How can I lock the presentation?

[Bob]

I need to lock a PP presentation to prevent it from being modified. I am
using Office X on OS 10.3. I tried saving as a movie, but my file is over
7 GB in size. Is there any way to lock a PP file so that it cannot be
modified?

Thanks.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Bob,

You can prevent modifications to the presentation file by clicking the
Options button in the File > SaveAs dialog.

Another way is to save the presentation to read-only media such as CDR
or DVDR.

However, preventing modifications to the file does not stop someone from
using File > SaveAs to save the presentation with a new name.

The surest way to prevent anyone from copying your presentation or ideas
is to not let them see the presentation in the first place. Once a
presentation has been viewed in any way it can be recreated in some
fashion just from the memory of those who have seen it.

What restrictions would you like to place on the content? Prevent
screen shots? Prevent copying of slides? What kind of content do you
have - just slides? Slides that contain movies?

-Jim

 

[Bob]

Hi Jim,
Thanks for responding. I want to distribute some presentations so that
recipients cannot modify it. I have some statistical research and
information that I want to be sure will remain intact. I thought saving
via a movie would do the trick, but again, the size of a 12 MB file
became 7GB, which seems wildly large, and I couldn't get it to play.
There's no way I could put this on a single DVD.

Because you can save as, you can make another file that is modifiable. I
don't mind customers and associates viewing the presentation and
disseminating the research. I just want to be sure the content stays
intact. I can't figure a way to do that. Any other ideas?

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Harvey Waxman]

I just want to be sure the content stays
intact.

What about doing an image capture of the data and using the image instead of
the data itself?

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Bob,

I don't know of a sure-fire way to physically stop an unscrupulous person
from altering your data.

Your presentations are automatically covered by copyright, and deliberately
changing data in a fraudulent manner could also be illegal. I'm not a
lawyer, but it seems to me that this is the strongest form of protection
that you have.

The windows version of PowerPoint lets you use security certificates to sign
macros, which essentially guarantees that the document is from who it claims
to be from. However, such presentations won't open on a Mac or on earlier
versions of Windows PowerPoint. I don't know anyone who is using the feature
effectively.

If fraud has been a problem in the past then perhaps you could be more
selective about who the presentation is distributed to. You can make it
password protected so that only people with the password can open the
presentation. That is done using the Options button in the File > SaveAs
dialog box. You could encourage folks to obtain original copies only from
you to avoid the possibility of fraud.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

All responses should be made to this newsgroup within the same thread.
Thanks.

About Microsoft MVPs:
http://www.mvps.org/

Before posting a "new" topic please be sure to search Google Groups to see
if your question has already been answered.

An Excel add-in is available to help with this task.
<http://www.rondebruin.nl/Google.htm>

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[Steve Rindsberg]

Thanks for responding. I want to distribute some presentations so that
recipients cannot modify it. I have some statistical research and
information that I want to be sure will remain intact.

If you convert the text and graphics to a picture, the information will be, for
all reasonable intents and purposes, non-modifiable.

Start with a COPY of your presentation.

Select the content you want to protect, then choose Edit, Copy from the menu
bar.

Next, choose Edit, Paste Special and choose Picture as the type.

That gives you an image of your original content. Delete the original content.

You might find that you get better results if you scale your original content
up quite large (group it first if it's more than one shape) before copying it.

 

[Bob]

Thanks guys, for your help. I'll try the image/picture route. Hadn't
occured to me. It wont' stop someone determined to change it, but it
will make it harder.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
Hi Jim,
Thanks for responding. I want to distribute some presentations so that
recipients cannot modify it. I have some statistical research and
information that I want to be sure will remain intact. I thought saving
via a movie would do the trick, but again, the size of a 12 MB file
became 7GB, which seems wildly large, and I couldn't get it to play.
There's no way I could put this on a single DVD.

Because you can save as, you can make another file that is modifiable.

I

don't mind customers and associates viewing the presentation and
disseminating the research. I just want to be sure the content stays
intact. I can't figure a way to do that. Any other ideas?

Thanks again for your help.
someone
from

I

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi again,

PowerPoint can automatically save any presentation as a series of pictures.

Use File > Save As
in the Format drop down choose one of the following types
* Scrapbook (a single file that has a series of pictures)
* Macintosh PICT (Good if everyone is using a Mac)
* GIF (Use if you want a small file size for the web)
* PNG (also a good choice)
* JPEG (my recommended choice)

Click the OPTIONS button. Be sure "Save Every Slide (as a series of graphics
files)" is selected. Adjust the resolution settings (600 dpi is very nice in
my opinion).

Create a new folder to hold all the pictures.

Then click SAVE.

If you have a lot of pics and you want to import them back into PowerPoint
check out my add-in (shameless self-promotion!)
http://www.agentjim.com/MVP/PowerPoint/ppt.html

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

All responses should be made to this newsgroup within the same thread.
Thanks.

About Microsoft MVPs:
http://www.mvps.org/

Before posting a "new" topic please be sure to search Google Groups to see
if your question has already been answered.


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