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How to Unlock a Read Only PowerPoint Presentation (in 4 Steps)

Co-authored by Darlene Antonelli, MA

Last Updated: March 23, 2021

If you see text in a banner that warns you the file is read-only, the original author marked it as final and discourages editing. This wikiHow will teach you how to unlock a read-only PowerPoint manually. Otherwise, you can click Edit Anyway within the banner.

Steps

1. 
   1
   Open the PowerPoint project. You can open PowerPoint from your Start menu or Applications folder, then open the project by going to File > Open. On the other hand, you can also right-click the file in either your file manager or Finder and select Open with > PowerPoint.
2. 
   2
   Click the File tab. You'll see this in the editing ribbon above the document space with Animations and Home.
3. 
   3
   Click Protect Presentation. You'll see this with an icon of a lock to the right of the Info menu.

   • A menu will drop down from the lock icon.
4. 
   4
   Click Mark as Final. Clicking here will undo the lock and remove the presentation protection.

   • The "Read-Only" text is gone from the title and the yellow banner will disappear, which means you can edit the PowerPoint.^[1]
   • To return the file to read-only, repeat the process to select "Mark as Final."

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References

1. ↑https://www.howtogeek.com/437502/how-to-unlock-read-only-powerpoint-presentations/

About This Article

Co-authored by:

Darlene Antonelli, MA

Tech Specialist

This article was co-authored by Darlene Antonelli, MA. Darlene Antonelli is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. Darlene has experience teaching college courses, writing technology-related articles, and working hands-on in the technology field. She earned an MA in Writing from Rowan University in 2012 and wrote her thesis on online communities and the personalities curated in such communities.

Co-authors: 3

Updated: March 23, 2021

Views: 200

Categories: PowerPoint Presentations

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