Get Started with a Digital Signature in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows

A digital signature or ID is more commonly known as a digital certificate. Digital IDs help validate your identity, and they can be used to sign important documents including PowerPoint presentations. Digital certificates are typically issued by a Certificate Authority (CA), which is a trusted third-party entity that issues these certificates for use by other parties. You can purchase a digital certificate from many commercial third-party certificate authorities or obtain a free digital certificate. There are many institutions, governments, and corporations that can also issue their own digital certificates.

As far as PowerPoint is concerned, a digital certificate is necessary for a digital signature because it provides the key that can be used for authentication. Digital certificates make it possible for digital signatures to be used to authenticate digital information. In subsequent tutorials of this series, we will explore how you can acquire a digital certificate or create your own digital signature.

Follow these steps to add a digital signature in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows:

1. Launch PowerPoint, and open any existing presentation that you want to add a digital signature to. If you made any changes to your slides, do save your presentation before you proceed further.
2. Access the File tab to bring up Backstage view, and choose the Info Pane option, as shown in Figure 1, below. Thereafter, select the Protect Presentation option, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1.
3. 
   Figure 1: Protect Presentation option
3. From the resultant drop-down menu select the Add a Digital Signature option, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 2, below.
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   Figure 2: Add a Digital Signature option selected within the Protect Presentation drop-down menu
4. Doing so opens a message window, as shown in Figure 3, below.
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   Figure 3: PowerPoint message window
5. As you can see, this message window provides you with two options: Yes and No. Clicking the Yes button opens a web page, as shown in Figure 4, below. Here you can find services that issue digital IDs for your use. You can check out the services listed on this web page, and choose any service based on your requirement and budget.
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   Figure 4: Web page showing a list of services for digital IDs
7. Clicking the No button within the PowerPoint message window, as shown in Figure 3, previously on this page, closes the message window and takes you back to the Backstage view.