Getting started with Flat Pack for Mac

Here’s how to make your first flattened PowerPoint and secured PDF. It assumes you’ve already installed Flat Pack, entered your license, and, on an Apple Silicon Mac, enabled Rosetta mode.

Create your first flattened PowerPoint

Flattening turns your slides into images so the content can’t be edited or copied. Start here to check Flat Pack is working.

1. Open any of your existing PowerPoints.
2. Click the Flat Pack tab → Create PPT.
3. Enter a new filename when prompted.
4. Flat Pack creates a new flattened PowerPoint and saves it to Documents → Flat Pack Secured Files.

Open that new file to check it looks right. Because it’s now made of images, nobody can select or change your text. Neither can you, so always keep your original.

Caution

Flattening can’t be undone. Once slides become images, there’s no way to recover the original editable content from the flattened file. Always keep your original editable presentation.

Create your first secured PDF

A secured PDF is flattened and then encrypted with a password, so PDF readers only allow the actions you’ve chosen. Anyone can open and view it; only someone with your owner’s password can edit it.

1. With your PowerPoint open, click the Flat Pack tab → Create PDF.
2. Enter a new filename when prompted.
3. Flat Pack creates a flattened, secured PDF in Documents → Flat Pack Secured Files, keeping any objects you’ve marked Do not flatten.

The password used here is the owner’s password you set during install under Preferences → PDF Settings.

The recommended workflow

The safe pattern for selling and sharing resources:

1. Build your product in PowerPoint as usual.
2. Save the original editable file somewhere safe.
3. Use Flat Pack (Create PDF or Create PPT) to produce the secured, flattened version.
4. Upload the flattened, secured file to your website or TPT.
5. Keep the original file so you can make edits in future.

Keep hyperlinks and animations working

When Flat Pack turns slides into images, links and animations inside textboxes become part of the image and stop working. To keep a specific object interactive:

1. Select the textbox or shape that holds the link or animation.
2. In the Flat Pack tab, click Do not flatten.
3. Click Create PPT or Create PDF again. That object stays interactive.

Shapes and pictures with links keep their links in PDFs automatically. Only links inside textboxes need Do not flatten ticked.

Tip

A useful trick: draw a transparent shape over the area that should be clickable, add the link to that transparent shape, and set it to Do not flatten instead of un-flattening the original object.

Make fillable PDF form fields

You can turn a text box into an editable field in the finished PDF.

1. Select the text box you want to make fillable.
2. Click Convert to PDF Form Field in the Flat Pack tab.
3. Click Create PDF. A fillable form field appears where the textbox was, matching the original alignment and font size.

Options you can set on a form field:

• Autosize Text: the font shrinks or grows as the user types.
• Multiline: pressing Enter in the field starts a new paragraph.
• Name: give two fields the same Name and text typed into one appears in the other.

Form fields only support standard fonts: Helvetica, Courier, and Times New Roman.

Make a Google Slides version

1. Click Flat Pack → Create PPT to make a flattened PowerPoint.
2. Add that file to your Google Drive folder.
3. Open it in Google Slides.
4. Go to File → Save As → Google Slides.

Flattened content keeps its look because it’s now an image. Any still-editable textbox fonts aren’t guaranteed to survive the move to Google Slides.

If your flattened output looks blurry or has an unwanted white margin, see the FAQ & fixes.