How To Disable The Downloading Of PowerPoint Files From A Website?
There are over four billion Internet users in the World right now. It is hard to imagine
how many files are downloaded every minute. The Internet is a depth that seems to be
endless. And somewhere in this crowd, your website shows up hand in hand with the files
you have worked so hard on.
The constant development of technology allows us to share knowledge, but you don’t
always want to share 100% of everything. If you are wondering what to do to prevent the
PowerPoint files placed on your website from circulating freely among users, you are in the
right place. Below you will find some practical tips on how to protect your files from
unwanted downloads.
Why Should Your PowerPoint Files Be Protected?
There are many reasons, and everyone might have their own. However, one of the main
reasons why you should take care of your files’ security is commerce. If your company
sells guides or ebooks, you don’t want everyone to be able to access them from one
direct download. After all, you get paid for those downloads, so don’t make them freely
shareable.
If you make your own content, you should protect it as well. You don’t want to find your
text or graphics on some random site signed with somebody else’s name. Many artists,
especially those who publish their work on the Internet, are in danger of facing
plagiarism. It is crucial to lower the risk of this happening.
Another aspect is simply privacy; some files are only intended to be viewed by a narrow
group of people, not for every Internet user who wants to. If a given piece of content
is dedicated to a small bunch of people, you should take care of it and not allow open
access to that file.
Whatever reason(s) you have for protecting your files, it’s a good idea to do so. And we
will tell you how (quick answer: use dedicated platform to protect your documents like HelpRange). Let’s dive into this topic.
#1 Establish Your Limits
In this case, it is not the sky that is the limit. It is your role to establish the
boundaries. For example, if you know that only 5 people should be able to download your
PowerPoint, select 5 as the limitation. A 6th person won’t be able to do so.
Another option is to set limits on the views of a given PowerPoint. However, remember to notify
those for whom the file is intended. If someone opens it once to overview it quickly and
wants to analyze it later, the limit may be an unpleasant surprise. A very nice solution
is also limiting the number of users who can view a document simultaneously. You can set
this number to, e.g., 2 users, or the size of the group for which this file is intended.
A somewhat advanced solution is restriction of access for only a given number of IP
addresses. You can choose how many and exactly which devices exactly will have access to
your files, as you long as you know their IPs. For some, checking such information may
not be feasible. No wonder that the average internet user doesn’t do this on a daily
basis. It may also be troublesome if a given user changes devices, then they will no
longer have access to the PowerPoint.
If you are wondering how to set such limits, HelpRange is your answer.
It allows you to
take control over your PowerPoint files. This tool provides high-quality solutions to make you
sure that your files are safe. It lets you establish user limits, IP addresss, or a
maximum number of downloads. You can also completely block the ability to download
and print your files.
You can also generate links via HelpRange or embed HelpRange PowerPoint code on your
website instead of uploading PowerPoint Files on your own website.
If you choose this option, some extra features will be available. You will be able to
check how much time a given user spent on each page, and even access some very cool heat
maps. This feature allows you to trace over which parts of your document users spend
most of their time, and where their cursors move to most often, etc. Thus, it will
enable establishing which parts of a document are of the most valuable for readers
If you are looking for a helper that will make your files more secure, you should
definitely check out HelpRange.
#2 Set Passwords
If you want to protect something digitally, you should set a password – the more
complicated, the better. By establishing a password, you can be almost 100% sure that
only chosen people (those who know the password) will have access to the secured
content.
So if you want to keep your files secure, set a password and share them with your
friends. This way, your content will be safe and sound, even if the PowerPoint Files fall into the
wrong hands. How to set a password? There are a few plugins that you can add to your
WordPress dashboard, thanks to which you can set a password when adding a file. You can
also use HelpRange to set such security measures and prevent your files
from being
opened by unwanted people.
Another option is to protect the whole page where the file is located. Furthermore, you
can set a password to shelter a post or page in WordPress Settings. To do this you need
to make a few clicks on your admin page. While creating new content on your website, you
need to edit the Visibility option. Switch from Public to Password Protected and type
the magic combination.
#3 Make It Expire Someday
If you are using platforms like WordPress, then it has several plugins, and some of them, like the Protect WordPress Pages &
Posts plugin, can prove very useful for protecting your files. With this plugin, you can
block the original link to a post or the entire page. It will not be available to the
public eye and will not be displayed in search engine results. This plugin allows you to
create a new link that you can send directly to your friends. Each URL that you create
can have an expiry date that is set by yourself.
There are also such extensions as Private Magic Links. Thanks to this, the address to
your website or post where a file is located will expire automatically, for example
after 1 minute, and a new private URL will be created in its place.
Each unauthorized user will see a 404 error page once the link has expired. This will
successfully protect your content from unwanted views or downloads.
Creating an expiry date makes things very easy. You can be sure that an unwelcome
audience will not gain access to your files. What’s more, after the specified date,
there will be no way to read your PowerPoint. You can easily set expiration date by using tools like HelpRange.
#4 Use Special PowerPoint Web Viewer
As mentioned above, there are plenty of WordPress plugins. Such facilities allow you to
embed files directly into your site’s content. Thanks to this, you can allow your
subscribers to view a file in a convenient browser viewer on your website, instead of
downloading the file. PowerPoint Embedder is one of the most popular plugins for WordPress that
supports embedding files on pages. Thanks to this plugin, you can allow users to take a
look at a document in a handy viewer, yet downloading it would not be a piece of cake.
If you have the premium version you can add a download button, but if you don’t want to
do so then there is no need. So you are in charge here! HelpRange has its own PowerPoint Viewer
which is used to protect and track PowerPoint Files.
#5 Access For A Logged-In Member Only
One of the more straightforward solutions is simply to limit the group of recipients to
trusted ones. You can assume that this group of people who set up accounts on your
website or who pay for a subscription are trustworthy. In this case, it is worth trying
to ensure that the content provided is unique and of high quality. In order to provide
files for the chosen people only, it is worth creating a restriction in the form of
forcing a login. If the files are placed on pages that only logged-in users can access,
you can be sure that your PowerPoint Files are in safe hands.
Another popular solution is to force logging-in in order to download or print files.
After pressing the Print or Save As button, a login window appears. Without filling it
in with the correct data, the requested action will not be fulfilled. It is another
option that proves how important it is to give people the ability to show their
appreciation. In this case, if users want to support you and your online activity, allow
them to do something about it – e.g. set up an account on your website or subscribe. And
this will let you have control over your content. All those features are available in HelpRange. You go to Guests page and you can share your documents only
with trusted users (email addresses, they will need to log in using OTP code).
#6 Customized Preview
In other words, do not show everything or mark what is yours. By enabling a preview of
your file, you are giving users, for example, an introduction or table of contents. In
this way, they are able to determine whether a given file contains what they are looking
for or not.
But if you add a watermark to preview pages (and preferably to the entire file), it will
provide a clear signal – don’t copy the content. If a specific user wanted to plagiarize
or take credit for your creation, thanks to watermarks they would not be able to do so.
A watermark is like a deed of ownership. Many users may choose not to download a given
file if they see that they can only read it, instead of copy it. Try it out, and you
will see that such a little change as adding a watermark can prevent your files from
being plagiarised. In HelpRange you can put watermark very easily, you
just need to select "Set Watermark" for a given PowerPoint link.
Over To You
Preventing your PowerPoint Files from unwanted downloads should be a priority. It is widely known
that the Internet and copyright restrictions have quite a complicated relationship. Many
people go unpunished after copying entire articles or files from different sites without
mentioning the sources. Being online gives users a feeling of anonymity, and although it
is not actually true, many users forget about this fact. If you want to protect your
files and what you have created, you can keep them safe by using any of the above
solutions. We hope that they will help to decrease the number of unwelcome downloads
from your website.
Importantly, if you find that your materials have been used unlawfully, without your
permission, or without acknowledgement, remember that it is a violation of the law and
that you can hold these people to account.
Check out HelpRange
HelpRange is "Next-Gen Data Room For Documents Protection & Analytics".
HelpRange represents the cutting-edge platform for document access controls and in-depth
analytics, ensuring superior management and usage insights for your documents.