How do you lock elements in a Powerpoint page so they cant be moved?

Anonymous
2011-10-14T00:56:46+00:00

How do you lock elements in a Powerpoint page so they cant be moved?

Can you lock and unlock a given element on a page?

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | For home | Windows

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Steve Rindsberg 99,176 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2011-10-14T15:22:13+00:00

There are lots of good reasons why you might want to lock a shape in place, and some of us have been begging for this feature for years.  I've even written this into a couple of my add-ins but haven't ever done 'em for Mac.

One workaround is to use a new master and put the "locked" content on the master.  Users won't be able to select it/move it while editing slides based on that master.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-10-21T20:15:46+00:00

    well, nice try, and you are right, it will defeat a naive user, but not one of those powerpoint maniacs who spend more time creating slides than running their business...

    my point is not to have a lock feature at shape level, but only to enable locking the slide master background (e.g. with a password).

    why is this important? for instance to protect IP while delegating some flexibility to recipients who do not appreciate to be treated like kids with PDF's only...

    a good suggestion for improvement?

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  2. Steve Rindsberg 99,176 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-10-21T17:50:55+00:00

    Either you let them edit the powerpoint file or not.  There's no granular control over individual shapes/features.  

    Yes, it'd be wonderful if there *were* a way to lock certain shapes.  It's a much-needed feature.

    But it's not there.

    The closest you can get is to format the slide master or layout background and choose a picture fill.

    The user won't be able to select and move the picture, and most won't know how to change it to a different fill.

    Security through obscurity is no security, but when it's the best we have, it's what we go with.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-10-21T12:08:00+00:00

    The issue here is to prepare a powerpoint presentation for a client with your own graphics as background in the slide master, then hand out the pptx file to the client so he/she can add/modify slide contents or add new slides, but not modify the slide master background.

    I could not find a nice way to do this, except send the presentation in PDF, which preempts any content change, which was not the objective.

    G

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  4. Steve Rindsberg 99,176 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-10-16T05:17:47+00:00

    Shapelocker may be a good solution; most of Chirag's add-ins are, but like most of his stuff, it's for Windows versions of Office, not Mac.  This is the Mac forum.

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