Exploring Printing Options

You have several options for printing in PowerPoint 2007. You can print slides, handouts, notes, or outlines, and you can do it in color, black and white, or grayscale. The first step, then, is to decide what you want to print-some speakers may need notes and handouts, and others may need to print every slide for inclusion in a binder at, say, a large conference.

Note 

After you have decided which print option to use, you should use Print Preview before actually printing anything. This preview step can save you some grief-it can help you spot graphics or text boxes that may be falling off a page, for example, or show you that the font in the print version is too small for easy reading.

When you’re ready to use Print Preview, follow these steps:

1. Open the presentation, and click the Microsoft Office Button.

2. Rest your pointer on the arrow next to Print, and then click Print Preview.

3. If you need to change the headers and footers or the color setup, click Options in the Print group.

4. If you decide to change the print options, make changes in the Page Setup group under Print What.

5. Use the Zoom, Fit To Window, and Next/Previous Page commands as needed. When you are satisfied that the printing output will appear as desired, click Close Print Preview to return to the presentation and make additional edits to pages, or click Print to print directly from the Print Preview tab.

Note 

The term grayscale describes a printing process where color images are printing in variations of gray tones between black and white. If you have a black-and-white printer and are printing color slides, this option is a good one. It will help readers see subtle differences offered by different colors and can make text easier to read.

Here are the steps for printing your presentation:

1. Open the presentation, and click the Microsoft Office Button.

2. Rest your pointer on the arrow next to Print, and then click Print.

3. In the Print dialog box, under Print Range, select the slides you want to print.

4. Under copies, select the number of copies needed.

5. Under Print What, select the print option desired (handouts, outline, notes, or slides).

   Note 

   If you select handouts, you need to also tell PowerPoint how many slides per page are desired and whether you want them placed horizontally or vertically.

6. Make any other selections desired, such as the Scale To Fit Paper or Frame Slides check box.

7. Click OK. Your document will print.

You may have noticed as you walked through the Print options and Print Preview steps that there is a third printing choice called Quick Print. If you have already gone through your presentation and are confident that it needs no further changes, you can click this command. PowerPoint 2007 will automatically print the presentation for you without any prompts or options for changes. Be careful, though-this selection will default to the last options you selected in the Print dialog box. So, for example, if you last printed handouts and now want to print slides, you need to make that change on the Print Preview tab.

Note 

You can go to Print Preview from the Print dialog box instead of going back through the Microsoft Office Button. Just click the Preview button in the bottom-left corner of the dialog box.

Slide Size and Orientation

Sometimes when you print a presentation, you need to make adjustments for inclusion in a binder or use with an overhead projector or some other format. If you need to change the orientation of your slides (switch between Portrait and Landscape), just go to the Design tab, and make the change in the Page Setup group by clicking Slide Orientation. For other changes to your slide page setup, click the Page Setup button to display the Page Setup dialog box. This dialog box also lets you make changes to slide orientation, but it offers the Slides Sized For feature, too. You can manually change the slide width and height here and select predetermined options for slide sizing so you can easily set up your slides for different screen or paper sizes, as well as for overheads, banners, and custom sizes.