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PowerPoint · Send & Finalize

Two Tools controls for getting a pack out of PowerPoint without breaking your working file’s live Excel links.

When to use them: Send slides to share a PPT/PDF (whole deck or thumbnail selection). Finalize deck when the board/client copy must not contain Excel link metadata or stamps. Prefer these over casually Break Links on the working deck.

1. Send slides

Navifia tab → Tools → Send slides (Ctrl+Shift+S).

Exports from a temporary copy of the live deck (including unsaved edits). The open presentation is never trimmed or overwritten.

Steps

  1. Optional: in the thumbnail pane or Slide Sorter, multi-select the slides to send. With nothing selected, the whole deck is in scope.
  2. Click Send slides.
  3. Confirm scope (all slides vs current selection count).
  4. Choose format: PowerPoint (.pptx) or PDF (.pdf).
  5. Choose destination: - Save to file… — pick a path on disk. - Attach to new Outlook email (beta) — opens a new unsent Outlook message with the file attached.
  6. Confirm Send.

Typical: appendix slides only to a colleague, or a quick PDF emailed to a stakeholder — without File → Export → attach by hand.

2. Finalize deck

Finalize deck dialog
Finalize deck — save a clean copy with links and stamps stripped.

Navifia tab → Tools → Finalize deck.

Creates a distribution-ready copy: strips Excel link data (workbook path / sheet / address tags a recipient could read in the file XML) from linked shapes, deletes stamps, then saves as .pptx or exports as .pdf. The deck you are editing is not modified — its links keep working for the next cycle.

Steps

  1. Prefer running Check period / Check numbers (and fonts if needed) first — the dialog tip recommends it.
  2. Click Finalize deck.
  3. Review live counts of linked shapes and stamps that will be stripped/deleted on the copy.
  4. Choose PowerPoint or PDF and a destination path.
  5. Confirm. Working deck unchanged.

Typical: approved monthly pack → Board pack — Final.pdf with no link metadata and no DRAFT stamps; working file keeps 40 live links for next month.

3. Finalize deck vs Break Links vs Send slides

Action What changes Use when
Send slides Nothing on the working deck — export copy only (may still contain links/stamps) Share slides/PDF quickly; links/stamps OK
Finalize deck Nothing on the working deck — clean copy without link tags or stamps External/board send; keep working links
Break Links (Excel Links pane) Mutates selected linked shapes in the open deck — clears Navifia tags in place You intentionally want the open file unlinked

Do not treat Finalize and Break Links as interchangeable. Break Links is for the open deck; Finalize is for a clean outbound copy.

Troubleshooting

  • Outlook attach failed — Outlook not installed/running, or blocked; use Save to file… instead.
  • Finalize still shows Draft on the working deck — expected; stamps were removed only from the copy. Hide/Delete stamps on the working deck separately if needed (Stamps, Redact & Transparency).
  • Recipient can still update links — you used Send slides (or shared the working file) instead of Finalize deck / Break Links.

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