Remove Mark as Final Option in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows

Have you ever received a presentation that doesn't allow you to make any changes? That could be a password protected presentation. Or, it could have been Marked as Final. Fortunately, Mark as Final is more of an administrative tool than a security tool. Its purpose is to make others aware that the author of the presentation doesn't want others editing this work. First of all you need to make sure that a presentation indeed has a Mark as Final attribute applied. To do that, check at the lower left area of the Status Bar at the bottom of the PowerPoint Interface. You should see the Mark as Final icon, as shown in Figure 1 (highlighted in red).


Figure 1: Mark as Final icon

Follow these steps to remove the Mark as Final option applied to a presentation in PowerPoint 2016:

1. Open the presentation that has been Marked as Final.
2. To determine whether a presentation is marked as final, look for these two indications:
   
   A Mark as Final icon in the Status Bar at the bottom left corner (highlighted in red within Figures 1 and 2).
   
   A yellow strip right above the Slide Area (highlighted in blue within Figure 2) with a message that this presentation discourages editing.
   
   
   Figure 2: Presentation marked as final
3. Within the yellow strip right above the Slide Area (refer to Figure 2 above), click the Edit Anyway button (highlighted in red within Figure 3) to enable editing for a file.
   
   
   Figure 3: Edit Anyway button
   
   Alternatively, you can access the File tab of the Ribbon, and open the Info Pane as shown in Figure 4, below. Click the Protect Presentation button to bring up the menu you see in Figure 4. Click on the Mark as Final option (highlighted in red within Figure 4). Since this is a toggle option, this action removes the Mark as Final applied to the active presentation.
   
   
   Figure 4: Mark as Final
4. When you remove the Mark as Final from a presentation, the icon disappears from the Status Bar as shown in Figure 5. You also no longer see the yellow strip shown in Figures 2 and 3, previously on this page.
   
   
   Figure 5: Mark as Final removed

See Also:

Remove Mark as Final in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows
Remove Mark as Final in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows
PowerPoint 2007: Remove Mark as Final for Windows