How To Protect A PowerPoint File Document With A Password
The biggest issue with sending attachments with your emails is that you lose all control
once you hit send. One way to ensure some slight control is the use of a password with
your document which is basically the go-to option for many of us.
Why do you need to protect a PowerPoint File document with a password?
Most companies send out some seriously personal or top-secret information such as a
company’s financial statements via a PowerPoint File attachment. In most cases a PowerPoint File
document needs a password to try and give it a higher difficulty to see what is in the
document to outsiders. Take, for example, healthcare information or financial statements
of a publicly traded company. All of which share and send documents that are highly
confidential and regulated in the respective industries. There is a requirement that
documents are secured.
Password protection is by all means not perfect and it should be considered the most
basic of protective measure you could take to protect your PowerPoint File document. Bear in
mind that when most PowerPoint File documents are password protected, the actual password
itself will be sent right inside the same email as the attachment. Now, that seems
incredibly counterintuitive when the point of it is to ensure that there is high
security measures in place.
Even if you password protect your PowerPoint File document, you cannot see what is happening
with it. For all you know the document and password are now floating around a forum
somewhere being copied and shared over and over again. When you start to use additional
security features such as IP locking, expiration dates, and disabling downloads
alongside password protection you inevitably decrease the chances of losing the
documents or it getting into the wrong hands.
How to encrypt and secure a PowerPoint File document with a password
There are multiple ways of adding a password to your PowerPoint File documents, but
consider the huge limitations, which have been mentioned above, that are in place with
just basic password protection of your PowerPoint File document.
Password protect a PowerPoint File document with PowerPoint
To protect a PowerPoint (PowerPoint) file document with a password, follow these steps:
Open the PowerPoint file in Microsoft PowerPoint.
Click on the "File" menu and select "Info."
Click on "Protect Presentation" and select "Encrypt with Password."
Enter a password in the "Encrypt Document" dialog box and click "OK."
Re-enter the password in the "Confirm Password" dialog box and click "OK."
Once you have set a password, the file will be encrypted and can only be opened by
someone who knows the password.
Note: The above steps are for PowerPoint 2016 or later version. The steps may vary
slightly for older versions of PowerPoint.
Encrypt a PowerPoint File document with a Mac
In the Preview app on your Mac, open the PowerPoint File you want to
password-protect.
Choose File > Export, then select Encrypt.
Type a password, then retype it to verify the password.
Is password protection the best solution to protect your PowerPoint File
documents?
It is the most simple solution that you can have for your PowerPoint File documents. But as
mentioned in the paragraphs above, there are plenty of reasons why passwords are not the
best if you really want to maintain document security.
A key problem is the lack of identification between the document and who is using
actually viewing it. You could set a unique password for each person that you send the
file to but that would take a pretty long time to do a simple task. Also, how will you
share the password? Sending the PowerPoint File via email and then texted the password might
work but its still not the best solution for securing your documents.
Try a dedicated secure document management platform such as HelpRange
Sending heavy attachments should be avoided as not only do you risk the chance of
getting dropped into the spam box you also lose control of your document. Using a
platform like HelpRange helps you manage your PowerPoint Files in a far more secure and
efficient way.
Using a passcode is just one security feature. You can also:
Set an expiration date
Lock to a single IP
Enable one viewer at a time
Disable document downloads and printing.
Plus you get user data so you who who, when and where someone is viewing your
document.
There’s also the analytics side of the platform that provides fantastic insight into the
number of page views, time spent on a page, downloads and an engagement score. All of
this makes it incredibly easy to see how someone is using your document.
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.