84 Print a Presentation

Unlike the other OpenOffice.org programs, such as Writer, Calc, and Draw, Impress offers no print preview. You cannot see a print preview of a presentation due to the slide-by-slide nature of presentations.

Before You Begin

81 Create a New Presentation

82 Open an Existing Presentation

Although you learn some about Impress printing options in 80 Set Impress Options , it's critical to delve into the things you may want to print through Impress. In other words, Impress was not designed to be printed but presented. Having said that, you'll still make use of the printer on occasion with Impress as you see here.

See Also

93 Change a Presentations Background

1. Request the Print Dialog Box
   
   Select File, Print from the menu.
   
   

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   If you want a preview of a simple printed copy of your presentation, one slide per printed page, just press F9 and page through your presentation. You are, in effect, seeing a preview of what will appear on the printed page.

2. Request Print Options
   
   Click the Options button to display the Printer Options dialog box.
   
   
3. Specify Printer Options
   
   Until now, setting up print options is routine and the same as the other OpenOffice.org programs. You now are at the place, at the Printer Options dialog box, where you determine the Impress settings you need.
   
   

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   By selecting multiple Contents options, Impress prints everything sequentially. For example, you might want to print notes, handouts, and the outline at once.

   The Contents area determines what you want to print. In today's modern world of fast, low-cost color printers, printing both graphics and text isn't as big of a deal, and your audience will appreciate it very much if you print a copy of your presentation to hand out. They will be able to concentrate on your speech and not worry about taking copious notes. Click to select the Handouts option to print multiple slides on one page. Your audience will be able to read the slides, but you won't waste as much paper as you would if you printed one slide per page. 102 Create Presentation Handouts explains how to produce effective audience handouts.
   
   You may want to print only your speaker's notes by clicking to select the Notes option (see 101 Add Notes to a Presentation ). The notes will print beneath the slides you've attached them to. You might choose to print your presentation's outline. To do that, click to select the Outline option.
   
   If you're printing a large presentation, you might want to save some color ink by printing a grayscale or black-and-white version of your presentation for your audience. Use the Grayscale and Black & white options in the Print dialog box to print using only black ink.
   
   

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   Hidden pages are great for notes to yourself as you develop your presentation, but you usually don't keep them around once you've handled them. You can also use hidden pages for different audiences, unhiding certain pages for audiences those pages were designed for and hiding them for other audiences.

   The Print section determines whether the date and time appear as well as whether you want to print slides you've set up as hidden. Click OK to close the Print Options dialog box.
   
   
4. Start Printing
   
   Click the Print dialog box's OK button when you're ready to begin printing.