How passwords work with PowerPoint Show (.pps) files

If you save a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation in the PowerPoint Show (.pps) format, you can configure PowerPoint to prompt for a password when someone opens the file in Microsoft Windows. This article explains the different password protection options that you can choose.

Note You can open a PowerPoint presentation in Windows by double-clicking the .pps file or by clicking Run on the Start menu and then typing the file name.

PowerPoint provides the following password options:

• Open and Modify Passwords: You can require one password to open the file and another to modify the file. PowerPoint prompts you for both passwords when you open the PowerPoint presentation in Windows.
• Open Password Only: You can require a password to open the file only. PowerPoint prompts you for the password when you open the PowerPoint presentation in Windows.
• Modify Password Only: You can require a password to modify the file only. PowerPoint does not prompt you for a password when you open the PowerPoint presentation in Windows. This is because PowerPoint opens the presentation file in a slide show window, and you cannot modify the file during the slide show.

Important These options enable specific collaboration scenarios to function correctly in collaboration environments that do not include users who have malicious intent. You cannot enable a strong encryption file by using password protection.

To protect the document or the file from a user who has malicious intent, use Information Rights Management (IRM) to set permissions that will protect the document or the file.

For more information about the Office features that help enable collaboration, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
For more information about how to restrict permissions to content by using IRM, visit the following Microsoft Web site: