There is never too much effort to preserve the security and privacy of our documents. Having passwords to access certain folders is very useful and recommended. This practice can also be extended to some of the programs we use the most. If you agree with this, put a password on your PowerPoint with this tutorial and sleep peacefully.
Password protection works. It allows us to store and share our local files in a completely secure way. No one without the correct password will be able to access them in any way, which is a good method to keep intruders and snoopers away.
Why put a password on a PowerPoint?
There are many situations for which this can be very useful. In some cases, one could even say that it is a real necessity.
Let's imagine, for example, that we are working on a professional presentation that contains sensitive data about our business or company. Information that we do not want to be available to anyone and that, if disseminated, could cause us some kind of harm to the competition, the Administration, etc.
In this and other similar cases (an academic work that we do not want to reveal so that it can be copied, for example), knowing this trick of Power point It's something basic. Everyone who runs this program with any regularity should know how to protect a document using a password. The tutorial that we present below shows us the steps to follow to do it:
How to put a password on a PowerPoint presentation
The method to use to protect a PowerPoint presentation under a password is very simple. All you have to do is follow these steps:
- To start we have to go to the PowerPoint home panel and click on the tab "Information".
- Then we select the option «Protect document».
- Then we click «Encrypt with password«. There we must enter an appropriate combination of words and numbers, complex enough to be effective. It is best to memorize it or have it written down somewhere in case we forget.
- To apply the password, press "OKAY".
In this way, every time someone wants to access the PowerPoint presentation that we have encrypted with a password, a message will appear in a yellow box where you can read this: "A password is required to open this presentation."
Before choosing a PowerPoint password hastily, we recommend you read our post dedicated to how to choose a strong password.
Needless to say, we should not share this password with anyone, unless it is a shared document. In that case, all participants must know the password to be able to access the document and edit it.
How to remove the password from a PowerPoint presentation
If we have changed our mind, or if the content of the document no longer deserves to be protected (for example, because the public presentation has already been made and the "secret" has been revealed), disable password protection in PowerPoint It is equally easy to do.
The only thing we have to do is retrace the path we have taken, that is, undo the actions described in the previous section. We explain it briefly and clearly:
- First we go to PowerPoint home panel and we click on the tab "Information".
- Then, as before, we select the option «Protect document».
- The next step is to click «Encrypt with password«. There we will see the box that contains the password that we have previously entered. All we have to do is delete it.
- To finish, we press «OK» to confirm the action.
Other ways to protect a PowerPoint presentation
In addition to the aforementioned, There are three other ways to protect a PowerPoint file. We can access all of them by following the first three steps that we have explained previously. The differences with the main method are subtle, but depending on the circumstances they may be more appropriate to what the user needs:
Mark as Final
This is the most recommended option to inform readers of the document that it is the final version. By doing this, the presentation becomes a read-only file, so no one can edit it.
Restricted access
This is a possibility that we will only have at our disposal if we have installed Windows Rights Management on our PC. Its usefulness is that it allows us to determine the names of specific users who can access our PowerPoint files.
Add a digital signature
The third method to protect a PowerPoint presentation without applying a password is to add a digital signature. It is a somewhat more complex system, but very secure.
Conclusion
Keeping sensitive PowerPoint files safe can be a very important issue. As you can see, there are several methods to do it, so, the next time we need to protect our presentations, we can resort to any of these methods.