Can a PowerPoint presentation be secured

One good way is the following:
Go to "Save As" and when you get the dialog box. Near the bottom is a pull down menu that says "Save as Type". You want to save it as "Powerpoint Show"

It will save it as a .pps file so you can keep the original and others can run the program.
This way nobody can alter it, print it and it will start up automatically when you open the presentation up.

The previous answer is incorrect. Although a double click will put on the show, anyone can still open, modify, and print it. If you select the file, hold Shift and Right Click, select Open With, and pick Power Point, you have complete access to the presentation.

Although this does not solve your problem, it does not mislead you into a false sense of security.

You may want to try the Pack and Go feature from the File menu.

Without knowing exactly what you need to protect (is it the intellectual content of the presentation, the presentation itself, etc.) and who you are trying to protect it from, it's difficult to suggest.

You could convert it to a .pdf which then makes the pages an on-line printout, not modifiable; however, it's still printable. (aside - someone still could text bridge it into an application and modify it).

The only sure way is to show the presentation in a live format, and not make it available on-line.

Good Luck.
Linda B.

Hi - I don't do a lot with PowerPoint, but ... I would have thought that it had a Tools, Protect or some such like Word but didn't find anything like that in a quick run throught the menu tabs.

Even if you find a way to prevent print and editing,a screen capture would still allow the content to be copied. If it allows System Modal (like a VB program) or you can write a VB macro to enforce this then you can prevent that, but restrict all other access to the PC while the presentation is active, not too popular a condition with most PC Users. Lo

There is no way to protect a presentation with Powerpoint alone, but there are other alternatives: you can export all the slides to graphics (Save As: GIF, JPG or WMF, then when Powerpoint prompts you, choose Yes to "Export every slide?") and then make a new presentation and import the pictures. This will make the presentation non-editable but it will still be printable. (Unfortunately if someone really wanted to they could OCR or screenscrape it and edit it that way.) Another way of doing it is to make an AVI movie of the presentation, which would not be printable or editable without a great deal of effort. There is also a program called PrezGuardPro which supposedly protects presentations while retaining all animation, links, etc.

Check out the Powerpoint FAQ for more information (http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FULLFAQ.htm). Hope this helps.