If you want to discourage others from making edits to your Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or let them know the file you sent is the final version, you can do so by making it read-only. Here’s how it’s done.
Open the presentation that you want to make read-only, then click the “File” tab.
Next, in the left-hand pane, select “Info.”
You’ll now see a “Protect Presentation” section, which lets you (to an extent) protect against any editing of your presentation. Click “Protect Presentation.”
Once selected, a drop-down menu will appear with these four options:
Always Open Read-Only: This asks the reader to opt-in to edit the presentation. This prevents accidental edits. Encrypt with Password: This password protects your presentation. Add a Digital Signature: This adds an invisible digital signature to your presentation. Mark as Final: This lets the reader know that this is the final version of the presentation.
All of these options are good for protecting the integrity of your Microsoft PowerPoint, but the two we’ll need here to make the presentation read-only are (1) Always Open Read-Only and (2) Mark as Final.
Selecting either option will prevent the reader from editing the presentation–unless they opt-in to do so.
If you chose the Always Open Read-Only option, the reader will see this message when opening the presentation:
If you chose the Mark as Final option, the reader will see this message:
In either case, your Microsoft PowerPoint presentation is now set to read-only. However, in both cases, all the reader has to do to edit the presentation is click the “Edit Anyway” button.
