Print options for handouts and print materials
First of all, let me spend a few words about the "Print" icon that you find in PowerPoint.
Like in other Office products, if you click that icon when you want to print, you print all the slides in the presentation and you don't have the option to customize your type of print.
Instead of using that "Print" icon on the left side of the Standard toolbar, I suggest you get the habit of clicking on "File" >> "Print" and then selecting in the "Print" dialog box all the custom options you need: current slide, all the slides, number of copies and so on.
This way you have a better control of what you are printing, even if it takes a few seconds more.
Once you get the "Print" dialog box, let's see in detail all you can do.
First, make sure that you are printing to the right printer.
You may have more than one printer connected, maybe you also have a color printer, so here is where you select the printer you will be using. Click on the "printer name" drop-down list and select the appropriate printer.
Second, you can choose the "Print range": do you want to print the whole presentation? Or do you need just a few slides? Maybe you only need the current slide, so here is where you can change it, saving time and trees in case you really don't need to print the entire presentation.
Third, at the bottom of the dialog-box, you can finally select what you can print.
By clicking on the "Print what:" drop-down list, you will be able to choose:
a) Slides
b) Handouts
c) Notes pages
d) Outline view
a) Slides
If you choose this option, you will print each slide on a separate A4 (or maybe "letter" for US users) sheet. The slide will fill completely the paper. This option may be useful in case you want to show your presentation to someone to have feedback on the graphic and visual aspect of it.
If you have a 50(or more)-slide presentation you probably don't want to use this option to deliver printouts that have this format.
Reasons may be:
a. very costly in terms of toner/ink used
b. uses of a lot of paper
c. time consuming
Remember also that, in case you have been using "pseudo- animation" effects (see MasterView #1, art. 5 -
masterview.ikonosnewmedia.com/ masterview1.htm), you may end up having an incredible number of slides used to create the "cartoon" effect. It's pointless to print them all.
b) Handouts
When you select handouts, you will have more sub-options that will let you decide how many slides you want to print in one page. You can choose 2 slides per page, 3 slides per page (very versatile option since PowerPoint will place, besides each slide miniature, some blank lines where you or your colleagues can add notes or comments), 4 slides per page, 6 and even 9 slides. The more you choose, the smaller they will be, thus reducing readability. Regardless of which one of these options you will choose, this is the best print solution when you want to deliver a printed handout to your colleagues for their feedback.
c) Notes pages
This option lets you print one slide per page, reduced to half of its size, with the second half of the sheet reserved for the speakers note that you have typed in your presentation.
Printing this way can be useful for you, so your colleagues can have a visual reference and see your notes. Remember anyway that a 50-slide presentation, printed this way, will give you 50 sheets, and you will not be able to fit more that one slide per page.
d) Outline view
Printing the outline is a great idea when you want to share it with your colleagues and you are not interested in the graphic aspect. It's easier to focus on the content and besides you do not waste ink. You can also deliver an outline to your colleagues, in case you think that they should not focus on the "look" of your presentation but just on its content.
Here's some tricks for you (I know you will like them!)
***You can use the "Slide Sorter" view and hide the slides that you don't want to print (see MasterView #4, art. 3).
Then, when you click on "File" >> "Print...", you will see a check box at the bottom of the window that says: "Print hidden slides". Just remove the checkmark and your hidden slides will not be printed. This is valid for all the 4 different print options.
*In the "Print" dialog box put a check mark where it says:
"Pure Black and White" if you want to eliminate gray shades from your printed copy. It may be useful when printing text or high-contrasting color presentations with just a few colors.
**On the other hand, you may experience problems of this nature: you have white text on black or dark background, but when you print you cannot see the text that is not white anymore. In case your printer is printing your white text in black, remove the check mark from the option: "Grayscale".
**Sometimes when printing high-resolution graphics or charts with curved lines the printout can be much worse that the original. This is because your printer has a default setting to print at the screen resolution.
What you have to do, in this case, is:
1) Click on "Tools" >> "Options"
2) Select the "Print" tab
3) Put a check mark where it says: "Print inserted objects at printer resolution".
And since you have this dialog box open, I suggest you also remove the tick mark from the very first box, "Background printing". Officially this feature is supposed to speed up your work by freeing your machine sooner while the print job is being sent to the printer in the background, but it does not.
Depending on the type, model and quantity of RAM memory you have in your personal computer, when you have the background printing turned on, the overall performance (editing and printing) may greatly suffer since this feature shares computer cycles with the printing process. Besides this, in my experience, when this option is turned on, PowerPoint may misprint your notes pages.
You can read this article in the original issue of MasterView.
