Handouts are paper copies of your PowerPoint presentation that you give to the audience. They give your audience something tangible to refer to and to take home. They can also write on the handouts to make their own notes. (Some handout layouts even include lines for writing.)
When you print in PowerPoint, you have a choice of the type of printout you want. (Technically you can use any of these printout types as handouts, although the Handouts type is obviously custom-made for that purpose.) Here are the choices available:
Full Page Slides: A full-page copy of one slide per sheet.
Notes Pages: One slide per page, but with the slide occupying only the top half of the page. The bottom half is devoted to any speaker notes you typed into PowerPoint.
Outline View: A text-only version of the presentation, structured as an outline, with the slide titles as the top-level outline items.
Handouts: Multiple slides per page (two to nine, depending on your choice of settings), suitable for giving to the audience to take home.
Different numbers of slides per page have different layouts. For example, if you choose three slides per page, the layout has lines next to each slide so the audience can take notes.
To print handouts, follow these steps:
Click the File tab, and click Print.
Enter the desired number of copies.
Choose a different printer if needed from the Printer drop-down list.
Click Full Page Slides to open a menu.
From the Print page in Backstage view, set print options for the handouts.Click one of the layouts in the Handouts section of the menu.
Presenter view provides tools for managing a running presentation.Adjust any other print settings as needed.
Click Print to print the handouts.
Click Print to submit the print job to your printer.
When you print handouts from PowerPoint, the Handout Master’s settings determine the details of how the handouts appear. You may want to customize the Handout Master before you print. The Handout Master settings apply only when you’re printing the Handouts layouts, not when printing full-page slides, notes pages, or outline view.
To customize a handout master:
On the View tab, click Handout Master.
Choose Handout Master.If you see a message about edits being lost when saved to the server, click Check Out.
Open the Slides Per Page drop-down list and select the layout you want to modify.
Choose which handout master layout to modify.To change the orientation, click Handout Orientation and then click Portrait or Landscape.
To change the slide size, click Slide Size and then click Standard or Widescreen.
To remove any of the placeholders (in the four corners of the page), clear its check box on the Handout Master tab.
To change the theme, select a different one from the Themes button’s menu.
To change the Colors, Fonts, or Effects, make a selection from those buttons’ menus.
To add a background color to the handout, select one from the Background Styles buttons menu.
Click Repeat steps 3-9 to modify other layouts if desired.
Click Close Master View.
Using a background style for something designed to be printer, like a handout, will use a lot of printer ink, which can be expensive.
