Chapter 2: Speaker Notes and Handouts

In This Chapter

Looking at uses for notes and handouts

Writing, editing, formatting, and printing speaker notes

Constructing slide handouts to give to your audience

Printing a presentation in text outline form

Printing slides, handout pages, and notes pages

The chapter explains how to handle the speaker notes that you can make to help with your presentation and the handouts you can give to your audience. It also looks into printing an outline version of your presentation, and all things having to do with printing.

I must say, exploring the printing options feels kind of strange after working with PowerPoint slides. PowerPoint presentations are meant to be viewed on the big screen, not read on measly pieces of paper. I’ve never liked printers. I’ve been at war with them for years. They’re always failing on me. Still, you have to print notes if you intend to refer to them during a presentation, and you have to print handouts before you can distribute them to your audience, so this chapter looks into all the printing options.

What Are Notes and Handouts?

Notes and handouts are what you might call “old school” because you print them. You don’t show them on a computer screen. You run them through an old-fashioned printer and read from them.

Notes, also called speaker notes, are meant to help you deliver your presentation. As you construct your presentation, you can, in Normal view, type notes into the Notes pane. Later, you can print these notes and refer to them during your presentation. For each slide in your presentation, you get one page, with the slide appearing at the top of the page and the notes you took appearing below it.

Handouts are for audience members to refer to during the presentation or to take home after it is finished. A handout shows the slides in the presentation in thumbnail form at 1 to 9 slides per page. PowerPoint gives you many options for deciding what handouts look like.

All about Notes

Notes are strictly for the speaker. They aren’t for the unwashed masses. Don’t hesitate to write notes to yourself as you put together your presentation. The notes will come in handy when you’re rehearsing and giving your presentation. They’ll give you ideas for what to say and help you communicate better. I find when I’m constructing a slide that I often get ideas for the words I want to say while the slide is on-screen, and I jot down those words in the Notes pane.

These pages explain how to enter and edit notes, as well as how to format and lay out notes on the notes pages. Print notes pages before you rehearse a presentation, and consult them during the rehearsal. Print notes as well before you give a presentation. (If you came here to find out how to print your notes, see “Printing Slides, Handouts, and Notes Pages,” later in this chapter.)

Entering a note

To enter a note, start in Normal view, click in the Notes pane, and start typing, as shown in Figure 2-1. Treat the Notes pane like a page in a word processor. For example, press Enter to go to the next line and press the Tabkey to indent. Later, you can switch to Notes Page view and make your notes read well, but for now, be creative. Don’t even bother to spell words correctly. Brainstorm and rain notes onto the Notes pane as you construct your presentation.

Here are a couple of things to make your sojourn into the Notes pane more comfortable:

Make the pane larger or smaller: You can drag the border between the Notes pane and the rest of the screen to make the pane larger or smaller (refer to Figure 2-1). Move the pointer over the border, and when you see the two-headed arrow, click and start dragging.

Make the pane temporarily disappear: Drag the border between the pane and the rest of the screen into the bottom of the screen to make the Notes pane disappear. To see it again, click the View tab and then click the Normal button, or move the pointer to the bottom of the screen, and when you see the two-headed arrow, click and drag upward.

Figure 2-1: Write notes in the Notes pane.

Editing your notes in Notes Page view

After you’ve jotted down a bunch of notes, switch to Notes Page view and edit them. Formulate your thoughts and edit the notes so that you can understand them. To switch to Notes Page view, click the View tab and click the Notes Page button. As shown in Figure 2-2, notes appear in a text frame below a picture of the slide to which they refer.

Figure 2-2: Switch to Notes Page view to edit notes.

As long as you select the text frame on the bottom half of the screen, you can choose commands in the Font and Paragraph groups on the Home tab to format the text of your notes. Book II, Chapter 4 explains how to use these commands. The next section in this chapter explains how you can format all notes pages simultaneously by visiting the Notes Master.

Working effectively in Notes Page view usually means zooming in and out to see the text better. Drag the Zoom slider or, if your mouse has a wheel, hold down the Ctrl key and turn the wheel to zoom in and out.

How detailed should notes be?

Unless you plan to deliver a self-running presentation with a narrative accompaniment, your notes don’t have to read like an essay. Hit the high points in your notes. Jot down words and phrases to remind yourself what you will say during your presentation.

Never write down notes with the idea of reading them verbatim during a presentation. If you look down, reading your notes from printed pages, you’ll never make a connection with your audience. The object of a presentation is to communicate with the audience, but you can’t do that if you don’t make eye contact.

The Notes Master for formatting notes pages

The Notes Master is a special page for controlling the appearance, formatting, and layout of all notes pages. Changes you make to the Notes Master are made instantaneously to notes pages throughout your presentation. To make your notes appear in your favorite font, you can apply your favorite font to the Notes Master and be done with it. You don’t have to visit individual notes pages and make font changes. You can change the size of the slide image on notes pages, handle headers and footers, and do one or two other things to make your notes pages easier to read and refer to during a presentation.

To open the Notes Master, go to the View tab and click the Notes Master button. You switch to Notes Master view, as shown in Figure 2-3. This view presents a slide image and an area called the body for handling text. Changes you make to this representative slide and the body apply to all notes pages.

Figure 2-3: Changes you make to the Notes Master apply to all notes pages.

Changing around a Notes Master

As Figure 2-3 shows, the Notes Master is divided into six placeholders. Your main concern is the body, the placeholder where the notes you write appear on notes pages, but you can also change the Notes Master by fooling with or removing the other placeholders. Here are basic instructions for handling the Notes Master:

Changing text formats: On the Home tab, change fonts and font sizes, as well as text alignments. Book II, Chapter 5 explains how the font and alignment commands work.

Adding and removing placeholders: On the Notes Master tab, select or unselect placeholder check boxes — Header, Slide Image, Footer, and so on. You can also right-click a blank area of the Notes Master, choose Notes Master Layout on the shortcut menu, and select or unselect check boxes in the Notes Master Layout dialog box (refer to Figure 2-3).

Click the Close Master View button on the Notes Master tab or simply switch to Normal or Slide Sorter view to leave Notes Master view.

Slide image

The slide image appears at the top of notes pages so that you can glance at it and know right away which slide you’re presenting. To change the position of the slide image, click to select it and then start dragging. To change its size, move the pointer over a corner selection handle, and when you see the double-headed arrow, click and start dragging.

Body

In the body, select sample text and format it. “Levels” refers to how text is indented. For example, second-level text is text you indent by pressing the Tab key once. If you enter notes in the form of an outline with text indented to different degrees in a hierarchy, format the different levels to help distinguish one outline level from the next.

You can drag the body placeholder to a different position as well as change its size. Book IV, Chapter 2 explains how to change the position and size of objects.

Date

The date you print notes pages appears in the upper-right corner of the pages (refer to Figure 2-3). You can keep the date from being printed by unselecting the Date check box on the Notes Master tab.

Page Number

A page number appears in the lower-right corner of notes pages (refer to Figure 2-3). Page numbers help keep notes pages in the proper order after you print them, but if you don’t need page numbers, unselect the Page Number check box on the Notes Master tab.

Header and Footer

The Header and Footer placeholders (refer to Figure 2-3) are for entering descriptive text on the top and bottom of notes pages. Enter your name, for example, or the name of your company. Click in the Header or Footer text frame and start typing.

You can also handle headers and footers by going to the Insert tab and clicking the Header & Footer button. You see the Notes and Handouts tab of the Header and Footer dialog box. Book II, Chapter 5 explains how this dialog box works.

The Notes Master and notes pages connection

When you switch to Notes Page view and change around a note such that it looks different or is formatted differently from the Notes Master, your note’s connection with the Notes Master is broken. PowerPoint assumes when you format a note contrary to the Notes Master that you want your note to look different or stand out in some way, and it severs the connection between the note and the Notes Master. Changes you make to the Notes Master are no longer carried forward to the notes page you altered.

If you want to reestablish the connection between a notes page and the Notes Master, right-click the notes page (but not a text frame) and choose Notes Layout on the shortcut menu. You see the Notes Layout dialog box. Select the Reapply Master check box and click OK.

Providing Handouts for Your Audience

Handouts are thumbnail versions of slides that you print and distribute to the audience. Figure 2-4 shows examples of handouts. Handouts come in one, two, three, four, six, or nine slides per page. If you select three slides per page, the handout includes lines that your audience can take notes on (refer to Figure 2-4); the other sizes don’t offer these lines.

Figure 2-4: Examples of handouts (from left to right) at one, three, six, and nine slides per page.

Philosophers debate when to distribute handouts. One school of philosophy says to distribute handouts before a presentation so that the audience has twice as much material from which to get information. The other school says that distributing handouts early distracts the audience from focusing on the presentation. Philosophers across the globe agree that handouts help the audience remember a presentation and give the audience something to refer to when it mulls over the presentation later on.

To tell PowerPoint how to construct handouts, click the View tab and then click the Handout Master button. In Handout Master view, on the Handout Master tab, you can do a number of things to make your handouts more useful and attractive. As you make your choices, keep your eye on the sample handout page; it shows what your choices mean in real terms.

Handout Orientation: Choose Portrait or Landscape. In landscape mode, the page is turned on its side and is wider than it is tall.

Slide Orientation: Choose Portrait or Landscape, although I can’t think of a good reason to choose Portrait.

Slides-Per-Page: Open the drop-down list and choose how many slides appear on each page.

Header: Select this check box and enter a header in the text frame to make a header appear in the upper-left corner of all handout pages. Candidates for headers include your name, your company name, or the location of a conference or seminar. The point is to help your audience identify the handout.

Footer: Select this check box and enter a footer in the text frame in the lower-left corner of handout pages. Candidates for footers are the same as candidates for headers.

Page Number: Select this check box if you want page numbers to appear in the lower-right corner of handout pages.

Date: Select this check box if you want the date you print the handout to appear on the handout pages in the upper-right corner.

Background Styles: Open the Background Styles drop-down list and select a gradient or color for the handout page. Book II, Chapter 3 explains background styles. Make sure that the background doesn’t obscure the slide thumbnails or put too much of a burden on your printer.

Another way to handle headers and footers in handouts is to go to the Insert tab in Handout Master view and click the Header & Footer button. The Notes and Handouts tab of the Header and Footer dialog box appears. Book II, Chapter 5 explains the options in this dialog box.

Click the Close Master View button on the Handout Master tab or switch to Normal or Slide Sorter view when you’re finished wrestling with the Handout Master. Later in this chapter, “Printing Slides, Handouts, and Notes Pages” explains how to print handouts.

Handling handouts in Word

Rather than use PowerPoint’s unwieldy commands for formatting handouts, you can call on Word to do the job. PowerPoint offers a special command for placing handouts in a Word document. If you know your way around Word, you can send your handout to Word and do the formatting work over there. Follow these steps to send a PowerPoint handout on furlough to a Word document:

1. Click the Office button and choose Publish ⇒ Create Handouts in Microsoft Office Word.

You see the Send to Microsoft Word dialog box.

2. Choose the option that best describes what you want your handouts to look like and click OK.

Word opens and you see your handout on the pages of a Word document. Now you can take advantage of all the Word tools for formatting documents

Printing an Outline Version of Your Presentation

Print an outline version of your presentation when you want to focus on the text, perhaps to proofread it. I should warn you, however, that text you entered in text boxes is not printed as part of the outline, nor are tables, charts, or diagrams. Only text entered in text placeholder frames appears in an outline. To see what is printed when you print a presentation outline, switch to Normal view and select the Outline tab in the Slides pane.

Follow these steps to print an outline version of a presentation:

1. Click the Office button.

2. Choose Print.

You see the Print dialog box.

3. Choose Outline View on the Print What drop-down list.

4. Click OK.

See the next section in this chapter for a detailed description of printing options.

Printing Slides, Handouts, and Notes Pages

PowerPoint offers no fewer than three different ways to print slides, handouts, and notes pages. Which is the best way? Well, it depends. . . . For you and you only, here is a rundown of the three ways to print:

Quick Print: Prints the presentation immediately. Click the Office button and choose Print⇒Quick Print.

Print Preview: Opens the Print Preview window so that you can tinker with slides, handouts, notes pages, and outlines before you print them, as shown in Figure 2-5. The Print Preview window shows what your printout looks like before you print it. See the next section in this chapter.

Click the Office button and choose Print⇒Print Preview (you can also click the Preview button in the Print dialog box).

Print dialog box: Opens the Print dialog box, where you can print slides, handouts, notes pages, and outlines, as shown in Figure 2-5. Click the Office button and choose Print on the drop-down list. See the next section in this chapter.

The Print Preview window shows you what items look like, but it doesn’t offer as many printing options as the Print dialog box. If you want to print several copies of an item or print some slides or pages rather than all of them, start from the Print dialog box. On the other hand, you can print landscape pages and tinker with headers and footers starting from the Print Preview window. Click the Print button on the Print Preview tab to open the Print dialog box (refer to Figure 2-5).

Figure 2-5: You can print starting from the Print Preview window or the Print dialog box.

Examining the Print options

Whether you start from the Print Preview window or the Print dialog box (refer to Figure 2-5), these are the printing options:

Choosing what to print: Open the Print What drop-down list and declare what you want to print — slides, handouts, notes pages, or an outline.

Choosing the number of copies to print: Enter the number of copies you want to print in the Number of Copies text box, if you want to print more than one copy. Unselect the Collate check box to print pages 1-1-1, 2-2-2, 3-3-3 instead of 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3 (Print dialog box only).

Printing a range of slides or pages: To print a handful of slides or notes pages, select the Slides option button and enter a slide number or range of slide numbers in the Slides text box (Print dialog box only). If you’re printing slides, you can select them in Slide Sorter view before opening the Print dialog box and, in the dialog box, choose the Selection option button.

Choosing the number of handout pages to print on each page: Open the Slides Per Page drop-down list (Print dialog box) or the Print What drop-down list (Print Preview) and make a choice. You can print one, two, three, four, six, or nine slides per page on handout pages.

Laying out slides or pages on the printed page: When printing four or more slides on handout pages, you can present them on the page from left to right (horizontal order) or top to bottom (vertical order). Select the Horizontal or Vertical option button (Print dialog box), or open the Options drop-down list, select Printing Order, and choose an option on the submenu (Print Preview).

Printing in color, grayscale, or black and white: Open the Color/Grayscale drop-down list and choose an option (Print dialog box) or open the Options drop-down menu, choose Color/Grayscale, and choose an option on the submenu (Print Preview). Printing pages in grayscale and black and white doesn’t take as long or tax your printer as much.

Scaling slides or pages so that they fit on the printed page: Click the Scale to Fit Paper check box (Print dialog box) or open the Options drop-down list and select Scale to Fit Paper (Print Preview).

Printing comments and pen markings: Click the Print Comments and Ink Markup check box (Print dialog box) or click the Options button and choose Print Comments and Ink Markup (Print Preview).

Printing hidden slides: Click the Print Hidden Slides check box (Print dialog box) or click the Options button and choose Print Hidden Slides (Print Preview).

Drawing decorative borders around slides or pages: Click the Frame Slides check box (Print dialog box) or open the Options drop-down list and select Frame Slides (Print Preview).

Click the OK button in the Print dialog box to start printing. On the Print Preview tab, click the Print button and then click OK in the Print dialog box.

Getting around in the Print Preview window

Apart from the print options described in the previous couple of pages, the Print Preview window offers these amenities:

Going from page to page: Click the Next Page or Previous Page button to see different slides, handout pages, or notes pages.

Switching between landscape and portrait pages: Click the Orientation button and choose the Landscape or Portrait button to print pages in landscape mode, so that they are wider than they are tall, or Portrait mode, so that they are taller than they are wide.

Handle headers and footers: Click the Options button and choose Header and Footer on the drop-down list to open the Header and Footer dialog box and tinker with headers and footers. Book II, Chapter 5 explains the options in detail.