Creating Digital Certificates Outside in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows

We have already explored how you can create a basic digital signature right within PowerPoint 2010, and how you can sign your presentation. Each signature is contained inside a digital certificate. Digital certificates, also known as digital IDs can either be self-signed (as explained in our Acquire or Create a Digital Signature in PowerPoint 2010 tutorial) or issued by Certificate Authority within an organization. These typically entail a Windows Server 2008 server computer that is running Active Directory Certificate Services. Of course, the signing authority in both cases is within an organization. Either you do it yourself, or a central server allocates the certificates.

There is a drawback to using a self-signed or internally issued certificates as they are not trusted and are only useful if documents are exchanged with known people who are confident that you are the actual originator (or author) of the document. This may be good enough in some cases, but they are not an alternative to a public Certificate Authority, such as VeriSign or Thawte. You can also buy Verisign, Thawte, or other certificates from a third-party certificate authority (CA). In this tutorial, we will not explore this aspect further.

Do note that this version of PowerPoint does not allow you to create a digital signature right within PowerPoint.

Follow these steps to create digital certificates outside in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows:

1. Click the Start button and choose All Programs | Microsoft Office | Microsoft Office 2010 Tools | Digital Certificate for VBA Projects, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.
2. 
   Figure 1: Digital Certificate for VBA Projects option to be selected
2. Doing so opens the Create Digital Certificate dialog box, as shown in Figure 2, below.
3. 
   Figure 2: Create Digital Certificate dialog box
4. Within the Create Digital Certificate dialog box, type in the name of the certificate within Your certificate's name text box, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, above. And click the OK button.
3. This action will open the SelfCert Success window, with a message indicating the successful creation of the certificate.
4. 
   Figure 3: SelfCert Success window
4. Now, create more certificates as required. To ascertain if these certificates are available within PowerPoint, launch PowerPoint, and open any saved presentation. Access the File menu, and choose the Info option to get to Backstage view, as shown in Figure 4, below. Thereafter, select the Protect Presentation option to bring up a small drop-down menu, as shown in Figure 4. From the drop-down menu, select the Add a Digital Signature option, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 4.
5. 
   Figure 4: Add a Digital Signature option selected within the Protect Presentation drop-down menu
5. If you see a message window that introduces you to digital signatures (we discussed this topic in our Getting Started with Digital Signatures tutorial), click the OK button. If you do not see this message window, continue to the next step.
6. Doing so brings up the Sign dialog box, as shown in Figure 5, below. Click the Change button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 5.
7. 
   Figure 5: Sign dialog box
7. Doing so opens the Windows Security window, as shown in Figure 6, below. Here you can see all the certificates listed, along with the ones you have just created.
8. 
   Figure 6: List of certificates within the Windows Security window
8. For now press Cancel in both successive dialog boxes to get back to PowerPoint. We have now ascertained that all the signatures created outside PowerPoint are available to you so that you can digitally sign your presentations.