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

Last Updated: December 29, 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

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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 .
You'll see this in the editing ribbon above the document space with Animations and Home .

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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
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]
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- To return the file to read-only, repeat the process to select "Mark as Final."