Gate a deck with a password or an email

Lock a presentation behind a password, or trade access for an email address. Both gates live in Settings and are enforced before the first slide loads.

Both gates live in the presentation's Settings panel, and both are enforced before the deck loads: Password protection asks the viewer for a password, and Require email to view (lead gate) asks for an address instead. With no gate, anyone who has the link can open it. That's fine for a public case study, less fine for a pricing proposal.

Screenshot: protect-a-deck-1
Password protection and the email lead gate, side by side in Settings.

Set a password

Type your password into the Password protection field (Set a password (optional)) and click Save. The check happens on the server, not merely hidden in the page, and repeated guessing is rate limited. Once set, the panel shows Password set: click Remove to drop it, or type a new one to replace it.

Or capture an email

Tick Require email to view (lead gate). You can add a short note in the message field; it appears above the email box on the gate screen.

Every address the gate captures becomes a Contact, and that viewer's reads show under their address in the deck's analytics. This is the dependable way to turn deck traffic into named people: HoldFast never invents a person's identity from traffic alone.

What your viewer sees

A branded screen carrying the deck's title, your message, one field, and a View presentation button. The link preview still renders your cover when the URL is pasted into an email or a chat, so a gated deck looks like your work while the content stays locked. A viewer who passes the gate stays unlocked in that browser for 30 days.

One recommendation: pick a single gate per deck. If both are on, viewers get the password prompt and the email gate never appears, so use the email gate when the address is the thing you want. For sensitive material, add a watermark on top, or skip gates entirely for a known recipient and send a personalized link instead (in Settings, under Personalized tracking links).