Locking Down Your Information: How to Redact in PowerPoint

Last updated on August 24, 2023

Summary :

PowerPoint is widely used in product presentations, advertising presentations, and project presentations, but some content in PowerPoint needs to be redacted due to the different people and venues. Are you troubled by how to redact in PowerPoint? This article will cover the 3 best ways to redact text and images in PowerPoint, both automatically and manually are available.

Methods To Redact in PowerPoint

Securing the content in PowerPoint is one way to redact PowerPoint. When you want to hide or cover sensitive information, redacting can help you protect confidentiality well. Here is a comprehensive guide that gives you step-by-step instructions and illustrations in a very reliable and effective way.

You can learn how to redact in PowerPoint quickly and clearly with the pictures.

How To Redact in PowerPoint by Document Inspector

PPTs can clearly present the main points to the audience, and each page is usually more concise to improve readability, so there are usually more pages in the document. When it comes to redacting sensitive information, automated tools assist you in getting the job done more efficiently.

Document Inspector is an inspection tool that comes with Microsoft Office software and can help you quickly find and remove some sensitive information from the document content. Here are detailed operations to check and write in PowerPoint.

Step 1. Open PowerPoint and go to “File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document“. Click “OK” in the bottom right corner of the pop-up window that appears after “Inspect Document” to make sure you have backed up the original document to avoid losing data.

Navigate to Document Inspector

Navigate to Document Inspector

Step 2. Check the items you need to inspect and click the Inspect button at the bottom right corner.

Start Inspecting the File Information

Start Inspecting the File Information

Step 3. Click “Remove All” to delete Document Properties and Personal Information in one click. Click “Reinspect” to verify.

Deleting Privacy Information

Deleting Privacy Information

Tips

To make the documents more private after redacting, you can use PDFgear online PPTX to PDF converter to help you convert the file format.

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 How To Redact Text in PowerPoint

Compared with PDF files or Word documents, PowerPoint does not have too much text. It pays more attention to showing some critical information, so for some key that needs to be redacted text, we can directly add highlighting and change the color of the highlight to protect the information.

It may be similar to the operation logic of black out in PDF.

Step 1. Navigate to the upper ribbon of PowerPoint “Home > Text Highlight Color“. In the drop-down box, check black.

Click to Set the Black Highlighter

Click to Set the Black Highlighter

Step 2. In the mouse icon into a pen when moving to the location of the text to be covered, drag to select the area to be covered.

Drag To Blacken the Text With the Mouse

Drag To Blacken the Text With the Mouse

Step 3. Click “File > Save As > Browse“, rename the file, and select a specified storage location to save another copy. It will not only save the original file but also prevent the traces of changes from being tracked.

Save a Copy of the Redacted PowerPoint

Save a Copy of the Redacted PowerPoint

How To Redact Images in PowerPoint

Is there a way to redact the images displayed in PowerPoint? Of course, PowerPoint provides a good solution for you.

Step 1. Find “Insert > Shapes > Rectangles” in the upper ribbon of PowerPoint.

Add Shapes to PowerPoint

Add Shapes to PowerPoint

Step 2. Select the graphics and change their color to achieve the effect of redacting images in PowerPoint.

Redact Image in PowerPoint

Redact Image in PowerPoint

Another Choose: “Insert > Pictures > Stock Images“, overwrite the pictures you need to redact by selecting the pictures in PowerPoint stock.
Stock Images in PowerPoint

Stock Images in PowerPoint

Additional Tips for Redacting in PowerPoint

1. Make sure to back up an original file before redacting or save the redacted file as a copy after you finish the operation.

2. Make sure that the information you need to redact is completely hidden and cannot be traced by converting it to PDF or image.

3. Check the PowerPoint several times before sharing or presenting it to avoid accidental or unintentional disclosure of redacted information.

FAQs

Is There a Redaction Function in PowerPoint?

PowerPoint does not have a specific tool for redaction, but you can achieve the redaction effect in other ways. First, you can use a black highlighter to black out the text or adjust the width and length of a shape after adding it to cover the text or image.

How Do You Black Out Information in PowerPoint?

To black out information in PowerPoint, you can do it in two ways. The first is to add highlighting and select the highlighter color as black and then frame the text. The second is to change the font color to the same color as the background color in the “Home > Front > Front Color” function to hide the information successfully.

How Do I Fade an Image in PowerPoint?

To make an image in PowerPoint fade out, you only need a few simple clicks to achieve it.

Step 1: Right-click the picture and select “Format Picture” to bring up the Tools panel (on the right).

Step 2: Click the rightmost “Picture” menu bar, drag the Transparency slider in “Picture Transparency” to adjust the transparency, or directly modify the number on the right to customize the settings.

How Do I Redact Text in PowerPoint?

Editing text in PowerPoint is not a very difficult task, because the PPT file format is not as non-editable as PDF files. So after you open a document that needs to be redacted in the PowerPoint program, navigate to the highlighter function button, select black as the base color in the color card, and box the redacted word, statement, or paragraph by mouse swipe. If the content of your document is too large, you can use the Document Inspector tool that comes with PowerPoint to automatically check and remove the sensitive information to achieve the effect of redaction.

Conclusion

Redacting is the process of removing, blackening, modifying, obscuring, or hiding information that is not easily shared or classified by certain means. The correct operation can not only ensure the security of the document content but also prevent the leakage of sensitive information. Through the sharing and introduction of this article, you must have learned about three operations that can achieve redaction. If you are also looking for a solution to this problem, be sure to try them out. They are all tested and effective.

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