A deck you share with a client or post online is rarely only what is on the slides. PowerPoint keeps speaker notes, hidden slides, comments, off-slide content and a thumbnail of the first slide, plus the usual author and company properties. Here is what to look at.
Speaker notes
Notes written for the presenter are saved with each slide. When you save as PowerPoint, they go with the file. Check them in Normal view (the Notes pane) or in Notes Page view, and delete what the audience should not read. The Inspect Document command can remove all presentation notes at once.
Hidden slides
A hidden slide is skipped in a slideshow, but it is still in the file. In the slide sorter, hidden slides show a struck-through number. Delete them if they are not for the reader.
Content off the slide
Shapes and text dragged outside the slide area are not visible when presenting but remain in the file. People use this area for scratch notes. Inspect Document can find off-slide content.
Comments and reviewers
Slide comments carry the name and initials of the reviewer. Delete them from the Review tab. The PPTX Metadata Remover lists comments and notes as remaining so you do not miss them.
Pictures and charts
- Photos pasted into slides keep their EXIF, including GPS. The remover cleans them inside the deck.
- Charts can embed a copy of the spreadsheet they were drawn from, with its own author, sheet names and data. If you do not need the data in the file, paste the chart as a picture.
- Linked files store a path to the source on your computer.
A safe way to share a deck
- Delete notes, hidden slides, off-slide content and comments you do not want to share.
- Save a copy, then clean it with the PPTX Metadata Remover.
- For read-only sharing, export to PDF and clean it with the PDF Metadata Remover.