This tip was printed from the MalekTips Computer and Technology Help and Tips website at http://malektips.com.

PowerPoint 2003 Security and Privacy - Require a Password to Open or Modify the File

SUMMARY: Add a level of security to your Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 presentations by requiring passwords to open files and/or edit information.

If security is a concern with your Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 documents, you can password-protect files, making it harder for curious individuals to read and/or modify the presentations.

1. Select "Tools" - "Options".

2. When the "Options" multi-tabbed dialog box opens, click the "Security" tab.

3. Next to "Password to open" enter a password that must be entered to open the current file.

4. If desired, underneath "File sharing settings for this document" enter a password that must be entered to modify the current file.

5. If you want to configure encryption settings, click the "Advanced" option and an "Encryption Type" dialog box will appear. Options include:

* Encryption Type: Choose your encryption algorithm.

* "Choose a Key Length" - Generally, the longer the key the harder your password will be to crack. However, longer keys may require more computing power, and some encryption algorithms may not support very long keys.

* "Encrypt document properties" - Choose whether or not a document's properties should be encrypted as well.

Click "OK" when you have finished choosing your encryption settings.

6. Click "OK" to save your encryption settings and close the "Options" dialog box.

Now for several warnings:

	You may wish to save an unencrypted and non password-protected file before distributing a password-protected file. If you forget your password it may be VERY difficult to retrieve the file's contents!

	Passwords and encryption are hard to break but not impossible to break. If you're looking for industrial-strength encryption you may wish to use third-party tools.

	As the help file states, "Requiring a password to modify a file does not encrypt the contents of the file."