PowerPoint as "Read-Only"?

[mtorbin]

Hey all,

Is there a way to create a PowerPoint presentation that is "read only"? To be specific, I have a presentation that I put a lot of work into and a colleague requested a copy of it to show his staff.

I would love to send him a copy of this presentation, but I don't want him to have the ability to open it in his copy of PowerPoint and modify it in any way.

The only way that I've found thus far is to create a PowerPoint Movie (*.mov file). If this is the case, so be it, but I'd much rather send a strict PowerPoint file.

Any suggestions?

- MT

 

[vanvb]

Open your file, go to tools-options, and click on the security tab. Enter a password only in the 'password to modify' section. Click ok(you should be prompted to confirm the password. Then save as a .pps file. The show will open and just show, but if anyone happens to be smart enough to change the extension to .ppt and try to open it in powerpoint, it will prompt for a password, or allow the user to only open it read only.
Hope this helps!

 

[mtorbin]

Vanvb,

Thanks for the tip. Just out of curiosity, what version of PowerPoint are you referencing? Currently I'm working on the Mac version, but I have a Windows version available to me. Both versions of Powerpoint are the most current available.

- MT

 

[vanvb]

Office 2003(PC). I looked at an Office XP machine and it's the same. I'm looking at a Mac X machine and I can't find the same options. I wonder if mac can't do security that way.

I'll get back to you.

 

[mtorbin]

Thanks, that answers my questions. I figured that much since Mac doesn't have the same options.

- MT

 

[vanvb]

Just fyi,
I created a .pps show on my pc, set a password, then emailed it to my mac. The mac couldn't open it. I then went back to my pc, took off the password, then emailed the file to my mac. It read it and opened it just fine. Looks like not only can the mac not create the security on these files, it also can't opene a file with security set up on it. It can't even show it as a .pps in read-only mode where the pc wouldn't even ask for a password. The mac just bombs out.

Hope that helps!

 

[TAJSimmons]

mtorbin

The mac version of powerpoint does not have the password feature.

This page from the powerpoint faq details other options.
Password protect a presentation

http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00038.htm

Simply setting the file to "read-only" is not very secure, as a lot of people know how to turn off the "read only" attribute.

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

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