Trick: Build Better PowerPoint Handouts


About this lesson

Creating Stunning Slide Handouts in PowerPoint

  • Les McCarter discusses the challenge of creating effective printed handouts from PowerPoint slides, noting that traditional methods often result in dull, hard-to-read handouts.
  • He introduces the PowerPoint notes configuration tool as a solution, emphasizing its ability to create visually appealing handouts that complement the slide deck.

Enhancing the Notes Master for Better Handouts

  • Les explains the benefits of using the notes master, including creating a consistent design that flows through all slides, making it easier to update and maintain.
  • He contrasts this method with exporting slides to Word, which lacks dynamic updates and integration with PowerPoint.
  • Les emphasizes the versatility of the notes master, which can be used to supplement the presentation with detailed notes for the audience.

Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Sophisticated Handout

  • Les walks through all the detailed steps needed. Step by step.

Customizing the Notes Master for Better Readability

  • Les demonstrates how to add a title to the handout, adjusting font size, color, and placement to ensure it stands out against the background image.
  • He emphasizes the importance of considering the visual impact of the background image on the readability of the text and suggests using a less graphic image if necessary.
  • Finalizing the Handout Design and Printing
  • Les discusses the importance of testing the handout on the target printer to ensure it looks good and is printer-friendly.

Topics

  • 02:26 Results After the Build
  • 02:52 The Superior Advantages
  • 03:30 What are Slide Notes?
  • 04:28 How to Turn On Notes’ Pane
  • 04:41 The Two Dynamic Elements
  • 05:38 Step-by-Step Guide
  • 06:19 Start in NOTES MASTER
  • 08:09 Background Image Choices
  • 09:47 Repeating Text Title
  • 10:34 Altering Slide Thumbnail Location
  • 10:44 Change Notes Placeholder
  • 11:40 Create a Glass See-Through Effect
  • 14:18 Exit NOTES MASTER
  • 14:32 The Final Results

Details

Subject Microsoft PowerPoint

Software Compatibility All Versions

Level

Course Completed

PDF Files There are not any files associated with this lesson.

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Transcript

Video Transcript for Building a Better Handout in PowerPoint

Create stunning slide handouts in PowerPoint.

The boss says, “You must use printed handouts.”

Your slide deck shines on screen, but PowerPoint-printed handouts are a BIG ZERO.

Under FILE and PRINT, you change from FULL PAGE SLIDES to one-slide Handouts, and your masterpiece gets lost, in a sea of whiteness. Boring, boring, boring.

Change the layout to four slides, and still, a page of white nothingness with SMALLER slide thumbnails, which may be too minuscule to read.

And just so DULL!

Let’s fix it with PowerPoint’s NOTES MASTER configuration tool.

Hi, this is Les from Power Up Training. I am about to blow your mind building spectacular handouts with PowerPoint’s NOTE MASTER—no, no, not HANDOUT MASTER but NOTE MASTER.

Build it once and have it flow through all your slides.

You are watching a high-speed run-through of the project we will build later, with detailed step-by-step coming up.

From VIEW ribbon menu, I select NOTES MASTER.

While I will show you alternative designs later, for now, I am adding a background photo.

Goodbye, white void.

Now insert a text placeholder and a title of “Beautiful Handouts.“

Let’s adjust the font to BIGGER, and BOLD, and WHITE.

I will move the slide thumbnail placeholder location over to the right, just a touch.

Next, to address our notes text placeholder, we need to make it stand out more from the image by making it bold and adding a color-filled background to offset the image with a nice touch of transparency. We also need to make a slight stylistic placement adjustment on the page.

Then, add a static text box for our audience to later add their own handwritten notes while watching us present on the screen.

Done.

And when I exit the NOTE MASTER, and then walk through each of the individual slide pages, we see this “build once. use everywhere” master has transformed all four of our Note pages. And it would be the same amount of work even if we had 25 slide pages.

And it continues, even when I add a new slide.

Why is this the best solution for handouts?

Notes is a built-in integral feature of PowerPoint going back decades. Other supposed power tips are to export it to Word and fumble around. Clumsy, and does not do auto-updates when you make changes later. My technique is superior.

NOTES can creatively be used to supplement your presentation, just as your actual presentation narration supplement the onscreen slide deck.

WAIT STOP. What is Notes again?

In the normal slide creation, it is the sliver of a placeholder under the slide, where normally you add your speaking notes to remind you what to say when on-stage presenting.

But I propose a radical new use to supplement your presentation with more elaborate notes, not for you, but for your audience as a takeaway written narration. Help your audience by taking the key notes for them, in advance.

Each slide has its own notes section, that is tied to each specific slide. Use that space to enhance the actual slide bullet points. Use it to persuade your audience and provide a lasting memory of your slide presentation concepts once they leave the conference room with your fancy handouts.

Don’t see NOTES on your system. Click VIEW and find NOTES to toggle on and off.

Now, back to why this is better.

Once you create the NOTES MASTER, it will flow through ALL OF YOUR SLIDES.

Look how it appears in the FILE, and PRINT, and NOTES PAGES.

Each handout page is consistently stellar but changing to match each slide . . . note not just the slide thumbnail changes but also each slide talking notes here, [point] matching the page slide content.

And this is true for the new slide page you watched me type.

See “THIS APPROACH ROCKS” in the notes section and how it now appears when I go to FILE, and PRINT, and select NOTES PAGE.

And there is THIS APPROACH ROCKS.

Once the NOTES MASTER is setup, all the NOTES updates will change, in a dynamic fashion.

This approach really does ROCK!

Okay, lets go back and build it step by step. And remember, this works for both Windows and Mac.

You can begin the handout design creation at any time. After the first slide or once you are completed. Or anytime along the way. However, I do recommend you wait until the design phase is completed to create a more unified appearance.

Here, I have four slides already built, so I have a presentation “look and feel” with colors and fonts. This will help me build a matching handout design with complementary colors and themes.

Let’s build our sophisticated handouts.

Go to VIEW on the RIBBON MASTER and NOTES MASTER.

Choice number 1. Do you want landscape as shown here or switch the NOTE PAGE ORIENTATION to Portrait.

My preference is PORTRAIT as it gives me more space to work below and will avoid too much white space around the slide thumbnail

I will start off with a bang to change the background.

Right-click your mouse and select FORMAT BACKGROUND.

Alternatively on the menu, click on BACKGROUND STYLES and FORMAT BACKGROUND.

Now click PICTURE OR TEXTURE FILL.

A default background is immediately applied. But I want more. Under PICTURE SOURCE, click INSERT.

Here you have a variety of sources to explore. I have already found the JPG image in advance, and located it on my computer. So, I selected it FROM A FILE.

I find it and INSERT.

This bold image matches my presentation topic of taking hand notes.
But let’s pause again. There are several issues to consider.

#1 what kind of printer will we use? This specific colorful image will use lots of INK or Laser Toner from a color printer. So, consider the cost of resources. But if it is an important presentation, then it may be worth the cost.

And while it is a legitimate concern, I am ignoring the harmful environmental impact of printing handouts. I am assuming that printouts are a requirement we did not make.

#2. This background image may be too overwhelming. The bold, dark colors could hide the overlay text messages. In this case, the Slide Thumbnail should be fine, but look at the Master Text Style words. They may get lost with the dark background photos. I will fix this, but do consider less graphic-intensive backgrounds.

Here are some alternatives.

This is another “theme”-related image of a notepad for taking notes. It has simple framing with rule lines for the notetaker. This might have been a better choice.

Or how about this color pattern, which adds visual interest but does not take away from the main content? It has more subtle aesthetics but does not match the presentation topic.

Or, this simple geometric pattern. It does gets rid of plain white background and will printer friendly in both color and black and white.

So, when selecting the background, consider how the image complements the message and how the image visually impacts the readability. Then, print out a test and see how it looks on your target printer.
If you want to find a wealth of images to use, go ahead check out my go to solution of Unslash.com. They are not a paid sponsor.

Back to our Notes Master modifications.

I need a title for all the slide handouts.

Go to INSERT on the Ribbon Menu and click TEXT BOX.

I want the title above the slide image thumbnail, so I will click just above to drop the text placeholder box.

And I will add the title of “BEAUTIFUL HANDOUTS.”

And since I want it to jump out, I will change the font size from 18 point to 40.

Then click and drag to better place the title.

The title does gets lost in our brown photo background, so I will change the font color from black to White.

That looks great.

Next, I will reposition the slide thumbnail placeholder to make it slightly off center. Note that you can also make the slide placeholder bigger or smaller to meet your needs.

Now to improve on the placeholder for our actual slide notes placeholder. Remember this is the text you type under each slide and it will change with each slide.

First, I will make the font bigger. And for this handout, make the content BOLD.

As we discussed earlier, the text can get lost in the background photo. So here is a trick to get it to stand out.

With the placeholder selected, click the ribbon menu SHAPE FORMAT context menu and find the tipped paint bucket icon on the right side of the screen. Click and select SOLID FILL.

Here, the solid brown fill box separates the text from the background image . . . although if I stayed with the choice, I would most likely change the font from BLACK to WHITE for better contrast. But here is a classier transparency trick.

Use the slider to make the background more transparent. Transparent changes the see-through quality.

Play with it to match your layout, but I like 50% transparency here. It offsets the text but keeps the image visible to reinforce the handwritten notepad theme.

Now, to reposition and resize it. I will never have that much text for my slide notes, so I will make the box “less tall.”

Okay. I am adding a new element: a text box for static data.

This will be a repeating box on all the handouts showing where the audience can add their own handwritten notes.

Yes, yes, people will scribble their notes, doodles and who knows what anywhere on the page, but this static text box reserves an open space for them.

Here is the trick for getting a bunch of bullet points. For each line, hit the space bar on the keyboard and the RETURN /ENTER key to create a new line with a bullet point and space for another bullet. A nice visual pointer for where the audience can take notes.

However, the key concept is that you can put any repeating text or graphic on the page. Just insert a text box, or symbol or emoticon anywhere on the page.

Do it once; be on all pages.

Before I close out the MASTER VIEW, take note of the placeholder choices of Header, Date and so forth.

At the moment, I did not add any text to the HEADER or FOOTER so they won’t show up even if checked mark. But by Default, the Page number will show, which I am fine with as it helps for someone to ask about, say, “On Page 3, you say . . . .” Page numbers are good.

But beware of DATE. This will change dynamically based on today’s date. So, if you print the handout two days early, the printed date will not match the meeting date.

Either turn it off or click in the box and force input the proper meeting date.

All four corner placeholders are usable and moveable. Click and add text or move around.

Now I will exit out (pay attention as this can get confusing): Click on NOTES MASTER in the ribbon menu and then on the right, find CLOSE MASTER VIEW.

Let’s take a look at our Notes Master in action.

The first slide, while in the NOTES VIEW . . . has the slide thumbnail and the dynamic text I added for the title slide.

The second slide has the same layout but new, matching slide note text. And of course, the static TAKE YOUR NOTES HERE.

And again. Do pay attention to the advantages of creating our NOTES MASTER after we settle on fonts and colors. We were able to pick a background photo that matched our slide color scheme. Everything is working in concert.

When I switch the VIEW ribbon menu to NORMAL view, I can add a new slide.

Add some bullet text.

We saw this during my speed run-through at the start of the tutorial.

And finally, add in a specific NOTES text at the bottom. Which when I go to print the NOTE pages, the dynamic “THIS APPROACH ROCKS” shows up on this printout page.

And there you go.

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Until next time, Go Power Up.