog box.

4. Open the Tools dropdown

Inside the Save As dialog box, click to open the Tools dropdown.

5. Select General Options

Inside the Tools dropdown, select General Options to remove the password from your presentation.

6. Select and delete the password

Depending on what type of password was added to your presentation, you should see a sequence of circles or asterisks marks in either the Password to Open or Password to Modify option as pictured below.

Simply select the password in the dialog box and hit either Delete or Backspace on your keyboard.

Two things you cannot do in this dialog box are:

• You cannot view the password. So if you open a password-protected presentation on your computer, your colleague cannot sneak a peek at the password when you are not looking.
• You cannot password-protect your presentation with both types of passwords. You will either have a Password to open or a Password to modify , never both (it is impossible).

7. Click OK and then Save

After deleting the password, click OK and then click Save .

This saves your presentation without the password, allowing you to open the file without having to use a password in the future.  If you like, you can also choose to rename your file now that it is no longer password-protected.

8. Double-check the password is removed

Before you forget, double-check that the password has been removed from your presentation.

Close your PowerPoint presentation (Ctrl + W on your keyboard) and then reopen. If you are again asked to enter a password to open or modify the presentation then something went wrong along the way.

If this happens to you, don’t sweat it. It is better to figure this out now (and fix the problem) rather than having your client or colleague email you about the issue.

PowerPoint Password Tips

I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT forget your password.

A number of people have asked whether it is possible to recover a password they have forgotten. Unfortunately, there is no way to retrieve a forgotten password like this that I know of. 

This is why I recommend saving a copy of your original presentation (a non-password protected version) before adding a password to it. That way if you forget your password, you can always go back to the original (non-password protected) document, without having to recreate the wheel.

A few additional PowerPoint password tips are:

Tip #1. Passwords are case sensitive, so watch out for upper case letters. 

That means that locking PowerPoint with the uppercase password ‘OPEN SESAME’ is treated differently than the lowercase password ‘open sesame.’

Tip #2. Make your passwords easy to remember

One way to make your passwords easy to remember is to either reference the client’s name in the password or just used the first four letters of the document.

An example using the client’s name could be m icrosoft open (I recommend using lower-case) if your client is Microsoft

An example using the first four letters for a file called “Quarterly Report” would be quar open (again making it all lower case so it is easier to remember).

Tip #3. Don’t use the same password for all of your presentations

Just like you shouldn’t use the same password for all your personal things, you don’t want to use the same password to open all of your presentations. That is because if someone figures that out, they will be able to open all of your password-protected presentations.

Tip #4. Develop a naming convention that makes sense for you

For help developing a naming convention for your passwords so they are always easy to remember, check out the following tips by GrowMap here .

Now you know how to both add and remove passwords to your PowerPoint presentations.

Two important things to remember about password protecting your presentations are:

#1. Most people are not familiar with having to add a password to open a presentation. So, if your password-protect your presentation, warn your clients and colleagues in advance.

#2. There is no way to recover your password if you forget it. So, use an easy to remember password, write it down and better yet, save a non-password-protected version of your presentation that you can always refer to it if necessary.

If you enjoyed this article and want to learn more about our PowerPoint training products and services, visit us here .

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Related articles, about the author.

This Post Has 2 Comments

Thanks for the article! So there is no way to recover the password? I had this problem once and tried googling for it, there are a lot of sites that claim it’s possible. Fortunately it was just an edit password and a simple ppt, so ended up making a new presentation with the same text and pictures.

To my knowledge, there is no way to recover a password. That is why I recommend saving a copy of your presentation without a password before adding one. Sorry I don’t have a better answer for you.

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How to Lock a PowerPoint? Proper Guideline

• October 2, 2023

Once you’re done creating your PowerPoint presentation, you sure want to share it with the world. However, if you don’t protect it, anyone can copy, print, or edit your presentation. To safeguard your intellectual property, you must learn how to lock a PowerPoint.

First, open your PowerPoint presentation and click on the ‘File’ tab. Select the ‘Info’ option and choose ‘Protect Presentation’. Click on ‘Encrypt with Password’ and set a secure passcode. Re-enter the passcode to confirm and select ‘Save.’ Now your file is secure and only people with a password can open it.

Let’s dive in and explore all the easy and secure ways to protect a PowerPoint.

How Do You Lock a PowerPoint? – 4 Easy Methods

Depending on the level of security you want, there are multiple methods to choose from. You can lock the file to protect it from unauthorized editing, copying, or viewing. Before getting into the details, here’s a quick overview of which method to choose and when:

Method 1: Turn on the Read-Only or Final Mode

By applying this method, you let the readers or visitors know this file is not supposed to be changed or edited. As you lock the file, it can prevent accidental displacement of elements.

While this is the fastest way to lock a PowerPoint, it’s not highly secure. People can opt-in to edit by choosing the ‘Edit Anyway’ option. Here’s the locking process:

• Open the PowerPoint presentation you want to lock and locate the ‘File’ tab. You can find it in the top left corner of your screen. Click on it, and a ribbon will appear with multiple saving and editing options.

• From the ribbon on the left side of the page, select ‘Info’ and choose ‘Protect Presentation’ from the given options. Now, you’ll see a drop-down menu with 5 security options. 

• The first option is ‘Always Open Read-Only’ . Select it to prevent accidental changes in your PowerPoint. If multiple users are editing the presentation, you can select the ‘Mark as Final’ option instead. It will let everyone know this is the final draft, and it shouldn’t be edited.

Method 2: Protection with Encrypted Password

This is easily the best method of locking PowerPoint when it comes to security. As you set a password for the file, viewers must enter it correctly to unlock the file and edit it. Below is the easy way to do it:

• On the file tab, click on the ‘Info’ option. Go to ‘Protect Presentation’ and click on ‘Encrypt with Password’ .

• From the encrypt document dialogue box, you need to set a password to lock the file. Type the password in the blank field and click ‘OK.’ 

• A new dialogue box will arrive for confirmation. Retype your password and hit ‘OK’. Now you’ve locked the PPT file, and only the viewers with the correct password unlock it.

There’s another way to set a password and lock the PowerPoint presentation. Here’s how it goes:

• From the top left corner, select the ‘File’ option and click on ‘Save As.’ You can also use the keyboard command ‘Ctrl + Shift + S.’

• Choose a suitable location to save your PowerPoint. Instead of clicking ‘Save,’ choose the ‘Tools’ option right beside it. From the drop-down menu, click on ‘General Options’.

• At this point, you can see two blank fields on your screen. You have the option to either select the ‘Password to open’ or ‘Password to modify’ field. While the first one prevents unauthorized people from opening the file, the second one prevents editing and printing.

• Type a strong yet memorable password in your selected field and click ‘OK.’ A new prompt will arrive asking to confirm the passcode. Fill the blank with the passcode you’ve used before and hit ‘OK’ to lock the PowerPoint presentation successfully. Here is a video of it.

Method 3: Restrict Access for Selected Users

While this method offers high security, it’s a bit difficult to proceed with. To give or restrict access for only some selected users, you must connect to RMS or Rights Management Service.

The feature includes the integration of Microsoft Office, and it’s only available for team members of certain faculty. Once you connect to the RMS, follow the steps given below:

• Go to the ‘File’ tab and select ‘Info’ . Click on ‘Protect Presentation’ and you’ll see all the security options arrive on a drop-down menu.
• Choose the ‘Restrict Access’ option that allows selected people to open your PowerPoint. However, even the authorized members won’t be able to edit, copy, or print it unless you allow them. From the new dialogue box, tick on the checkbox beside the ‘Restrict Permission to this presentation’ option. 

• Add people you want to give access to read the PowerPoint in the field beside the ‘Read’ option. You can also open the edit option for selected persons using the ‘Change’ field. Click ‘OK’ when you’re done.

Method 4: Locking PowerPoint Objects

A new PowerPoint feature allows you to lock specific objects in the file. With this method, you can prevent shapes, graphics, images, titles, and 3D objects from moving. For this:

• First, insert the object you want to lock. Let’s say you’ve inserted your preferred shape in your presentation. Right-click on the shape to select it and get the shortcut menu. From the menu, select ‘Lock,’ and the item will be locked from editing.

• Another way to lock the shape is to choose the ‘Shape Format’ menu. Click on ‘Selection Pane’ to see the name of the shapes or objects you’ve used in the file. Select the lock icon beside the specific object you want to lock.

Final Words

No need to worry about how to lock a PowerPoint anymore, as we’ve discussed all the different ways here. If your goal is to lock the file from viewing, set an encrypted password or use the restricted access feature. For basic security, you can simply set the ‘ Read-only’ or ‘Mark as Final mode.’

All the methods described here are easy and free of cost. Although there are third-party tools to lock a PowerPoint presentation, such tools can be costly and unreliable. So, stick to the methods mentioned above to keep your PPT files secure.

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How to Protect PowerPoint Presentations – Methods that Really Work

Table of Contents

In the Publish Presentation window, select the My Computer tab and head over to the Protection section . 

In the opened window, you can configure the security settings you need. 

1. Copyright your PowerPoint slides by adding a watermark

With iSpring Suite, you can watermark your presentation with, for example, your corporate logo or copyright notice like © 2020 John Smith . It’s possible to set the watermark’s transparency and position on the slides. You can also specify a webpage that will open when your viewers click on the watermark. It could be anything from terms of use to your profile page on a social network site.

2. Set a password

This option is pretty straightforward. You create a password and no one can view your presentation without entering it first.

3.  Restrict time

You can set a special time period when your audience will be able to view your presentation. For example, you can set up a 2-week interval when your slides will be available.

When you’re finished with the settings, save any changes and publish the slides. By default, the output presentation is saved on your PC. You can then transfer it to a pen drive or CD and distribute it to your learners or colleagues.

Method #2. Make Your Presentation Read-Only

This method won’t prevent your copyrighted PPT slides from being copied and shared, but it will protect them from being modified. The upside is that to lock a presentation from editing you don’t need any third-party services – you can do this right in PowerPoint by using the Mark as Final option. When a presentation is marked as final, other users can read and view it, but can’t make any alterations. 

To lock the slides, click the File tab in PowerPoint and choose the Protect Presentation command in the Info pane. In the drop-down menu, select Mark as Final . That will set your presentation in read-only mode.

Method #3. Restrict Permission to Selected Individuals

You can set the restriction to your readers so they can read the presentation but won’t be able to change, print, or copy the content. 

As with the previous method, you can do this right in PowerPoint. Simply go to File → Info → Protect Presentation → Restrict Access . 

However, to grant people access, you need to connect to the Rights Management Service (RMS). It is integrated into Microsoft Office and is available for faculty and staff. Ask your IT department to help you to enable RMS for your account.

Note: RMS allows employees to share restricted documents only within their company or campus. It won’t be possible to share your presentation with individuals that are not your colleagues or faculty members.

We hope this article gave you insights on ways that you can protect your PowerPoint presentations. If you know of any alternative ways to safeguard the slides, please share your ideas in the comment section. 

Useful Resources on PowerPoint

Are you a PowerPoint lover? If so, here are some other helpful articles for you:

• How to Share a PowerPoint Presentation Online
• How to Add Narration to a PowerPoint Presentation
• How to Add YouTube Video Into PPT Presentation
• How to Structure a PowerPoint Presentation

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Home Blog PowerPoint Tutorials PowerPoint Password Protection

PowerPoint Password Protection

PowerPoint password protection adds a layer of protection to your presentations to ensure no one can access the slide deck without authorization. This can help protect confidential presentations and the organization’s branded PowerPoint templates from misuse.

How to Password Protect a PowerPoint

For password-protecting PowerPoint or applying PowerPoint encryption, go to File -> Info -> Protect Presentation -> Encrypt with Password . The same section also provides other options for protecting your PowerPoint, including making it read-only, adding a digital signature, and marking the presentation as final.

Enter a password to proceed further. It is advised to keep your password or hint for the password securely saved somewhere since you cannot recover the PowerPoint file if you cannot enter the password.

You will require reentering the password to ensure both password entries match.

Once your PowerPoint file is password protected, the Protect Presentation dropdown menu will turn yellow. A message will also be that you must enter a password to access the file. This is a sign that your file is now password protected.

Whenever you open the PowerPoint presentation, you will require entering the password to access it unless the password protection is removed.

How to Remove Password from PowerPoint

To remove password protection, go to File -> Info -> Protect Presentation -> Encrypt with Password .

When the password dialog box appears, empty the password field and click OK to apply changes.

Your file will no longer be password protected, and the Protect Presentation menu will turn white again, indicating that a password no longer protects the file.

Final Words

Password protection and encryption of PowerPoint files help add a layer of security to presentations that can be useful for both confidential PowerPoint files and to ensure the files are safe in case they are accidentally sent to an unintended recipient. You can remove the password anytime. However, it is important to remember the original password to unlock the file protection. It’s always a good idea to keep at least a hint for your password safely placed somewhere for memory recall in case you forget your password.

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Cyber Security, Microsoft PowerPoint Filed under PowerPoint Tutorials

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How-To Geek

How to lock an object's position in microsoft powerpoint.

Keep the elements of your slide where they belong.

Quick Links

How to lock an object in powerpoint, unlock an object.

Have you ever accidentally moved an item in your slide and then had to spend time putting it where it was? In Microsoft PowerPoint, you can lock an object in position. This prevents those mistaken moves and wasted time.

As of this writing in January 2022, The Lock object feature is only available in PowerPoint for Windows .

You have two easy ways to lock an object on your PowerPoint slide . The first is handy if you only have a small number of items on your slide while the second works best for multiple items.

Related: How to Change Slide Size in Powerpoint

To quickly lock an object, right-click it and choose "Lock" from the shortcut menu.

If you have many items, it can be beneficial to use the Selection Pane. This lets you view, lock, and unlock items from a list.

Open this sidebar by going to the Home tab and Drawing section of the ribbon. Click the Arrange drop-down arrow and pick "Selection Pane" at the bottom of the list.

When the pane opens, you'll see all of your slide items listed. To lock one, simply click the Padlock icon to the right of it. You can lock multiple items which is convenient if you want to make sure nothing moves while you work on one specific object.

And, you'll notice each item has the lock option, from images and videos to icons and title boxes.

Related: How to Add a Video to a Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation

Depending on the type of item you lock, you may see a more distinctive border around it once it's locked. As an example, you can see below that the title text box has a prominent border when you lock and select it.

You cannot move a locked object, but you can still make changes to it using the ribbon, shortcut menu, or format sidebar. Below you can see our title is locked, but we can still change the font color.

You can unlock an item on your slide just as easily as you can lock one. Either right-click the object and select "Unlock" or click the Padlock in the Selection Pane to unlock it.

Keep your slide objects and items save from accidental moves with the Lock feature in PowerPoint. For more, learn how to make a PowerPoint presentation read-only to prevent other types of changes.

Protect PowerPoint Presentation

How to protect a powerpoint being copied, restrict access & lock editing.

• Stop unauthorized access
• Stop sharing and distribution
• Strong US Gov strength encryption, DRM and licensing controls

• Stop editing, copying and screen grabs
• Stop printing or control the number of prints
• Lock PDF files to devices and locations

• on a fixed date
• after a number of days use
• after a number of views and/or prints

• revoke a document for all users instantly
• revoke individual user access to single, multiple, or all documents
• revoke access automatically after a number of views and/or prints

You only have to protect a document once in order to customize it for multiple users.

• track and log document views
• track and log document prints
• see what devices & operating systems users are using

• Ensure only authorized parties can view confidential documents
• Enforce document retention policies with automatic expiry
• Log use for proof of when documents are viewed and printed

• Protect revenue and increase ROI – reduce losses and costs
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Protect powerpoint slides: restrict access, prevent editing & copying, add expiration.

  How can I protect PowerPoint presentations?

So, you have invested hundreds of hours into creating your PowerPoint presentations, and now you realize you need to protect them.  Though they are often overlooked, PowerPoint presentations carry plenty of information that could harm a business.  Anything from revenue figures to acquisition prospects or client details may be presented at one point or another.

After the meeting concludes, the ppt or pptx file is often shared unprotected with the participants to recap, leading to their inevitable leak.  Training companies that sell PowerPoint presentations as part of course materials also need to prevent them from being copied and shared with users that have not purchased them, or from being edited and sold on.

Below are the security options available to protect presentation slides (.pptx files) so you can prevent them from being shared, copied and edited.

  Are PowerPoints subject to copyright protection?

You have probably wondered ‘Does copyright protect powerpoint diagrams?’.  Just as with any media, you have an inherent right to control the distribution of content inside your PowerPoint presentation (provided it was created by you).  This extends to images, text, video, etc.  However, legally holding the rights to a work does very little to prevent it from being copied and distributed without your permission.  You can add a copyright symbol and disclaimer to your PowerPoint slides, but it’s likely it’ll just be ignored and can be easily removed.  If copyright notices were an effective way of preventing unauthorized distribution, piracy would be virtually non-existent.

In other words, it’s down to you to enforce your copyright by using the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and lawyers.  You could take somebody to court every time they infringe your copyright, but that would be costly, time-consuming, and wouldn’t erase the harm they’d already done.  It’s better to take measures to stop them from being able to do so in the first place.

  Password protect PowerPoint

Applying passwords to protect PowerPoint files (PPT, PPTX, PPS, PPPX)  is the cheapest solution for PowerPoint Security (it is free with PowerPoint) but also the least secure.

There are two types of passwords that can be used to password protect PowerPoint files:

• the open password which is used to restrict access
• the modify password which is used to restrict editing

Both have major weaknesses:

• The open password can be cracked (if unknown), or shared or removed (if known).
• The modify password is very easy to remove as it does not utilize encryption.  It’s primarily intended to stop accidental editing rather than unauthorized editing.  Once a user can edit a PowerPoint they have full control over it and can remove watermarks and copyright notices.

Here’s how easy it is to remove password protection in PowerPoint:

  How to open a password-protected PowerPoint file

   How to edit a protected PowerPoint presentation

It is really easy to remove edit restrictions in PowerPoint.  Users can:

• copy and paste content to another presentation
• save or print to PDF and then convert back to PPTX format
• screenshot to bypass the restrictions

• https://passper.imyfone.com/powerpoint-password-recovery/
• https://www.elcomsoft.com/aopr.html
• https://www.isumsoft.com/powerpoint-protection-refixer/

How to password protect a PowerPoint presentation & restrict opening

If you want to add an open/viewing password to your document despite the flaws mentioned above, this is how you do it:

  How to password protect a PowerPoint presentation & restrict editing

If you’d like to lock a PowerPoint from editing with a password despite its drawbacks (perhaps you just want to stop accidental editing) here’s how:

You will see that even Microsoft warns you that an editing password is not a secure feature and will not stop malicious users from editing or copying the document.  Though it does restrict editing in PowerPoint, it only does so on a surface level.  Users can easily remove the editing protecting using the techniques outlined above.

  Lock a PowerPoint from editing by converting it to images

Before we move on to other protection solutions, it’s worth quickly clarifying claims that saving your PowerPoint presentation as images will permanently prevent editing.

You can’t easily edit or copy text from an image, right?  Well, that’s not quite true.  Optical character recognition tools can take the images and turn them right back into an editable PowerPoint file again.

  PowerPoint read only mode & preventing editing

PowerPoint’s read-only mode lets you restrict editing without the use of a password.  It does so by displaying a warning message when users try to edit text or images.

If you want to save or make a PowerPoint read only or lock PowerPoint from editing, then you need to save it as a PDF and protect it with Locklizard Safeguard.

• Recipients need to have purchased the full version of PowerPoint to view your protected presentations (the free PowerPoint Viewer does not support IRM).  This is not ideal if you work with freelancers or external parties.
• You have to specify who the recipients are when you protect the PowerPoint presentation file.  This makes it very inconvenient if you want other users to access this at a later date (you will have to protect it all over again).  Clearly, this is a system designed purely for internal use and requires you to know from the start ALL the users that will ever want to access this presentation.
• Access controls are unhelpful.  You either give users read access (no permission to modify, copy print), change access (modify, copy, but no print), or full control (same rights as the author – can modify, print, set expiry).  So, if you want users to be able to print your PowerPoint Presentations you have to let them copy, edit, modify, and change expiry too.  Far from ideal from a security standpoint.
• The system does not prevent third-party screen grabbers from taking screenshots of your PowerPoint slides.
• Links to external sources (MP3/MP4 files, etc.) are not protected, so your video and audio is available for everyone to copy and share.

In conclusion, using Microsoft IRM for PowerPoint Security is only helpful in limited situations, and it does not completely protect PowerPoint presentations.  Even Azure information protection restrictions can be bypassed if a user has been given view access.

Once your PowerPoint presentation has been converted to a PDF file, you can secure it using Safeguard PDF Security.

Safeguard PDF Security protects PowerPoint presentations from unauthorized:

• screen grabbing

Safeguard PDF Security automatically locks PowerPoint slides to authorized devices so they cannot be shared.  You restrict who can access your protected PowerPoint slides, the amount of time they can be viewed, and whether they can be printed.  And if you decide that you no longer want users to be able to view them, then you can instantly revoke access.

You choose:

• when your presentations expire (if at all) – number of views, days, prints, or fixed date
• whether they can be printed – deny or allow printing or limit the number of prints
• if they should be revoked – revoke presentations anytime regardless of where they are located
• whether content should be watermarked at view/print time dynamically with personal user identifying information

And with  Safeguard Enterprise PDF DRM  you can:

• control the locations users can view your PowerPoint presentations (country & IP location) to ensure confidential material can only be viewed from, say, the office
• track and log when slides are viewed and printed

Though it is tempting to use something like Adobe Acrobat or Foxit PDF password protection , these have the exact same problem as PowerPoint password protection – the modify permissions are easily removed and the document open protection  does not prevent unauthorized sharing.

  How to save a PowerPoint presentation as a secure PDF

The process of locking a PowerPoint presentation file to prevent it from being copied/edited is a two-step one: save to PDF, followed by protection in Safeguard Secure PDF Writer.

How to convert a Powerpoint to PDF

Note that converting a PowerPoint to a PDF will naturally remove its functionality as an interactive presentation.

How to lock a PowerPoint from editing and copying with Locklizard Safeguard

Once you have converted your PowerPoint to PDF, protecting it with Safeguard is a simple matter:

Creating a protected presentation

Encrypting a PowerPoint without passwords using Safeguard PDF DRM

Safeguard Admin System

• Distribute your protected PDF however you like, or see how to share a PDF document as a link for instructions on sharing via cloud storage.

For a more detailed guide see  how to add security to a PDF or check our blog on how to lock a Word doc , which has many parallels to PowerPoint security.

The strength of your watermarks depends on the strength of your copy protection and editing restrictions.  If your editing restrictions are easily removed then so is your watermark – the user can just delete the watermark in PowerPoint.  As we’ve already covered, PowerPoint’s editing restrictions are useless, so PowerPoint watermarks are too.

You can see how to add or insert a watermark in PowerPoint here which also explains just how easy it is for users to remove them.

  How can you set expiration in PowerPoint?

It is not possible to set a PowerPoint to expire without the help of third-party applications or IRM services.  Though there is an add-in called PPTExpire, it has been in development for years and is yet to release to the public.  Plugins of this sort also typically pose a security risk and do not work as advertised.

One option is to upload your PowerPoint to OneDrive and share a link with an expiration date.  However, this will give you far less protection than you anticipate.  Browsers are unable to effectively enforce anti-copying controls because they just do not have enough control over the operating system.

  How to set a PowerPoint to expire with Safeguard Security

In Safeguard Secure PDF Writer, choose the expiry options you want to apply:

• Expiration Date – expires on the date that you select here.
• After n days from first use – expires a number of days after it is first opened.
• Views – expires after it has been viewed n times.
• Prints – expires after it has been printed n times.

Expiry days, views, and prints are allocated on a user basis – so the same file can expire at different times for individual users.

Once you have chosen your PowerPoint expiration date options, press the Publish button.

Locklizard uses US government-strength AES encryption, public key technology, Digital Rights Management, and licensing controls to ensure your presentations remain protected regardless of their location.  If you want to make or save a PowerPoint as read only then only DRM protection can achieve this.

See our  customer testimonials  or read our  case studies  to see why thousands of organizations use Locklizard PDF security to protect, share and sell their documents securely.

Protecting Microsoft Office files

Looking to protect other MS-Office files to restrict access, copying, editing, printing and sharing?

Can PowerPoints be encrypted?

Most document formats can be encrypted, including PowerPoints.  If you password protect PowerPoint files it will encrypt them using AES encryption.

However, it’s important to be aware of the strength of the encryption and encryption mechanism .  Password-based encryption is inherently less secure, because it takes (for example) a random, 256-bit encryption key and links it to a short, human-chosen, and often insecure string of characters.  Microsoft state that “You cannot enable a strong encryption file by using password protection.”

How do I password protect PowerPoint files?

• Select File > Info.
• Select Protect Presentation > Encrypt with Password.
• In the Password field, enter the password and press OK.
• Re-enter the password to confirm it.
• Save the PPT / PPTX file so that the password takes effect.

Is there a way to encrypt PowerPoint slides?

Though you can’t encrypt individual slides within a larger PowerPoint presentation or Show, you can export those slides as a PDF and use a PDF DRM solution to encrypt them.  This has the additional advantage of not relying on password security.

Does Locklizard use asymmetric or symmetric encryption to protect Powerpoint slides?

We use both.  RSA asymmetric encryption for key exchange and AES 256 bit symmetric encryption for file encryption.

What is PowerPoint protected view or protected mode?

Protected view or protected mode is a read-only mode that is automatically applied to MS Office file types when the file has potentially come from an unsafe location.  It is used to protect users from viruses and other malicious code from being executed rather than a copy protection feature to restrict editing or make a PowerPoint read only.  It is not the same as creating a read-only file that cannot be edited.

Why can’t you bypass a password-locked PowerPoint document without brute force?

PowerPoint uses 256-bit AES to encrypt the entire pptx document or ppt files.  This form of encryption would take current computers millions of years to break, and Microsoft’s implementation does not have any known shortcuts or vulnerabilities.

However, to say that you can’t bypass the document without brute force is not true.  As a password is used to unlock the document, any of the traditional password attack methods can be utilized.  This includes obtaining it from a party who already knows it through social engineering, phishing, etc.

How do I protect a PowerPoint from being changed or make it read only?

Convert it to a PDF, then encrypt it and apply editing controls with a PDF DRM solution to make it read only.  The same applies if you want to copyright protect a pptx file to read only or make a ppt uneditable permanently.

PowerPoint’s editing protection is easily bypassed, protected view mode can be turned off, and converting to images doesn’t work either as they can be run through an OCR recognition tool.

How do I protect a PowerPoint presentation from being copied?

Unauthorized copying is all but impossible to prevent.  Instead, you need to:

• Make any copied file useless (inaccessible without a requisite license file)
• Lock the presentation to a device so it cannot be shared
• Restrict editing, copy and paste, screenshots and printing
• Add watermarks that identify users should they share a printed or photographed copy

Locklizard Safeguard DRM can achieve all of these goals, stopping users from making a copy of your presentation and protecting your important files and intellectual property.

How do I remove encryption from a PowerPoint presentation?

It depends on the method of encryption.  If you applied PowerPoint password encryption (used to password protect PowerPoint files), you’ll need to either obtain and enter the password or brute force it.  Documents encrypted with Locklizard Safeguard do not use passwords, and therefore encryption cannot be removed.  The only way to obtain an unencrypted version of the document is to ask the creator for it.

Does adding a digital signature make a PowerPoint file more secure?

A digital signature is an invisible signature used for authentication purposes.  It differs from an electronic signature (a visible image of your written signature) but can be used in conjunction with it.  A digital signature is an encrypted stamp of authentication and is created by using a signing certificate, which if issued by a reputable Certificate Authority, proves identity.

Adding a digital signature to a PowerPoint presentation confirms that the information originated from the signer and has not been altered.  Recipients need your certificate and public key to verify the signature.  So, if users remove editing restrictions from a PowerPoint presentation and alter it after it has been digitally signed then you will be alerted to this.

How do you share a PowerPoint securely?

First of all, by avoiding OneDrive and other cloud sharing services.  Browser security is too easily to manipulate and bypass, not to mention the freely available download button Microsoft provides.  So if it is your responsibility to protect PowerPoint presentations from being shared then you need to look at more secure alternatives.

The most secure way to share PowerPoint files is to save them as a PDF, protect them with Safeguard DRM, and then send the encrypted .pdc file to the recipient or distribute it by other means.  This is also the most secure way to share PowerPoint files online.  While one might be tempted to use Azure information protection (RMS) or Adobe Document Cloud security , they both have multiple security issues, are complex to setup / maintain, and costly.

If I use a password to protect PowerPoint files will it restrict access?

You can use a password to restrict access to PowerPoint files.  However, bear in mind that if you want to share a PowerPoint securely, then anyone you give the password to can share it with others or just remove it.  If you therefore use a password to protect PowerPoint files, you have no control over who can access your PowerPoint presentations or slides.

Does Locklizard provide Digital Rights Management for PPT and PPTX files?

PPT and PPTX files have to be saved to PDF format before they can be protected with Locklizard DRM.

How to save a PowerPoint as a secure PDF?

• Within PowerPoint, save the PowerPoint deck or presentation to a PDF (File menu > Save As > Save as type: PDF).
• While you can password protect a PDF the restrictions or permissions are so easy for users to remove they are not worth adding to begin with.
• If you want to secure the PDF and prevent sharing, stop copying, restrict editing, block printing, set expiration and enforce watermarks, then use Locklizard Safeguard to protect it.

Customer Testimonials

We needed to deliver e-book versions of our handbooks while not compromising on security and digital rights.  Safeguard PDF security is easy to use and intuitive. The implementation was painless and we now have a greener, more secure way of distributing training manuals.

Locklizard’s PDF protection is exactly as described – the features are highly effective and I would give it 5 stars. I would recommend Locklizard to others - their security is simple to use and fit for purpose.  It meets common needs of businesses who have information they want to protect.

We would be happy to recommend Locklizard to any company needing a flexible way to secure PDF files. Safeguard PDF Security has provided us with a very workable solution for sharing of information in a secure fashion.  The support has been excellent and very accommodating.

We can cut accounts for a user five minutes before his class starts and he is ready to go. Happy smiling customer, while we still have security and personalized watermarking. I have immense respect for the product and Locklizard provide great customer satisfaction and service.

We would recommend Safeguard to other companies for its security, cost and ease of use. It does what we expected it to do and more. Ease of use is a bonus and the implementation was very easy.  The product manual is excellent and Locklizard staff are very accommodating.

We sell a highly valued educational product in an open and competitive market so it was important to ensure we had effective security to protect our digital rights. We highly recommend Locklizard - a professional company with a competitive and professional PDF Security product.

We would absolutely recommend both Locklizard as a company, and Safeguard PDF Security.  It has transformed our study materials to the next level. Not only did this increase sales, but we also believe that it has increased our customers’ ability to learn, which is even more important!

We would recommend Locklizard Safeguard to other companies that need to protect PDF reports.  Customers have found the process of accessing the protected documents to be seamless. Implementation was easy and technical support has been very responsive to requests for help.

Our company would without reservation recommend Locklizard.  Their document DRM software opens up delivery of our new products in a timely fashion while knowing that the content will remain secure. The return on investment to our company has been immediately evident.

We use Safeguard to make sure that documents cannot be opened outside our local network or from a unauthorized computer in order to copy or print the documents. It is the most feature rich, affordable, & simple to use PDF security product on the market.

Safeguard PDF Security is simple to administer and meets our needs, consistently delivering secured manuals to our customers with ease. Return on investment has been elimination of many man hours, printing resources and postage – it is estimated that costs decreased by 50% or more.

We would really recommend Safeguard PDF Security to every publishing company for managing ePubs or e-books securely.  It is easy to secure PDF files and simple to distribute them to our authorized customers only. Locklizard also provides a good customer support experience.

The ROI for us is incalculable.  We have the security of knowing that our proprietary documents are secure.  This is the entire value of our company. I would most certainly recommend your PDF security product and already have.  The ease of implementation was surprising.

We can now sell our manuals without the need to print them first, saving time, money and helping safeguard the environment. We would recommend Safeguard PDF DRM – it is the perfect solution to sell and send e-documents securely whilst making sure someone cannot copy them.

We would recommend Locklizard to other companies without hesitation. Their PDF DRM products provide a manageable, cost effective way to protect intellectual investment and they are always looking for ways to improve them.  Moreover, their staff provide an excellent level of support.

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May 09 2009

Password Protect Your PowerPoint Slides

The Dharma Initiative might want to mix up their passwords for their top secret PPT presentations.

If you share your PowerPoint slides with other people inside or outside your organization, you may want to control or lock your slides so that they can only be viewed or edited by select people .

Nothing can be more painful than seeing your carefully designed PowerPoint presentation being butchered by random individuals within your company. PowerPoint provides a couple of options to control what happens to your slides after you’ve built them.

Two Options for Password Protecting Your Slides

When it comes to password protecting your PowerPoint slides, you have two key options:

• Password to open: Restrict who can view your presentation file. Use this option when you want to prevent people from seeing confidential or sensitive slides.
• Password to modify: Control who can edit your PowerPoint slides. Use this option when you’re okay with letting people see your slides as long as they can’t edit them without your permission.

How to Password Protect Your PowerPoint File

In order to access these options, you’ll need to follow these steps:

• Go to save your file and on the “Save As” menu you’ll notice a Tools button on the bottom left.
• Click on the Tools button and select “General Options” .
• Enter a password for the option(s) that are most appropriate to your circumstances.

When you save your file, go into the General Options via the Tools button to add passwords to your PowerPoint file.

Words of Caution

This is what users will see depending on what you specified.

PowerPoint’s password protection features are not intended as security features. They are primarily designed to prevent unintentional viewing and editing of PowerPoint files. Your PowerPoint presentation will not be encrypted , and it can still be edited by malicious users. If you forget or lose your password, you won’t be able to retrieve the password to access the file so be careful. Also be aware that the passwords are case sensitive .

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Tags: password protection , passwords , security

Comments (9)

9 Responses to “Password Protect Your PowerPoint Slides”

My PowerPoint is used for training a group. Each individual receives a cd with the presentation. They must review all the slides. I need each person to review the slides in the appropriate amount of time it takes to learn from the slides and not just fast forward through the course. I can put it in kiosk mode and put a time in for automatic forward. The problem is that if they want to return to a previous slide for review they cannot. If they want to exit or pause the slides they cannot. Is there a way for the student to return to a previous slide or return to where they left off? The bottom line is that the curriculum requires the presentation to take atleast 6 hours to complete, but students must be able to access previous slides without starting the presentation from the start, again.

Thank you for your assistance.

All I can think of is creating a sort of table of content or menu on the first slide and add a hyperlink to it on the slide master so if they need to navigate back to a previous chapter they can do it that way…

i need to know how to lock a specific slide because i wand everyone to acess some of the slides but only select people to acess the rest

As far as I know, that’s not possible. I believe the password-protection is for the entire presentation and not for specific slides. Could you split up the presentation to address the different permissions? That’s the only workaround I can think of.

My powerpoint presentation is on mac Microsoft 2011. and it does not give me those options. in file, under “save as” its says “restricted access” and when i click it i get” Enter your fully qualified network user name and password”. What do I do to lock my microsoft powerpoint presentation 2011 on mac? hope you can help. thanks

With PowerPoint 2010 for PC, can I lock the slides but not the speaking notes so that 18 different presenters do show all the same content but each one of them can add their own speaking notes that will not appear on the screen to the audience?

I’m not aware of a way to lock specific parts of PowerPoint such as the slide content but not the notes. It’s an all or nothing thing.

One option that’s coming to my mind is to create static images of each slide. The presenters will not be able to edit the slide content but will be able to add their own notes. The limitation of this approach is that it won’t allow animations if all of the slide content is one image. That’s all I can think of.

how do you lock a template only if you already have it drafted?

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Lock/protect a powerpoint presentation

I was wondering, how can one protect a powerpoint presentation in such way that other people won't have the chance to open it in powerpoint and see how the presentation was made?

I thought this was done by saving the file in a .ppsx format but that can easily be opened in powerpoint and people can see how it was made.

Another workaround is to save it as a video file but I want to know, is there another way?

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To protect your PowerPoint presentation.:

• Click the File tab to go to Backstage view .
• From the Info pane, click the Protect Presentation command.

Marking a presentation as final will not prevent someone from editing it. If you want to prevent people from editing it, you can use the Restrict Access option instead.

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I want to prevent people from being able to see how the presentation was made. For them to not have access to animations etc.

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Try applying a password.  One of the options is to apply a password that allows the recipient to open and view BUT NOT EDIT the presentation.  I just checked, and when I opened a presentation protected this way, the animation tab was grayed out.

That might be all you need for this.

Steve's suggestion is probably what you need but:

To do this do not use the Encrypt with Password option.

When you Save As (a ppsx) use the "Tools" Button next to SAVE to select General Options and add a Modify Password.

This is not super secure but it will keep most folk out.

2 people found this reply helpful

I tried both and both don't work for me.

I tried all possible combinations of saving to ppsx with encrypt password, saving to pptx with encrypt password, saving to ppsx without encrypt password with only modify password... everything. I can't seem to get the animations tab greyed out.

Adding a modify password doesn't disable "Custom Animation" pane it does stop anything being changed.

To disable the command you would have to adapt the XML which is not straightforward.

As John mentions, the tab will still be there, but having opened a password-protected show for viewing only (ie, you don't supply the password when you open the file), the tab will be there but nothing on it will be functional.

Here it is still possible to open the Custom Animation Pane to see how the animations work (not change them of course) I'm guessing this is what the user is trying to avoid.

AFAIK changing the XML is the only way to achieve this but of course it is not straightforward.

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How to Lock a PowerPoint File?

Edward Robin

May 8, 2024

Data Security

To lock a PowerPoint file, follow these steps: Open your PowerPoint presentation. Click on the “File” tab in the top-left corner. Select “Info” from the menu on the left. Click on “Protect Presentation” and choose “Encrypt with Password.” Enter a password and click “OK” to lock the file. Confirm the password by entering it again. Save your presentation to apply the password protection. By setting a password, only individuals with the correct credentials can access the PowerPoint file, ensuring its security.

Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful tool used by many professionals to create visually engaging presentations. However, with the increasing need to protect sensitive information, it is important to know how to lock a PowerPoint file. I will explore the steps and best practices for securing your PowerPoint presentations.

In this Article:

Understanding PowerPoint File Protection

Before we delve into the process of locking a PowerPoint file, let’s first understand the importance of file protection. PowerPoint file protection ensures that only authorized individuals can access and modify your presentation. By utilizing different levels of security, you can safeguard your presentation from unauthorized access or accidental changes.

File protection is not just about restricting access; it’s also about maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of your content. Whether you’re sharing sensitive business data, creative ideas, or educational material, protecting your PowerPoint file is essential in preserving the intended message and preventing any unauthorized alterations.

Importance of Locking a PowerPoint File

Locking a PowerPoint file is crucial when it contains confidential information or when you want to maintain the integrity of your presentation. By doing so, you prevent unauthorized users from accessing or modifying your content, thus ensuring that your message remains intact and secure.

Moreover, locking your PowerPoint file can also help you comply with data protection regulations and internal security policies. It demonstrates a proactive approach to safeguarding information and upholding privacy standards, which is particularly important in today’s digital age where data breaches and unauthorized access are prevalent.

Different Levels of PowerPoint File Security

PowerPoint offers various levels of security for your files, allowing you to choose the appropriate level of protection. These levels include password protection, read-only mode, and protecting individual slides within a presentation. We will explore these options in more detail later in this article.

Each level of security in PowerPoint serves a specific purpose, catering to different scenarios and user requirements. Password protection, for instance, adds an extra layer of defense by requiring a password to open or modify the file. On the other hand, read-only mode restricts editing capabilities while still allowing users to view the content. By understanding and utilizing these security features effectively, you can enhance the protection of your PowerPoint presentations and ensure the confidentiality of your information.

Steps to Lock a PowerPoint File

Now that we understand the importance of locking PowerPoint files, let’s dive into the steps to secure your presentations.

Protecting your PowerPoint presentations is crucial, especially when dealing with sensitive information or when sharing files with a limited audience. By following these steps, you can add an extra layer of security to your valuable content.

Preparing Your PowerPoint for Locking

Before you can lock your PowerPoint file, it is essential to make sure your presentation is ready. Ensure that all the content, including text, images, and multimedia elements, is in its final form. Take the time to review each slide meticulously, checking for any errors or inconsistencies. Once you have finalized your presentation, save it with a meaningful filename, so it is easy to identify in your file directory.

Setting a Password for Your PowerPoint File

One of the most common methods to lock a PowerPoint file is by setting a password. By doing so, only individuals who know the correct password will be able to open and modify the presentation. When choosing a password, opt for a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters to enhance security. Remember to keep a record of your password in a secure location or consider using a password manager for added convenience.

Confirming Your PowerPoint File is Locked

After setting a password, it is crucial to confirm that your PowerPoint file is locked effectively. Close the presentation and reopen it to test the password protection. Upon reopening, you should be prompted to enter the password you previously set. This step ensures that unauthorized users cannot access your presentation without the correct credentials. By verifying the lock, you can have peace of mind knowing that your PowerPoint file is secure from prying eyes.

Troubleshooting Common Issues Locking PPT FIle

While locking a PowerPoint file is generally straightforward, there can be certain issues that arise. Let’s explore some common problems and their solutions.

When encountering difficulties with locked PowerPoint files, it’s important to consider the version compatibility of the software. Older versions of PowerPoint may have limitations when it comes to accessing password-protected files created in newer versions. Updating your software to the latest version can often resolve compatibility issues and provide a smoother user experience.

Forgotten Passwords and Recovery

If you forget the password for your locked PowerPoint file, it can be a frustrating experience. However, Microsoft does not provide a built-in recovery option for forgotten passwords. It is essential to keep a copy of your password in a safe and secure location to prevent lockouts.

Another approach to managing forgotten passwords is to utilize password management tools. These tools offer secure storage for all your passwords and can help you retrieve lost credentials for various applications, including locked PowerPoint files. Implementing a password manager can enhance security practices and streamline password recovery processes.

Dealing with Locked Files from Other Users

Occasionally, you may receive a locked PowerPoint file from another user, which prevents you from accessing or modifying the content. In such cases, you can kindly request the password from the file’s owner. If the owner is unreachable or the password is unknown, there is no direct method to unlock the file without the correct password.

Collaborative platforms and cloud-based services offer alternative solutions for managing locked files from other users. By utilizing shared folders or collaborative editing features, multiple users can work on a PowerPoint file simultaneously without the need for individual file locks. Exploring these collaborative tools can improve workflow efficiency and reduce dependency on password protection for file access.

Advanced PowerPoint File Protection

In addition to password protection, PowerPoint offers advanced features to enhance file security. Let’s explore some of these options.

Using Read-Only to Protect Your PowerPoint

If you want to ensure that your PowerPoint file remains unaltered, you can set it to read-only mode. This restricts users from modifying the presentation while still allowing them to view and navigate the slides. To enable read-only mode, go to the “File” tab, select “Protect Presentation,” and choose “Mark as Final.” This prevents any changes from being saved to the file.

Protecting Individual Slides within a PowerPoint

PowerPoint also allows you to protect individual slides within a presentation. This is useful when you want to confidentiality share some slides while restricting access to others. To protect slides, select the desired slides, go to the “Review” tab, click on “Restrict Editing,” and choose “Lock Only Selected Parts of the Document.” This enables you to specify which elements on each slide should be protected.

Maintaining PowerPoint File Security

Securing your PowerPoint file is an important step, but it is equally important to maintain file security over time. Here are some best practices to ensure the ongoing security of your presentations.

Regularly Updating Your PowerPoint Password

To enhance security, it is recommended to regularly update your PowerPoint password. By changing your password periodically, you reduce the risk of unauthorized access to your presentations. Remember to choose strong and unique passwords that are not easily guessable.

Best Practices for Sharing Protected PowerPoint Files

When sharing protected PowerPoint files, it is essential to choose the appropriate file sharing method. Consider using secure file sharing platforms or password-protected ZIP files to ensure that only authorized users can access the presentation. Additionally, communicate the password securely to the intended recipients, such as through encrypted messaging services or in-person communication.

Key Takeaways

• Locking a PowerPoint file safeguards your presentations from unauthorized access or accidental changes.
• Set a password for your PowerPoint file to restrict access to authorized individuals.
• Use read-only mode to prevent modifications to your presentation while allowing viewership.
• Protect individual slides within a PowerPoint file to maintain confidentiality.
• Maintain file security by regularly updating your password and using secure methods for sharing protected files.

Q: Can I remove password protection from a PowerPoint file?

A: Yes, you can remove password protection from a PowerPoint file by going to the “File” tab, selecting “Protect Presentation,” and choosing “Encrypt with Password.” Simply delete the existing password and click OK to remove the protection.

Q: Can I set different passwords for different slides within a PowerPoint file?

A: No, PowerPoint does not allow you to set different passwords for individual slides within a single presentation. The password protection applies to the entire file.

Q: Can I unlock a PowerPoint file without the password?

A: Without the correct password, it is not possible to unlock a password-protected PowerPoint file. Make sure to keep a copy of the password in a secure location to avoid lockouts.

Q: Can I add a watermark to my locked PowerPoint file?

A: Yes, you can add a watermark to a locked PowerPoint file to further indicate the protected nature of the content. To add a watermark, go to the “View” tab, select “Slide Master,” and add the desired watermark text or image.

Q: Can I use third-party software to unlock password-protected PowerPoint files?

A: While there may be third-party software claiming to unlock password-protected PowerPoint files, it is important to exercise caution. These tools may compromise the security of your presentation or may not be legitimate. It is always recommended to use official methods provided by Microsoft.

In conclusion, locking a PowerPoint file is a vital step to protect your presentations. By understanding the different levels of security, taking necessary precautions, and using advanced features, you can safeguard your sensitive information. Regularly updating your password and following best practices for sharing protected files further enhances the security of your PowerPoint presentations.

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