Search for the name of the object
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 9:07 am
Save and close the file. Now when you open it, the ribbon is heavily restricted:
Screenshot of restricted PowerPoint ribbon
If you try to right-click on a video, the Save Media As button should now be disabled, and the backstage view after clicking on File should also be limited:Screenshot of the File options: Only Home, New, Open and Close are visible
There’s one issue with that mechanism of protecting content in your file. It can be copied to another file, where the custom UI XML is not present, and then exported from there. To prevent this, you can add a lock to each object you want to protect so it can’t be selected. That way, the context menu is never available, and hence the object can’t be copied or exported. Here’s how:
Open your presentation in PowerPoint and go to the slide containing the content you want to protect.
Open the Selection Pane (Alt+F10) and make a note of the object name, for example “my precious picture”.
Close the presentation.
With 7-Zip or BBEdit installed, open the PowerPoint file.
With the file open, navigate to ppt/slides and open the xml portugal code number file corresponding to your slide for editing:
screenshot showing opening html file
Screenshot for PowerPoint code with text selected "my precious picture"
7. From that point, scan along the XML until you find <a:picLocks and then add a space and noSelect=”1″ before the closing tag:
Screenshot of PowerPoint code with noSelect=1 added
8. Save and close the file and then close the text editor.
9. Return to 7-Zip and confirm the archive update when prompted.
10. Close the PowerPoint file and the 7-Zip app.
11. Open the pptx file in PowerPoint and confirm that the object can no longer be selected.
Unfortunately, there are pitfalls to this technique. There’s a bug in PowerPoint that causes the noSelect lock to be deleted if you click the padlock icon for that object in the Selection Pane. We’ve reported it to Microsoft and are waiting to see if they fix it.
Screenshot of restricted PowerPoint ribbon
If you try to right-click on a video, the Save Media As button should now be disabled, and the backstage view after clicking on File should also be limited:Screenshot of the File options: Only Home, New, Open and Close are visible
There’s one issue with that mechanism of protecting content in your file. It can be copied to another file, where the custom UI XML is not present, and then exported from there. To prevent this, you can add a lock to each object you want to protect so it can’t be selected. That way, the context menu is never available, and hence the object can’t be copied or exported. Here’s how:
Open your presentation in PowerPoint and go to the slide containing the content you want to protect.
Open the Selection Pane (Alt+F10) and make a note of the object name, for example “my precious picture”.
Close the presentation.
With 7-Zip or BBEdit installed, open the PowerPoint file.
With the file open, navigate to ppt/slides and open the xml portugal code number file corresponding to your slide for editing:
screenshot showing opening html file
Screenshot for PowerPoint code with text selected "my precious picture"
7. From that point, scan along the XML until you find <a:picLocks and then add a space and noSelect=”1″ before the closing tag:
Screenshot of PowerPoint code with noSelect=1 added
8. Save and close the file and then close the text editor.
9. Return to 7-Zip and confirm the archive update when prompted.
10. Close the PowerPoint file and the 7-Zip app.
11. Open the pptx file in PowerPoint and confirm that the object can no longer be selected.
Unfortunately, there are pitfalls to this technique. There’s a bug in PowerPoint that causes the noSelect lock to be deleted if you click the padlock icon for that object in the Selection Pane. We’ve reported it to Microsoft and are waiting to see if they fix it.