How to Password protect your MS PowerPoint file?

Want to password protect a MS PowerPoint file? Not a difficult task. This content will help you to make your MS PowerPoint file password protected. The password protected MS PowerPoint file won’t allow an unauthorised person to open or modify the content in your file. You will require two separate passwords, one to grant permission to open file and second to granting access to modify the content in the file.  This article describes each step in creating password protected  MS PowerPoint file. Just have a look.

Warning, you have to remember both the password as there is no mean to recover it again in case you forgot it. So, make a list of all the passwords and store it in a secure place.

Steps to Password protect a Microsoft PowerPoint file:

Step 1: Click on the start icon present on the taskbar of your computer. It will open a search box to let you find the applications, files, and folder of your interest.

Step 2: Type Microsoft Office PowerPoint in the search box. It will find the Microsoft Office PowerPoint. Now you need to click on that to open it. This will bring a powerpoint on your screen.

Step 3: After creating a power point presentation now you may apply a “password” to your file, to prevent it from unauthorised access. For that click on the Microsoft Office icon which appears at the top of the screen.

Step 4: After clicking the Microsoft Office icon you will see the various option like New, open, save, save as, print, prepare, send, publish and close. Among these options you need to click on “prepare”, as it prepares the document for distribution.

Under “prepare” you will find various options like:-

• Properties: – To set various properties of the file like title, author, keywords.
• Inspect document: – It checks hidden data or personal information.
• Encrypt Document: – It encrypts the document by providing a key (password).
• Restrict Permission: – It grants the access to a file but, restrict any modification.
• Add a Digital Signature: – Ensures integrity of a file by applying the digital signature.
• Mark as Final: – Let readers know that the file is “read only”.
• Run Compatibility Checker: – Checks features which were not supported by the earlier version of a powerpoint.

Among these, you need to select the “Encrypt Document” option to make your MS PowerPoint file password protected.

Step 5: It will open a dialog box. The dialog box will ask you for a password of your choice. But, remember this password can not be recovered by any means. So, keep a list of passwords and their corresponding file names in a safe place.

Type password of your choice and enter “OK”. It will again ask to reenter the password, to confirm your password so, type your password again and click “OK”. If you enter the wrong password, it will show “the typed password is not identical to the first one”.

Step 6: Now it’s time to save your document, click again on Microsoft Office icon and then click on “Save as” to save your file. It will show options to save your file in different version/view. Click on the version/view of your choice, let’s suppose you simply select  “PowerPoint Presentation”. A dialog box will be opened to save your file.

Step 7: In the “Save As” dialog box, select the location of your choice to save your file. I selected “Desktop” as the location to save my file. Type the name of your choice in  “Save As”. The next, “Save as type” shows the various file types and their version. Now, select “Tools”. There you will find various options like:-

• Map Network Drive: – What network or folder would you like to map your file.
• Saving Option: – Customize your saving.
• General Option: – Adjust the security level of the file.
• Web Option: – Adjust the web setting of the file.
• Compress Picture: – Compress the pictures in the file.

Click on the “General Option” as we need to set the security settings.

Step 8: It will ask for the “password”, which will restrict the modification of a file by an unauthorised person. Remember the password you provided first was only to grant permission to “open” your file. This password will grant permission to “modify” the content in the file. Type the different password which is not identical to the previous one and click “OK”. Then again re-enter the password to confirm its integrity and click “OK”.

DONE!! Your file is now “password protected”. You may now close your file.

Now, let’s open this protected file to check its integrity. Go to the location you saved the file to and open it now. It will ask you to type both the password i.e. first password to open the file, and if you provide it correct, then it will ask for the password required to modify the file. Enter both the passwords and access the file.

Hope the content solved your problem and made you familiar with some other features of MS PowerPoint.