Protect a slideshow

Question

I have a powerpoint slideshow that I need to share with colleagues. However, I need to protect the same from being edited and restrict the user from having it's items being copied and pasted to any other file. With no access to internet by all, to use the IRM technology which as per my knowledge requires the same to login to Microsoft Live any idea how to meet the requisite facility?

Thanx in advance!

Answer 1

Corrections:  

Mark As Final in NO WAY protects the presentation.  It simply informs anyone who opens the presentation that it's been marked as final.  It remains editable and people can still copy content from it.

Adding a digital signature doesn't protect anything either; it simply gives the recipient a way of satisfying themselves that the file did indeed come from you and that it's not been changed along the way.

Using a password is one possibility;  Use a MODIFY password to allow anyone to open the file but only those with the password to edit it.

Another useful trick:  You can save from PPT 2010 as a Picture Presentation.  This is still a PPTX file but it converts each slide to an image.  While entire slides can still be copied, they can't be edited.

Answer 2

Yep, you can definitely do this in PPT 2010.

File | Save As

Click Tools

Choose General Options from the popup menu that appears.

Pause for a moment to wonder why what follows should appear when you click General Options and not when you do the painfully obvious thing and click SAVE Options. 

Anyhow, in the resulting dialog, you'll be able to enter passwords for both opening the file and for modifying it.

When someone opens the file, they'll be prompted first for the Open password; if they supply that correctly, they'll be asked for the Modify password, but will be able to bypass that and open the file just for viewing but not editing in any way.

Re your reply to Daniel:  most versions of PPT don't include the bits needed to do permission restrictions; you also need a special server to handle validating permissions for this to work.  For most of us, it's a total irrelevancey.

Answer 3

I went to the link provided but the options did not match my options for File | Info | Protect Presentation. Only options I have are Mark as Final, Encrypt with Password, Add a Digital Signature. I have PowerPoint 2010 - no restrict permission by people. I really wanted to protect it and send to client with the animations as they are showing to others. Any other thoughts for 2010?

Answer 4

I like the idea of two different passwords - allowing it to be opened but not edited. But this is not an option that I can find in PowerPoint 2010. I used the save as a graphic, but you do lose all the animations (I made extra pages so all info not revealed at once, but would have preferred to save with animations and just protected).

Answer 5

Hi Faraz,

Thanks for posting in Microsoft Community. We’d be glad to assist you on your PowerPoint issue.

PowerPoint files can be protected only through following four methods,

Mark as Final     Make the presentation read-only.

Encrypt with Password: Set a password for the presentation.

Restrict Permission by People: Install Window Rights Management to restrict permissions.

Add a Digital Signature: Add a visible or invisible digital signature.

And only in IRM method the PowerPoint file can be protected from the content being copied.

Check the following link which contains brief description of the above four methods and try to use the one which best suits your need and see if it helps:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/protect-your-document-workbook-or-presentation-with-passwords-permission-and-other-restrictions-HA010354324.aspx

Revert for further assistance.

Thank You