Password Protecting PowerPoint Presentations
Author: Geetesh Bajaj
Product/Version: PowerPoint 2002 and 2003
Date Created: June 25th 2009
Last Updated: June 25th 2009
Excerpt/Capsule: Learn how to password protect your PowerPoint presentations.
Why would anyone want to password protect their PowerPoint presentations? There are many reasons, and here are some of them:
- A presentation with confidential content is safe if it is password protected -- nobody without access to the password can open it.
- The password protected presentation is more safer to share -- you can provide the password to the person whom you are sharing the presentation with.
- In addition to providing a password-to-open option, PowerPoint provides a less restrictive password-to-modify option. So your presentation can be opened by anybody, but can't be modified - this makes your content non editable.
There are two ways of accessing password protection controls in PowerPoint 2002 and 2003. In this tutorial, I'll show you both the ways:
- Open the presentation, and choose File | Save As (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Save As
- This opens the Save As dialog box, as shown in Figure 2. Select Tools, Security Options.
Figure 2: Tools
- This brings up Security Options dialog box that you can see in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Security Options
There are two password choices:
- Password to Open: Type a password in the field, and the next time you or anybody else opens the file, PowerPoint will prompt to enter the password.
- Password to Modify: Type a password in the field to make the presentation readable and visible, but not editable.
- Click OK, this opens Confirm Password window as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Confirm Password
- Reenter the password. If you opted for both open and modify passwords in the preceding steps, you'll get the confirmation password window twice. Enter the passwords and click OK to get back to Save As dialog box.
- Save your password protected presentation.
- Alternatively with your presentation open, choose Tools | Options as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Options
- This opens the Options dialog box (see Figure 6). Choose the Security tab enter the passwords.
Figure 6: Security
- Repeat steps 3, 4, 5, and 6.
Remember: If you forget your password, you will no longer be able to open or modify your password protected presentation. Choose a password that's easy to remember or write it down in a secure location.
Carmine Gallo is a communications coach for the world’s most admired brands. His client list includes Intel, Chase, Barclays, IBM, Nokia, and many others. 
