PowerPoint presentations are designed to be presented to an audience, but sometimes you
need to print them too.
That's why it's important to understand the basics of printing, and also the options that
are unique to PowerPoint.
To get started, go ahead and navigate to the backstage view… then click Print in the
left pane.
Here you'll find everything you need to print your presentation, including a preview, and
a place to adjust your settings.
Now, you could just enter the number of copies you want, and click the Print button right
away.
But before we do that, why don't we pause and take a look at some of the options below?
If you're connected to more than one printer, for example, you can use the menu here to
choose the one you want.
You can also enter a custom slide range if you're working with a large presentation,
and you only want to print part of it.
Otherwise, Print All (the default) will work just fine.
Next up is Print Layout, where you can decide how your slides are going to be arranged on
the printed page.
Let's take a closer look at what some of these options mean.
Full Page Slides is the default.
As you can see from the preview to the right, this will print each of your slides on its
own separate page.
If we click Notes Pages, on the other hand… the printout will include any notes that you've
added.
This option can be useful if you plan to actually use your notes while you're presenting.
Going back to the menu, the next option is called Outline.
This one is unique, because it prints just the text on your slides, instead of the slides
themselves.
Some presenters like to use this as a guide to help them remember the flow of the presentation.
Finally, we have a wide variety of handouts to choose from.
These work really well if you want to give your audience a hard copy of the presentation.
I like the layout that has 3 slides… because it includes a space for people to write their
own notes and comments.
One of the last things I'm going to do is switch from full-color to grayscale, which
can really save on printer ink.
When you're ready, go ahead and click the Print button at the very top of the pane.
Now you just have to wait for your presentation to finish printing.