Making My PowerPoint Presentations available as "Read Only."

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Is there a way to post a presentation online as a read only file in slide
view? I'm using PowerPoint 2003 for Windows.
Here are the specifics: I teach at a college and generally give a PowerPoint
presentation with each class. My students have asked me to share my
presentations. My college has something called "BlackBoard," that allows me
to upload the files, but as I understand it, the students will be able copy
the complete file. However, my PowerPoint presentations have notes and
hidden slides embedded in them and I simply am not inclined to give the
PowerPoint presentation as file that my students could then share with others
as if it were their own presentation. What I'd like to do is to make the
presentations available as slide without the information I have in the note
space or the hidden slides... i.e., I want to share what appears on the
screen in my lectures. (I'd like to try to give them access to the file in a
way similar to a protected PDF file... where you can look at it, in a web
brouser, but not change it.)
 
OK, I'd thought about that, but is there some way to make it "read only," so
it cannot be changed. I'd like them to be able to view it, not use it as a
PowerPoint presentation.
 
Password protecting will stop them changing the presentation (unless they
crack the password, which is pretty easy) but it wont stop them seeing notes
and hidden slides. You might want to try one of the many powerpoint > flash
converters?
--

Did that answer the question / help?
_____________________________
John Wilson
Microsoft Certified Office Specialist
http://www.technologytrish.co.uk/ppttipshome.html
 
Robert McN said:
Is there a way to post a presentation online as a read only file in slide
view? I'm using PowerPoint 2003 for Windows.
Here are the specifics: I teach at a college and generally give a PowerPoint
presentation with each class. My students have asked me to share my
presentations. My college has something called "BlackBoard," that allows me
to upload the files, but as I understand it, the students will be able copy
the complete file. However, my PowerPoint presentations have notes and
hidden slides embedded in them and I simply am not inclined to give the
PowerPoint presentation as file that my students could then share with others
as if it were their own presentation. What I'd like to do is to make the
presentations available as slide without the information I have in the note
space or the hidden slides... i.e., I want to share what appears on the
screen in my lectures. (I'd like to try to give them access to the file in a
way similar to a protected PDF file... where you can look at it, in a web
brouser, but not change it.)
Click to expand...

Silly question perhaps, but why not make a PDF of your slides and post that?
No notes pages, no hidden slides unless you choose to print them.

There are other more time-consuming ways of creating a version of your
presentation that doesn't include notes and such, but simply printing a PDF
would seem to give you exactly what you're after and would give the info to the
students in a more universally available format.
 
Thanks for your reply. Yes, that is a good idea. I've never done this before,
but it sounds good. However, I don't have the Adobe Acrobat program, and I
think it's pretty expensive. I know that in the upcoming version of Word,
there will be a "Save as PDF," but given my current situation, is there some
way of legally achieving your recommendation without having to spend the
money to buy a copy of Acrobat?
Thanks again,
Bob
 
Thanks for your reply. Yes, that is a good idea. I've never done this before,
but it sounds good. However, I don't have the Adobe Acrobat program, and I
think it's pretty expensive. I know that in the upcoming version of Word,
there will be a "Save as PDF," but given my current situation, is there some
way of legally achieving your recommendation without having to spend the
money to buy a copy of Acrobat?
Click to expand...

There are quite a few ways of doing it, Bob.

Start here and follow the links:

How can I make Acrobat PDFs from PowerPoint?
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00517.htm

Executive summary:

GhostScript + GhostView is a bit techie, but it's very good and free.

There are also some inexpensive or free PDF making programs that are based on
GhostScript (ie, they do all the techie setup stuff for you and usually provide a
printer driver you can simply print to from any app and get PDF).

For relatively little money, Jaws PDF Creator is a first-rate product that lets you
print to PDF; they've been around for a long time and have a loyal following. When
my wife needed to make lots of PDFs from her Word and PPT files, this is what I got
for her.
 
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