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How to Create the Perfect Presentation Handout

One of the most often overlooked parts of a presentation is the presentation handouts. So, in this post, we’ll give you a few examples of presentation handouts that you can create very easily and add impact to your speech or business meetings.

Good speakers and lecturers usually give presentation handouts to accompany their speeches. As a result, a great presentation handout can make your speech more memorable. It gives your audience the freedom to listen to your presentation instead of frantically taking notes.

The handouts you provide also help them remember the key points and highlights from your presentation, making your talk even more valuable. People are grateful for a good handout and will remember you (and the main points of your speech) long after the talk ended. Finally, your handout can be used as an exceptional marketing piece. If it is good enough, your audience members will both keep it and share it with others.

The Successful Speaker’s Guide to the How to Create the Perfect Presentation Handout.

The first rule of slide club is never handout your slides to slide club..

This has always been a hard and fast rule in my business presentation classes. But I have to admit, in recent years, I’ve changed my tune slightly here. When I first started teaching presentation classes, PowerPoint was still in its infancy. And the slideshows that people were creating were really awful. Folks would just create a never-ending series of bullet points on a never-ending slide deck. Since most presentations covered way too much content, it was impossible for the audience to retain most of it. In order to prevent information overload, presenters started printing off their slides and distributing the printed slide deck to their audience as a handout. As a result, the presenter ends up with a bad presentation accompanied by a bad handout.

However, if you get creative with your slides, you can actually use a printout of your slide deck to make your presentation more interactive (more on this later). The main point here is if you have a ton of content in your presentation, stuffing that content onto your slides and then just printing out your slides is not a good idea.

I sometimes make this point in class by starting to deliver a data-heavy slide deck. It typically only takes a few slides before someone in class figures out that I’m violating almost every tip that I’m giving them.

At that point, there is usually a nice laugh. I then switch to a better slideshow that is more audience-centered. The funny thing is, though, that before the class figures out that the bad PowerPoint presentation is a joke, someone in the class will often ask me if I will send them the slide deck.  So, if your audience is asking you for your slide deck, your presentation is probably not designed very well .

Three Easy Examples of Handouts for Presentations.

Presentation handout example #1: just use slide notes in powerpoint as a presentation handout..

One of the main reasons that I have always encouraged my class members to not print out their slides is that the slides, without the speaker, aren’t going to make a lot of sense. However, most people will jot a few speaker notes of important information they want to say in the presentation. If you use the techniques that I cover here, you’ll likely create an outline with a few key items. You’ll likely also use stories, examples, analogies, anecdotes, quotes, statistics, and the like. Well, if you already have that content created before you create your slide deck, you could just insert that content into the Slide Notes in PowerPoint. Viola! Instant presentation handouts.

The Second Example of a Presentation Handout: Give Main Concepts with Space for Audience to Add Notes.

A friend of mine leads three-day training boot camps where he teaches social media marketing and website development. His handout is a three-ring binder full of printed pages. Each page has a series of rules followed by a quarter page of blank space. I once asked him, since the content that he was delivering was so detailed, why didn’t he just type it up and include it in his manuals.

He laughed and told me that he used to do that very thing. But the content in his industry was changing so quickly that, the moment he printed a new manual, those additional details would already be outdated. So, now, he just prints the core message. Then, he allows his students to fill in the blanks with the most current content that he delivers from the stage. (He gets fantastic reviews, by the way.)

I love this technique. It keeps the audience involved. It also allows the audience members to write out the content that is most important to each of them at the time they attended the meeting.

The Most Effective Example: Create a Presentation Handout that Contains Extra Content Not in Your Presentation

You want to include the content from your presentation in a written format. But you also want to add additional information that you won’t cover in the presentation. This is the technique that we use in our seminars and workshops.

For instance, if you are going to use a story as a piece of evidence in your verbal presentation, use a different story in your handout. If you use an analogy in your presentation, use a quote in your handout. When you use audience participation in your presentation, use a unique photograph in your handout.

If you do this, your target audience will see you as a valued expert on the topic. By the way, it is okay to use some of the same content in your slideshows, your oral presentations, and your handouts. It is important to be consistent. However, you want your verbal presentation to cover some key ideas that aren’t in your handout. And you want your handout to cover detailed information that you don’t speak about.

This type of presentation is a great handout because it becomes a textbook for your presentation. It does take longer to create a well-prepared handout. But you will find that the value to your audience far outweighs the additional effort.

During the presentation, you’ll want to say something like, “I’ve given you additional examples in your handout,” or “If you want the full step-by-step approach, you can download the handout from my website at [your URL].”

A Few Bonus Tips to Add Impact to Your Handouts.

Add a list of reference material for further reading

Your audience members will want to pick your brain. They want to know where you went to school, what kind of work experience you have, and most of all, where they can read more about your topic.

There’s a ton of resources out there, so instead of having your audience sort through them (or risk boring them with way too much detail in the presentation), just lead them in the right direction with your recommended reading. If the book is hard to find, or only available online, remember to include the link to where it can be purchased.

Consider adding a worksheet or action sheet

Depending on the type of presentation or speech you’re giving, you will likely have a call to action at the end, where you will encourage people to change or act on something related to your talk.

If a worksheet helped you implement these changes before, include it for your audience. Even a notes section located in the back of your handout will be an effective tool in case your audience wants to jot something down.What did your last handout look like? What will you change for next time? Let us know if you end up implementing any of these tips.

For additional help, here are a few additional posts:

• How Many PowerPoint Slides Should You Have for Your Presentation .
• Make Your Handout Look Great without a Graphic Designer .
• How to Design Your Presentation in a Few Simple Steps .
• We Use the Software Canva to Create Great Presentation Handouts with a Professional Layout

Download the Free How to Create a Great Presentation Handout… Handout.

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Create or change a presentation’s handout

You can use the Handout Master tab to edit the appearance of presentation handouts, including the layout, headers and footers, and background. Changes made to the handout master appear on all pages of the printed handout.

To see the handout options, click the View tab, and then click Handout Master in the Master Views group.

This opens the Handout Master view.

Change the layout

In the Page Setup group, you can specify the number and layout of slides to print on each page, change the orientation of handouts, and set the slide size. You can use settings on all three menus— Handout Orientation , Slide Size , and Slides Per Page —to customize your layout exactly how you want it.

Set the slides per page

Click Slides Per Page .

Choose a layout option from the thumbnail images.

Tip:  The 3 Slides option includes lines that your audience can use to take notes.

Set the orientation

Click Handout Orientation , and then choose Portrait or Landscape .

Set the slide size

Click Slide Size (or, in PowerPoint 2010, Slide Orientation ), and then choose one of the options.

When PowerPoint is unable to automatically scale your content, it will prompt you with a message. Select Maximize to increase the size of your slide content when you are scaling to a larger slide size. (Choosing this option could result in your content not fitting on the slide. ) Select Ensure Fit to decrease the size of your content. (This could make your content appear smaller, but you’ll be able to see all content on your slide.)

To set a custom size, including width, height, slide numbering, and orientation of slides and notes, click Custom Slide Size on the Slide Size menu.

To make sure your slides will print the way you want, preview your handouts before printing.

Change headers and footers

You can adjust headers and footers in the Placeholders group. By default, the placeholders appear in the top and bottom corners of the Handout Master page.

Click in a text placeholder (Header, Footer, Date, or Page Number) to make changes to it. You can do things like:

Edit or add content in the text placeholders : In addition to text changes, you can use commands on the Insert tab to add graphics or other content types.

Format text shape and appearance : Select the text and use the options on the Format tab to make changes.

Change text placeholders : Drag a text placeholder to move it, and use the text box sizing handles to change its size.

Turn placeholders on or off : Clear the check box of the placeholder (Header, Date, Footer, or Page Number) that you want to turn off.

Change the background

You can change the background of your handouts (but not the background of your slides) in the Background group. You can also quickly change the font for all for your handout text at once, and you can apply special borders and visual effects.

Colors : Choose a color theme for your handout background. You may have to click Background Styles and choose an option to see it applied.

Background Styles : Choose a style option from the list. The colors displayed depend on your choice in the Colors list.

Tip:  Click Format Background at the bottom of the Background Styles list to open the Format pane and choose from more background options, such as advanced fill settings, artistic effects, and color and image settings.

Fonts : Choose a font from the list to quickly apply it to all headers and footers.

Effects : Choose an effect from the list to apply a theme effects, with features including shadows, reflections, lines, fills, and more.

Preview your handouts

To preview the way your handout will look when printed:

Click File > Print .

Go to Settings > Full Page Slides , and then under Handouts , select the layout you want and look at the preview pane. Click the File tab again to return to your previous view.

For more information about working with PowerPoint handouts, see:

Work with handout masters

Print your handouts, notes, or slides

Create your own theme in PowerPoint

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13 Best Practice Tips for Effective Presentation Handouts

by Olivia Mitchell | 75 comments

Your presentation handout is the lasting concrete manifestation of your presentation. It’s an important part of the total experience for the audience:

But most of us focus on preparing what happens during the presentation, not what happens afterwards . Here are the benefits of having handouts:

Benefits for the presenter

• They allow you to cut down on the amount of material you cover in your presentation and so not commit information overload .
• They allow you to stop worrying about forgetting what you want to say .
• Audience members will have a concrete reminder making your presentation more memorable.
• Audience members can easily contact you later.

Benefits for audience members

• They allow audience members to relax about having to note down what you’re saying.
• If they like taking notes, they’ve got a place to do it.
• If they’re inspired by your topic, they’ve got more information on it.
• If they want to refresh themselves later on what you covered they’ve got a place to go.

Tips for Presentation Handouts

1. prepare your handouts in plenty of time.

Don’t leave it till the last moment to create your handout. I’ve been guilty of this. We’re most concerned about the actual presentation and not making a fool of ourselves up on the stage so you work on what you’re going to say and the slides, and then 30 mins before your presentation you realise you should have a handout and hurriedly put something together. Handouts are much too important to be relegated to an afterthought.

2. Don’t just print out your slides

This is lazy and not effective. If your slides are bullet-point slides (not recommended) then they will often be cut-down sentences which will no longer make sense to the reader a week later. And if they are visual slides (recommended) then they’re also unlikely to make sense without additional text. If you’re presenting with visual PowerPoint slides, one of the easiest ways of creating a handout is to type the text of the handout in the “Notes” pane of the PowerPoint edit screen. Then print your slides as “Notes”. You’ll have an effective handout.

3. Ensure your handout reflects your presentation

An audience member should be able to relate the handout to the presentation they’ve just attended. If you use the Notes pane of PowerPoint as I’ve suggested above this will happen naturally as you’ll be guided by the visuals you’re using in the presentation. You handout should have the same title as your presentation and should follow the same structure so that audience members can easily find the information they want.

4. Add more information

Presentations are not a good format for transferring a lot of information . However, they are good for inspiring people to find out more about a topic. That extra information can be in the handout. And if you’re the sort of person who wants to tell the audience everything you know about the topic… you can put it in the handout.

5. Include references

If you’re citing research do include the references in the handout. For most presentations (scientific presentations to a scientific audience would be an exception), don’t clutter up your presentation or your slides with references. But do be able to say: “The reference for this research is in your handout.” Let your audience know where they can find out more: books, websites, blogs etc.

6. Consider creating an action sheet

Handouts are a great place to help people put ideas from your presentation into action. You could either list a series of actions that people can take, or provide a worksheet that people fill in on what actions they will take as a result of your presentation. Have people fill in the action sheet near the end of your presentation.

7. Make your handout stand-alone

The handout may be passed onto people who were not at your presentation. Or an audience member may look at it a year from now when they’ve forgotten most of your presentation. Make sure that it will make sense to them. For people who weren’t present include brief credibility-establishing information about you.

8. Provide white space

Some people like to take notes during a presentation. Provide plenty of white space (or even some blank pages at the back) so that they can take notes on the handout and so keep all the information related to your presentation in one place.

9. Make your handout look professional

The handout is the concrete reminder of your presentation. It may also get passed onto other people who were not at your presentation. So it should enhance the perception people have of you:

• Have someone proofread it
• Create a consistent look and feel with your brand (this may include a logo and colors)

10. Consider what additional resources you can provide for your audience

You’re not limited to paper. My bioethics teacher friend who presents at bioethics and education conferences across the globe provides each of her attendees with a DVD with lesson plans and resources.

11. Consider creating a webpage

Cliff Atkinson suggests creating a “home page” for your presentation in his book The Backchannel . If you don’t have a website, you could create a squidoo lens or a Facebook Fan page . Or if you’d like to do more than that, create a wiki website (try pbworks or wikispaces ) or use blog software. Both of these can be done for free and just a little technical courage (techphobics shouldn’t try this). All of these options allow readers to comment on what you’ve written, so it’s a great way of continuing the conversation with audience members. For instance, audience members can ask you questions they weren’t able to ask at the time.

If you decide to go the web way, you can cut down the hard copy handout to one page with the most important points from your presentation, your contact details and the web address.

12. Distribute the handout at the beginning of your presentation

This is a perennial topic of debate amongst presenters. Some people are concerned that if they distribute the handout first, people will stop listening and start leafing through it. The problem here is not the handout, it’s that your presentation is not engaging enough.

Not distributing it till after the presentation suggests that you think you know best how people should pay attention to your information. Let your audience decide for themselves.

Recent research suggests that providing handouts to university students before the lecture does not harm their learning.

Update: In the comments to this post, Cathy Moore , Mike Slater and Adam Lawrence have identified three good reasons for distributing your handout after your presentation. I’ve highlighted these reasons in a new post: Three good reasons to distribute your handout after your presentation .

13. Do tell people if it’s not in the handout

Finally, if you go off on a tangent in reply to a question, do let them know that the answer is not in the handout.

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Best Practices for Handouts [Ultimate Guide]

To provide handouts, or not to provide handouts? That truly is a good question. Some people are adamant that a good presentation doesn’t need them. However, some presentations serve the audience better if you do provide them. So, what are the best practices for handouts?

In this post, I’ll share the best practice tips for using handouts effectively.

What Is a Handout?

Why use handouts, what should be included in a handout, when to deliver before a presentation, when to deliver after a presentation, when to deliver during a presentation, additional delivery best practices for handouts, make your handout look professional, typography basics, what you need to know about graphical elements and white space, the pros and cons of powerpoint handouts, bonus handout tip: how to supercharge your handouts.

• Before and After Presentation Handout Examples

Merriam Webster defines a handout as a folder or circular of information for free distribution. However, in the public speaking world, it is so much more than that. What is the purpose of handouts? First, you need to understand why they are useful.

Handouts provide benefits to you as a speaker and to the members of your audience. When you provide a handout, you don’t need to pack so much information into your presentation that you overload your audience. More detailed information can be provided in the handout. They also help your message last longer with your audience, because they are able to take a reminder of you and your presentation home, making it easier for them to contact you later.

Your audience benefits because they can worry less about note-taking because they both have space to jot quick notes and they don’t need to write down your every word. If they want to know more about your topic, you’ve saved them some research time. And, if they want to refresh their memory about your presentation, more than likely your handout will be much easier to understand than their notes!

How Do You Use Handouts Effectively?

Here are some tips on how to structure a handout:

• Effective handouts reflect the storyline and information of your presentation. When your audience peruses your handout, it should be clear that it is related to your presentation. The information should expand upon what you said, not be tangential.
• Useful handouts provide additional information. They highlight points in greater detail than you were able to cover during your speech. They may also include additional references and further reading, helping your listeners deepen their understanding of your topic.
• The best handouts can stand alone. If you provide the handout to people who missed your presentation, they will also gain value from it.

Just like your slide deck , your handout should contain only the information that is necessary to help your audience interact with or understand your content. The fewer pages you have the better. In most circumstances, one page is sufficient, but there are cases when you’ll need more. Here are some common handout ideas:

• Information from the slides—but expanded upon. Your slides need to be simple and clean. Data Storytelling Evangelist Lea Pica suggests that “The better you’ve designed your live slides, the less sense they will make to an offline audience.” This may mean that not all the information you want to impart will be on them. Therefore, your handouts can include deeper information.
• Guided space for taking notes. Your handouts can include prompts for where to take the best notes. For example, you can include questions that you’ll answer in the presentation. Or you can include sentences with words missing, cueing them to pay special attention at those spots in your presentation.

• Additional resources and further reading. Perhaps your presentation will inspire your audience to explore the topic further. You can help them by citing resources you’ve mentioned and suggest further reading they can do.
• An action sheet. Your handout can guide your audience in their next steps after your presentation. You can suggest actions they can take, provide journal prompts, or even leave space for them to jot down their aha moments. Some workshop presenters even allow time at the end of the workshop for audience members to prioritize their action notes and select one or more that they will take action on immediately.

When Should You Distribute Your Handouts?

However, the truth lies somewhere in between.

The type of presentation you are giving greatly affects when you should distribute handouts. For most presentations, it is better for you to distribute at the end of your speech. Here are some rules of thumb to help you decide when to deliver your handouts.

• If your presentation is very long, such as a full-day or half-day workshop
• If your presentation is highly technical and you need your audience to review something specific
• If you need to share information that is too dense for a slide, such as a large data table or complex graphic
• If you have participatory exercises that are better handled by a worksheet than a blank piece of paper
• If you need to facilitate note-taking by providing a pre-printed guide
• Your handout would distract from, more than enhance, your presentation – rustling papers, reading ahead, etc.
• You need the elements of suspense or surprise in your presentation (you don’t want to handout spoilers!)
• The handout is more of a thank you gift than something that will help them absorb your information in real time

Sometimes your handout meets criteria for both cases above. In that case, you might want to break up your handout and dole the pieces out at the appropriate points.

• When you need to distribute your handout at the beginning of the presentation, give your audience a moment to peruse it and become familiar with its contents. That way they won’t be leafing through it during your presentation and ignoring you.
• If you will deliver your handout at the end , let your audience know and give them a heads up of what it will include so they don’t take notes they don’t need to. For example, if you are going to give the information from your slides, they can relax and not feel pressured to write it all down or, nowadays, take pictures, which can obstruct the view of fellow audience members.
• If what you are talking about is not mentioned in the handout , let your audience know that too . This will encourage them to pay attention so they can take good notes.

How To Design an Effective Handout

How your handout looks—its design—affects how your audience members will react to it. Research has shown that visual design can affect a reader’s:

• Motivation to engage with the content (J. Smiley, 2004; E. Misanchuk, 1992; and R. Bell and J. Sullivan, 1981)
• Comprehension of the content (M. Gasser et al, 2006; J. Smiley, 2004; S. Walker, 2001; A. Hoener et al, 1997; K. Garofalo, 1998; C. Lewis and P. Walker, 1989)
• Recollection of the content (M. Gasser et al, 2006; J. Smiley, 2004; C. Lewis and P. Walker, 1989)
• Efficiency and speed in consuming the content (Smiley, 2004; A. Hoener et al, 1997)

Therefore, if you wish your handout to have legs—to be kept longer and make a strong impact on your audience—you will need to be mindful of these best practices for handouts design.

Give your handouts as much time and care as you would your slide deck and your content. Allow plenty of time to design, proofread and make appropriate changes to the handout. If working with a designer, allow time for the back and forth approval process.

In addition, be sure the look and feel of your handout match your branding fonts, colors and imagery style. And, of course, be sure to include your contact information on every page!

When selecting the fonts you will use, keep in mind these typography best practices for handouts:

• Use a font your audience is familiar with. According to Hoener et al, “people most easily read material printed in the typefaces with which they are most familiar.” This could mean use standard fonts like the ones mentioned above, or one that matches your branding. For example, the sans-serif font used on this webpage is Open Sans.
• Be sure the font you choose is legible. Some serif fonts are hard to read. If you must use a challenging font, do so sparingly. For example, the serif font used on this webpage is Bangers and is only used for headlines.
• Make sure the font size is large enough for your audience. According to R. Carter et al (2006), 9 to 12 point is standard for adults. However, if you have an older or younger audience, you’ll want the font size to be larger than that.
• Use no more than two fonts, one serif, and one sans-serif. In print design, serif fonts are considered more readable, however, the reverse is true online. Therefore, your printed handout would be best served by a serif font for the body and a sans-serif font for the headlines—unless you are trying to match your branding. Using different fonts for the body and headlines helps signal the beginning of different sections of your content.
• When using two fonts, don’t combine serif with serif fonts, nor sans-serif with sans-serif fonts. This can look bland, undifferentiated and less professional.

Research shows that graphics can distract from the content of your handout, so make sure that those you use are purposeful and enhance the text content. You can also use lines and shapes, such as bullets, squared-off sections, and lines between columns, to organize your page.

In addition to text and images, your handout design needs to have sufficient white space—the “negative” space where no text or images are. White space is the area between the different layout elements, the lines within and between paragraphs, and so on. White space does not necessarily need to be white, either. It can be a block of color, texture, patterns or even a faded background image.

The reason white space is so important is that it makes your handout more accessible and manageable. And research suggests that white space can deepen processing of the content and increase recall. One study indicated that the proper use of white space can increase comprehension by as much as 20 percent.

Think of white space as being like silence within a presentation. The silence helps structure your speech and gives your audience time to process what you’ve said. White space does the same thing for the readers of your handout.

Slides serve a different function from handouts. Communication expert Garr Reynolds says, “Attempting to have slides serve as both projected visuals and as stand-alone handouts makes for bad visuals and bad documentation.” Slides are visual aids specifically created to make your presentation more dynamic and engaging—they are not the content of your presentation. Handouts are supplemental and serve a supportive role—they need to be more detailed than your slides.

If you are dead set on using your slide deck as your handout, keep in mind these PowerPoint best practices for handouts:

• Only print those slides that are necessary to convey information. You don’t need to include slides with only an image or quote on them, nor the title slide.
• Use the handout format of three slides per page . This makes them more legible and allows plenty of space for taking notes.
• Go beyond the slide handout. Create a useful summary or additional references sheet to go with it.

An excellent way to increase the value of your handouts is to create an associated webpage. If you use this strategy, distribute a simple one- or two-page handout and indicate that even more information can be found on a specific webpage. This is especially useful if you are going to provide links to additional reading and resources online.

Added-value items you can include on this page are:

• Clickable links to resources mentioned in your presentation and/or your handout
• Recommended books with links to them on Amazon
• Downloadable worksheets, cheat sheets or action sheets.

Want to take this one step further? Create an opt-in incentive related to your presentation (perhaps the downloadable documents?). You can mention where to get it in the close of your speech or list it on your handout. Depending on the incentive you create, it can have the double benefit of increasing perceived value and growing your email list.

Before and After Presentation Handout Example

Here is an example of how a handout can be transformed from a plain document using MS Word’s standard styles into something more readable and professional. These before and after images were created using functions available in MS Word and applying the tips presented in this post. Of course, if you have your handout professionally designed, it will look even better. This is merely presented as an example of how you can do this yourself using a commonly used word processing application.

I hope this post inspires you to create outstanding, valuable and effective handouts for your next presentation.

Let’s talk about best practices for handouts!

Did you like this post? Please share!

About the author

Carma Spence, is author of Public Speaking Super Powers. She is fiercely committed to guiding women to Owning their Superpowers and turning their knowledge and interests into a profitable business. She is masterful at helping her clients see what is possible for them and supporting them on the journey from where they are to where they want to be, releasing the Mind Goblins of self-doubt, self-sabotage and second-guessing that keep them stuck.

With 20+ years experience in marketing communications and public relations, natural intuitive skills and certification in using some of the most effective transformational coaching tools available, Carma’s mission and commitment is to unleash the inner power every woman entrepreneur possesses so they can boldly go out into the world, transforming the fabric of people’s lives in meaningful and positive ways.

You can find her on Facebook , Twitter , Google+ and LinkedIn . Her website is CarmaSpence.com .

All you need to know about Presentation Handouts

Hitiksha jain.

• Body Language & Delivery

What is a Presentation Handout?

A presentation handout or a handout is a piece of printed information which is handed over to the audience after a presentation, meeting, or a conference. It’s an integral part of the total experience of your audience. A well-thought handout may be your best tool towards ensuring your message is effectively communicated.

It allows your audience to focus more on what you said during the presentation, and serves as a tangible reminder of your content afterwards. 

Let’s assume you’ve been asked to give a speech, and you’re excited to give the best presentation possible. You put in all kinds of preparations– from creating an amazing presentation, probing for perfect examples, to infusing memorable anecdotes, terrific insights, great visuals and even a wry joke here or there. You’ve covered all the possible angles to make your presentation or speech impactful and effective– or have you?

An effective presentation is a combination of not only your PowerPoint Presentation, but also the other forms of communication- writing, reporting, handouts to persuade, convince, inform, and enlighten your audience.

As a brand or a speaker, you would want your message to have a long lasting impact over your audience for which you need concrete manifestations like handouts, as most of us focus on preparing what will happen during the presentation, not what happens afterwards .

You need to convince people of why you are doing something rather than explaining what you are doing .

“ People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do. “ Simon Sinek

Benefits of providing a handout:

1. helps you avoid information overload.

It allows you to cut down the amount of information that you cover in your presentation and combines the most important aspects from it in a handy text form.

By adding the essential and worth-knowing content about your brand will help you make your speech more memorable. 

Chunky paragraphs make your audience apathetic towards reading your handout as the essence is lost.

2. Lays emphasis on your message

Your key message should permeate through all of your business materials- brochures, website, or handouts. You need to provide supporting data around that one message to lay emphasis on it. 

If there is one thing that should be crystal clear in your handout, it is your key message. As it sets you apart from your competition and describes your brand as a whole.

3. Acts as a concrete reminder

Chances are, your audience won’t remember the details of your presentation a year later. With a handout, they have all the important information you covered as well as a reminder of you and your brand. 

As it is a takeaway material, whenever the audience member looks at it, it’ll help them recall all what you spoke.

4. Allows you to add supporting data

Your handout can be supplemented with additional information along with the main elements from your presentation. This can even be visuals, graphics, or references, as it can really clarify and supplement your main argument and tie things together.

It is a good idea to provide your contact information and email. Depending on the type and purpose of the presentation, you can also provide your business address and telephone number.

5. Provides a synopsis of your speech

The information in your handout is short and to the point. Before expanding on individual and main points from your presentation, you need to focus on your target audience.

By doing this, you tailor the handout to their level, avoiding technical terms where they would get distracted from your point. It is very important to condense the core statements of your presentation into key points, rather than including a distracting stream of text. This way, you retain your audience’s full attention.

Pro Tip- To arouse your audience’s curiosity right at the beginning of your handout, you could include an upbeat quote, a proverb or a question.

6. Personal Branding

Personal branding is the practice of marketing people and their careers as brands. It is an ongoing process of developing and maintaining a reputation and impression of an individual, group, or organization.

Your personal brand is more than the brand statement you use as your elevator pitch or to market yourself in your digital, and online marketing communications.

Handouts allow you to define your personal brand. It is the combination of your personal attributes, values, drivers, strengths, passions, and contact details that differentiates your unique promise of value from your peers.

Considering the above points, it’s obvious, then, that a handout can be very useful for your audience, your presentation and yourself. Once you know what to do, they can be relatively straightforward to produce.

Ways on how you can make your handouts intriguing:

1. it is a reflection of your presentation.

Imagine watching FRIENDS from any random episode where you seldom know the character sketch of a Chandler who is witty and full of one liners, or a Joey who is cute but a little slow, or a Monica who is obsessed with cleaning.

In such a situation, you are bound to feel unconnected because you haven’t watched the 1st season and the episode you are watching is nowhere a reflection of it.

In the same way, your handout is a summary of what you’ve spoken in your presentation, so it automatically becomes a reflection of it. The audience should be able to resonate your handout with your presentation that they’ve just attended.

Ideally, your handout should have the same title as your presentation and should follow the same structure, so that audience members can easily find the information they want.

2. Remember, it is not a copy of your presentation

Printing your entire presentation on the handouts is lazy and least effective. It is supposed to have key points from your entire speech.

You need not limit your handout only to the topics covered in your presentation. It’s okay to include related information that further supports your speech.

While you were preparing your presentation, you were selecting the most essential information, offered concisely, that supported your messages. With your handout, you’re free to expand on bullet points and graphics to allow a more complete explanation. Just don’t go overboard. Although you’re offering more information, you must still keep it well organized and to the point.

3. Take proper time to prepare your handouts

As stated earlier, we focus and give time to prepare our presentation and what happens during that in order to not make a fool of ourselves upon the stage. And before your presentation it strikes you that you need to have handouts, so you make it hurriedly- giving it less importance.

Cobbling together a handout at the last moment is not only stressful, it can be counterproductive, as it undermines your professionalism and never goes unnoticed.

Remember, your handouts require the same amount of focus and time as your presentation. In fact it is something your audience will take along with them, so I’m sure you would want your handout to have all the essential information regarding your brand along with CTA. 

4. Professionalism is the key

Make your handouts look attractive and appealing to the eye. Here are certain ways to make it look professional:

• Avoid cluttering of data.
• Avoid putting a lot of data that your handout begins to look like a textbook.
• Use a simple and readable font.
• Use the same graphical elements and the same colours.
• Don’t clutter up your handout with data without sacrificing the essential content.

The handout is a concrete reminder of your presentation. It may also get passed onto other people who were not at your presentation. So make sure it enhances the perception people have of you.

5. It should have more essential information

Presentations are supposed to have a lot of visual content; however, they are unlikely to make sense without the additional text. Going overboard with text in your presentation is not a good idea. They are mainly used for inspiring people to find out more about a topic or your brand. 

Add the extra information in the handout.

As said earlier, your handout is a takeaway your audience will take to review later or maybe pass it to someone else who didn’t attend your presentation. Therefore, it is very important to add essential and supporting data- contact information, case studies, references, marketing literature, or other collateral materials.

6. Add references (if any)

Sometimes it can be confusing to know when and how to cite sources during a speech, especially while using a visual-aid PowerPoint Presentation. 

If you’re citing research, references become an inevitable part of it.

But the question is where to add these references?

Well, it is better if you don’t clutter your slides with references. So the best option is you can add it in your handouts. This will not only make your presentation neat and organized but also make your handouts insightful. 

However, you need to inform your audience that you’ve cited sources for this XYZ research in your handout. Also, try providing information about related blogs, websites, and books (if any).

7. Make your handout a stand-alone

Your handout may be passed onto people who were not present at your presentation. Or an audience member may look at it a year from now when they’ve forgotten most of your speech.

Make sure your handout helps them recall it and something that will make sense to them. For people who weren’t present for your presentation, include a brief credibility-establishing information about you.

When is the best time to distribute your Handout, before or after?

Imagine that you’ve spent weeks preparing your presentation wherein you’ve got wonderful persuasive material as well as a concise handout summarizing and supporting your arguments.

The only one thing that you didn’t plan was when to distribute the handouts. Maybe at the beginning? At the end? In the middle? Or does the timing even matter?

Rule of thumb: Distribute your handouts at the end.

It’s generally to your advantage to distribute handouts at the end of your presentation.

Benefits of distributing your Handouts before your presentation:

• You make it clear that the handout is meant to be taken away. There’s no guarantee that your handout doesn’t end up in the recycling bin, but your aim is to give it a chance to survive as long as possible, carrying your message with it.
• If you plan to hand it out at the end, it can be sued as a summary document (as opposed to making it a less useful transcript of your presentation)
• Your audience will not be distracted reading it during your presentation, when you need their eyes and attention with you
• The surprises, suspense, and case studies won’t be disclosed (which might otherwise be hinted at or spoiled by the handout)
• It is symbolic of giving a gift to the audience to thank them for their attention
• There will be less rustling of papers to distract both you and your audience.

However, there are a number of caveats wherein you will have to distribute it before your presentation:

• When your speech is highly technical and detail-oriented, it is better to put those words in the hands of the audience
• When your content is far too dense, you can’t expect your audience to absorb such voluminous data. So to handle this: you can provide them the material and draw their attention.
• Also, in case of coaches and trainees you will have to handout workbooks for your presentations at the start, as the audience may need to read along, do exercises, etc. in the workbook itself.

Clear and Concise: How to structure a Handout

The motto “less is more” applies very effectively to handouts. In concrete terms, this means: do without whole sentences and make sure you use key points, abbreviations, arrows and symbols. Ideally, your handout should not consist of more than two A4 pages.

In addition to important information from your presentation, a handout needs to include the following:

• Basic information, probably in the upper left corner of the handout, such as the location of the presentation, title, name of the speaker (optional)
• The date, probably in the upper right corner
• Heading– preferably the title of your presentation and it should be centered
• A clear structure, based on the individual headings of the presentation
• An aesthetic page layout with a standard font type and colour– preferably same as your presentation.

The structure of your handout should follow the structure of your presentation. It is best to limit your points to those which support your main argument. Keep the sub-items on the handout as simple as possible and don’t go into too much detail.

To make your handout visually appealing, work on your fonts and colours. In addition to using clear, standard fonts, try to keep the font size in the headers and footers uniform and smaller than in the main part.

Pro Tip- Create an area for your audience to make their own notes on your handout. Either make the right margin wider or leave a few lines of space under your last point.

Here’s an example,

• Overboarding of information will make your handout look very cluttered leading them to lose interest
• Distributing your handouts at the start of your presentation will lead to distraction amid the audience
• It shouldn’t be complex to understand when read by someone who wasn’t present at the time of your presentation
• Do not copy paste your entire presentation as it is. You need to include additional information (along with the one in your presentation)

How to make a Presentation Handout?

The easiest and the simplest way to make your handouts is via Microsoft Word. You can follow these simple steps in order to create one:

• Click on the ‘Create handout’ option and transfer your presentation to Microsoft Word
• After that, choose which presentation slides should appear on your handout
• You can easily adjust your text, graphics, content and decide whether you want to include a note margin, a header, or a footer
•  In addition to the option of printing the handout, you can also save it directly in Word as a Word or PDF document – a simple way to make the handout digitally which is available to your audience.

Voilà! Here you go.

For more help, check this video out,

Types of Handouts:

1. gapped handouts.

As the name suggests, this handout consists of gaps that the audience is required to fill in. It may also include complex graphics or charts or tables of statistics which the members are expected to complete and they can only do that if they heard you well.

You can also outline the main points and leave gaps for key words to be inserted.

For example, 

a) P_ _ _ _ _ t_ _ _ _n/ _ a _ _ _ _t_ (Presentation Handouts)

b) _a_ _ed/ H_ _ _o_ _ _  (Gapped Handouts)

2. Skeletal Handouts

It provides a bare outline of the presentation structure with some key statements and main references. This can be useful to aid members to make notes and follow a structure.

It is a great tool to maintain the audience engagement and focus throughout your presentation.

3. Worksheets

A worksheet is a sheet of paper on which problems are worked out or solved and answers are recorded.

This is mainly used in the classroom scenario in order to encourage students to remember what they learnt. It can motivate them to work without any assistance.

4. Information Sheets

It is also called a short information document. This sheet provides you a brief summary of a subject and its aims.

It may be necessary to draft more than one information sheet if you need to cater to the participants with different needs.

It is mainly used in the areas of education, for example, information on courses provided by an institution.

Also check- How to give motivational speech to students.

Examples of Handouts:

A handout is a useful tool for helping your audience learn important concepts from a meeting, presentation or other business event. When making a handout, it’s important to summarize the key points instead of just printing out the notes you used during the presentation. Include material that goes beyond the information you covered to help your audience better understand the concepts. Here are some examples:

In the above example, they have summarized the main concepts, given information about their brand and pointed out the reasons why you should choose them.

However, one thing that they didn’t focus on is leaving space to add notes. This is important because it allows the audience member to pen down the essentials points in their own words. It fosters the way people learn and understand information. 

The above example is used when you have to lay down the program of an event. Now in such a scenario, you will need to hand it over to the audience beforehand.

So when you look at it, it is filled with a lot of text with no infographics or visuals. Therefore, the audience somewhere might lose interest looking at a handout only filled with text.

Check these examples out for inspiration:

Final Thoughts

A well-prepared handout can be an effective tool to support your presentation, acting as a guide and memory aid for both you and your audience. Used properly, they can increase the interest and attention of your audience, and allow you to give a clear and professional presentation.

Do not forget to add a CTA (Call to action) in your handout, encouraging them to change or act on something in relation with your talk.

Your handout is going to remain with your audience, so make sure you provide all the necessary information in less words. Basically, a summary of your presentation in minimum words.

Let us know if you end up implementing any of these tips in the comments below.

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Blog > How to export & print handouts in PowerPoint

How to export & print handouts in PowerPoint

08.09.21   •  #powerpoint #tips.

PowerPoint allows you to easily create handouts to share with the audience after the presentation. You can also export your presentation with slides and notes to Word for further editing and formatting. You can find out how this all works and how you can print out the handouts at the end in this blog post.

Format & print handouts without notes

Format & print handouts with notes

If you want to make them available to the audience, you can easily print them out. All you have to do is select "Notes page" instead of "Full page slide" in the print settings.

Exporting and editing handouts in Word

When exporting a PowerPoint presentation to Word, a lot of memory is used. Therefore, this process can also take for a while. If you get the error message "PowerPoint could not write to Microsoft Word", try restarting your computer.

Share slides digitally with the audience

Printing handouts for every attendee is cumbersome and also not quite environmental friendly. A much better solution is using SlideLizard (a cool software for live audience interaction in PowerPoint) for your presentations. Attendees can join your talk with their smartphone (or Laptop) and see your slide live during the presentation . They can also browse previous slides and as well download the slides directly as a PDF (if you allow it). In addition, participants can take private notes on their own smartphones directly within SlideLizard. These notes remain linked to the slides and at the end of the presentation all participants receive their own notes via email. Moreover, attendees can mark the most important slides with a star to find them more easily later. Live polls & quizzes are also possible with SlideLizard. You can try SlideLizard for free today !

How do I create handouts in PowerPoint?

To create handouts in PowerPoint go to "Handout Master" in the "View" tab. You can format your handouts for all pages there.

How do I print handouts from PowerPoint?

To print your handouts you have to go to "Print" in the "File" tab. You can then choose how many slides you want per page under "Full page slides" in the "Handouts" group.

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Miriam Rapberger

Miriam supports SlideLizard in the area of marketing and design. There she uses her creativity for blog posts, among other things.

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Erin Wright Writing

Writing-Related Software Tutorials

How to Create Handouts in PowerPoint (Printable & Editable)

By Erin Wright

Quick Links:

How to Create Printable PowerPoint Handouts

How to create editable powerpoint handouts with microsoft word.

This tutorial is also available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.

Watch more than 100 other writing-related software tutorials on my YouTube channel .

The images below are from PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 and Word for Microsoft 365. These steps also apply to PowerPoint 2019, PowerPoint 2016, and PowerPoint 2013.

• Select the File tab in the ribbon.

• Select Print in the Backstage view.

• (Optional) If you don’t want include all your slides, enter specific slide numbers separated by commas or a number range (e.g., 3,5,7,9-14) into the Slides text box.

• Select the Full Page Slides menu.

• Select an option from the Handout section in the menu. (You may need to use the scrollbar on the right side of the menu to see all the options shown here.)
• One slide per page
• Two slides per page
• Three slides per page with lines for notes
• Four horizontal slides per page
• Six horizontal slides per page
• Nine horizontal slides per page
• Four vertical slides per page
• Six vertical slides per page
• Nine vertical slides per page

• (Optional in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365 only) Uncheck Print slide numbers on handouts if you don’t want to include slide numbers.

• (Optional) Enter the number of copies into the Copies text box.

• Select the Print button.

PowerPoint doesn’t provide a way to save the handout options you just chose. So, repeat these steps if you need to print additional handouts in the future.

Important Note: Some users may have difficulty exporting large PowerPoint files into Microsoft Word. If you encounter problems, please see the Microsoft Support website for two possible solutions .

• Select the File tab in the ribbon (see figure 1).
• Select Export in the Backstage view.

• Select Create Handouts in the Export screen.

• Select the Create Handouts button.

• Select a page layout option from the Send to Microsoft Word dialog box. (The dialog box label may be abbreviated to “Send to Microsoft…”)
• Note next to slides
• Blank lines next to slides
• Notes below slides
• Blank lines below slides
• Outline only (This option only pastes the text from your slides, not the slides themselves.)

• Select the Paste or Paste link option. (These options won’t be available if you selected “Outline only” in step 5.)
• Paste duplicates your slides and notes (if applicable) into a Word document.
• Paste link duplicates your slides and notes (if applicable) into a Word document and creates a link between the files. Therefore, if you update your PowerPoint slides, the Word file will update also. (Unfortunately, the links don’t apply to PowerPoint notes.)

• Select the OK button.

Your PowerPoint file will be pasted into a Word document. This process may take several moments if your PowerPoint file is large.

• If Microsoft Word doesn’t open automatically, select the Word icon in the Windows taskbar.
• Within Word, your slides and notes (if applicable) are placed in a table. Select the table selector to see the table rows and columns, which you can adjust or delete.

For more information about working with tables in Word, please see “ Three Ways to Insert Tables in Microsoft Word .”

How to Update the Link between Your PowerPoint Slides and Your Word Handouts

If you selected Paste Link in step 6 but don’t see updates in your Word handouts after updating the PowerPoint slides, right-click the slide in the Word file and then select Update Link from the shortcut menu.

Continue to add content to your new Word file, and then save and print it as you normally would.

Related Resources

How to Save Shapes and Objects as Images in PowerPoint

How to Convert PDFs to PowerPoint Slides in Adobe Acrobat

How to Insert a Linked PowerPoint Slide in Microsoft Word

Updated November 02, 2021

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How I Quickly Create an Effective Presentation Handout [Template]

The Sinister Role of the Presentation Handout

Here's a bold statement: I believe that the printable presentation handout is the root cause of why audiences around the world are falling asleep during presentation meetings.

Don't believe me? Consider the following:

During my signature presentation myth-busting keynote,  “Get Their Attention” , I expose my audience to the “One Idea Per Slide” philosophy used by renowned presentation experts such as Garr Reynolds, Nancy Duarte, and Guy Kawasaki. The purpose of this is to break the common pattern of packing slides with bullet points.

Why? Because during a live presentation, the human brain is only able to comprehend one idea at a time and quickly loses attention when barraged with tons of bullet points. This inevitably leads to a slide deck that is much more effective for a live presentation, but also, much longer.

There is one question I am reliably asked where I know  my response will raise eyebrows:

“ How do you handle presentation handouts? I can’t send out a 120-slide deck with one word per slide as a presentation handout for the people who weren’t there…”

And they're right. I understand the pain and suffering behind this question all too well. And this question represents a key link in the chain of presentation abuse I've observed working in corporate organizations for over ten years.

Consequently, my audience is never quite ready for my answer, which is:

I never, ever distribute my live presentation slides as a handout after a presentation. EVER.

Cue confused / perturbed stares / pitchforks.

Yes, I know. There are people that didn’t attend the meeting that need to know what went down. And there were people at the meeting who want to review what they learned. You have to send something after the meeting.

I don’t disagree. I just don’t send my live slides as a presentation handout.  I can explain with a brief story.

An Unexpected Presentation Handout Lesson from Seth Godin

When you’re a digital marketer and presentation junkie, watching Seth Godin present to an intimate audience of 100 is as close to a professional religious experience as you can get.

I was gifted such a privilege while attending the 2013 ClickTale Forum. Amongst a stellar speaker lineup, it was Godin the Great who truly stole the show with his musings on the death of mass marketing and the birth of the individualized tribe.

As the iridescent gold dust settled from his talk, I was shocked when they opened it for Q&A. I could not conceive of an elevated enough question to ask this god of the stage.

Someone else believed they did. A young gentleman in the front excitedly raised his hand, summoned the attention of Lord Godin and queried,

“Will you send us your presentation slides?”

Plates crashed, cars screeched to a halt. A nervous titter ran through the audience, and I observed Seth’s curious expression and pregnant pause. He may as well have asked Seth to please pass the jelly.

It was not an unusual question; it’s been asked in every meeting, conference presentation, workshop, and webinar I’ve ever attended.

But I knew in that moment his question had broken The First Rule of Slide Club: You Don’t Ask Seth Godin to Send You His Slides.

Seth’s response was so spot-on that it became a teachable moment for all in the audience. He said something to the effect of, “I don’t send people my slides. Without me, you wouldn’t have any idea what they mean. I am your guide.”

[box type=”download”] Don't forget to download my free Practical + Perfect Presentation Handout Template at the end of this post![/box]

Why I Avoid Emailing My Presentation Slides

Here’s the rationale behind our presentation handout philosophy, pure and simple: when you create one document to serve both your live attendees and your email recipients, you underserve both audiences.

A well-designed live presentation deck needs you to guide the audience through your narrative. But the better you’ve designed your live slides, the less sense they will make to an offline audience.

On the flipside, an overcrowded, text-heavy presentation handout will lose your audience’s attention and sacrifice their live experience.

And for me, the priority is on the live presentation because that is where you truly get to shine as a partner with your teams and clients.

Unfortunately, we, as a (busy / overworked / over capacity) collective corporate community have succumbed to sending a rushed copy of text-heavy presentation slides as standard practice.

This middle-of-the-road report is what presentation deity Garr Reynolds  has coined  “The Slideument”. He explains in his ground-breaking presentation bible, Presentation Zen :

“Slides are slides. Documents are documents. They aren’t the same thing…the slideument isn’t effective, and it isn’t efficient, and it isn’t pretty. Attempting to have slides serve as both projected visuals and as stand-alone handouts makes for bad visuals and bad documentation.” ~ Garr Reynolds

And here is his rationale for the dual-document doctrine:

“If you create a proper handout as a leave-behind for your presentation during the preparation phase, then you will not feel compelled to say everything about your topic in your talk. Preparing a proper document…frees you to focus on what is most important for your particular audience on your particular day.” ~ Garr Reynolds

Fellow presentation guru Nancy Duarte of  Duarte  agrees eloquently in her incredible book slide:ology :

“The audience will either read your slides or listen to you. They will not do both. So ask yourself this: is it more effective if they listen, or more effective if they read?” ~ Nancy Duarte

In fact, Nancy quotes Seth Godin in her book on the peril of presenting slideuments to a live audience:

And there it comes full circle. And it is for these reasons why I send two documents: one tailored for my live show, and one for my no-shows.

Now, I know what you’re thinking:

I know you're buried in mountains of number crunching and unreasonable deadlines. But fear not young grasshopper; I wouldn’t drop this conventional-busting philosophy on you without a practical solution.

By carving out just 30 – 45 minutes of your time to create both deliverables well, your hard work will make inroads in your career path you wouldn’t see otherwise.

Thus, what follows is my step-by-step, unpatented, top-secret, have-to-kill-you-now blueprint for creating a separate presentation handout with less than an hour of rework in PowerPoint.

The Practical Presentation Handout Solution

I know you’re balking at the idea of creating two separate documents. But, I never said you were creating them both from scratch.

That’s why I decided to create a technique for creating both from the same live presentation document.

This approach leverages a technique I use well before the presentation, during the brainstorming and design process. When I’m laying out my content flow in Google Slides (after first brainstorming on Post-It notes), I dictate my talking points into the Notes box of each PowerPoint slide.

I dictate my speaking points in a professional yet approachable manner, like a conversation instead of an academic lecture. Which…is how I like to speak to my audiences, large or small.

I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking dictation software to do this (an INSANELY useful application). But, I also use the microphone on my Evernote app to dictate notes as well.

You can also simply type your speaking notes into each box; just make sure to use a conversational manner. These notes come in very handy when rehearsing my presentation, and for guiding me during my live show if I’m able to use Presenter View.

But the cherry on top is that once I’ve delivered the presentation, my live speaking notes become the narrative guide for my handout recipients.

This is one example of how there’s no wasted work in my process; how I craft my live story in the very beginning becomes the story for those who couldn’t be there. It is an efficient technique that saves me loads of time while walking the two document line.

P.S. – This technique leverages the Notes View of PowerPoint. DO NOT use the Handouts view. The Handouts view is so lousy for handouts, it should be sent to the corner.

Ready? Let’s go!

How To Create The Perfect Presentation Handout

In your PowerPoint presentation, open your Notes Master . The Notes Master controls global formatting for your Notes Pages the same way the Slide Master controls your slides.

The Notes Master is similar to the Slide Master (your time-saving best friend) in that you can change the font family, color and size. You can also adjust the size of the slide on the Notes Pages and change page orientation. 

Here is also where you can add your company logo to every slide to comply with corporate information distribution policies. Here, and only here (NOT on your live slides, please).

However, the Notes Master is quite unlike the Slide Master in that you have few formatting options outside of what I've mentioned. Although you can visibly add shapes and lines, or remove the slide border in the Notes Master, the changes will not show on your Notes Pages. A bit of false advertising, but you can always add those elements to the individual Notes Pages.

Next, enable page numbers if they aren't already. Only in the case of handouts and phone-only presentations do I recommend page numbers.

Now, we’re going to refine every slide into a handout page. Click “Close Master” and go to the first slide, then go to View → Notes Page.

For every slide, format the notes you wrote using bold, numbered lists, and here, bullet points are ok. Make it narrative, for the readers' benefit. Remember, you are not there to guide them, so write your notes in a professional yet conversational manner.

Feel free to remove some slides (like section headers) if a separate printed page won’t provide any value.

Consolidate some slides if you feel a single idea is too sparse for one slide.  Let's say you have three slides using the same chart because you have three separate insights to present. Remember, you want to pace your live audience one idea at a time. Example below:

For the handout, I can consolidate and add number annotations to take them through corresponding points in my notes without using up 3 whole pages. See the Notes Pages view below:

Note: all of the extra images and annotations you add to the Notes Page will only display in Notes view.

When you’re finished, go to Print → Print to PDF → Print Layout → select Notes Pages.

You're done! It will take a few tries to get the final product right, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll never sweat the handout request again!

Download Your Free Presentation Handout Template

Because you're the bees knees, I'm giving you my free Practical + Perfect Presentation Handout Template which will walk you through all of these steps.

Click the image below to grab your copy:

Final Thoughts on Presentation Handouts

I hope this post provided just one solution to this age-old dilemma. I’m by no means saying it’s THE best way; this process is not set-it-and-forget-it and does require some extra time and thought.

But it is a practical, repeatable method that takes advantage of several built-in steps in my trusted presentation handout process.

I’ve experienced excellent results using this method with my clients and teams who were unable to join, without sacrificing the live concert experience for those who were. I've also used this to create conference presentation handouts for session attendees to great effect.

This post was inspired by a recent post on presentation handout philosophy by my friend Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic of Storytelling With Data, where she shares some helpful tips for creating a presentation handout.

And considering how pervasive this dilemma is for practitioners and professional speakers, it is most definitely time for that.

Will you try creating a separate presentation handout?

Photo Credits: Seth Godin

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Creating a Handout to Support and Enhance Your Presentation!

Got a  presentation coming up and need to create a useful handout to complement it? Great idea – but how do you go about it? Many people think handouts are just used in college, but in the business world they can be really useful to reinforce the content of your presentation.

Whether it’s a business meeting or a training course, a handout will underscore your points and support your presentation when done right.  It can be tricky, though, to decide on what to include, the format, how to structure a handout and at what point of the presentation to distribute it.

Before starting to create your handout, you need to think about such things as structure, content and timing . This blog covers everything you need to know!

What is a Handout?

As the name suggests, a handout is any type of document that a speaker hands out to participants during a lecture, presentation, conference or meeting. It allows your audience to get a clear overview of the main points, or to sum up what they have heard afterwards.

A handout isn’t just a summary of slide titles; it can be much more detailed, summing up each individual topic and serving as a reference for core concepts and central insights.

What is a Handout actually for?

Your handout must provide added value . It contains information either covered or referred to in your presentation, allowing you to expand upon what might have only been touched on, and free your slides from clutter.

It can not only summarise your arguments, but can relieve pressure on your slides:  dense facts and figures can be sidelined to the handout, allowing your PowerPoint presentation to be slick and professional.

Handouts offer three main advantages to your audience, depending on when they’re given out:

• The audience can follow what is said during the presentation
• The audience can make their own notes to supplement or clarify for themselves what you have presented
• It consists of an overview of what you have presented, which can then be read by interested parties

A handout not only means that you can create a clean and uncluttered presentation, but allows your audience to understand your points better and remember them afterwards .  It’s also very useful for conveying your arguments to anyone who may have missed the actual presentation.

Tip: So why not just Start with the Handout?

There are obvious advantages both to your audience and yourself to having of a clearly structured handout. Once you know what to do, they can be relatively straightforward to produce.  Of course, this still takes time, and you need to allow for this.

Cobbling together a handout at the last moment is not only stressful, it can be counterproductive, as it undermines your professionalism and never goes unnoticed.

TIP: For a change, why not start your presentation with a handout ? By getting the essentials out of the way first, you can then develop your presentation step by step using the handout as a basis.

The great advantage here is that you not only end up with a detailed handout, but you find a s trong common thread , allowing you to  create an equally “crisp” presentation and navigate your way through it.

Creating a Handout: How to Structure it

As with most things concerning design, the motto “ less is more ” applies very effectively to handouts. In concrete terms, this means: do without whole sentences and make use of key points, abbreviations, arrows and symbols. Ideally, your handout should not consist of more than two A4 pages.

In addition to important information from your presentation, a handout needs to include the following :

• Basic information, probably in the upper left corner of the handout, such as the location of the presentation and the speaker’s name and title
• The date, probably in the upper right corner
• A concise heading – preferably the title of your presentation – centered
• Page numbers in the footer
• A clear structure, based on the individual headings of the presentation
• A consistent page layout using standard, unembellished fonts such as Arial or Times New Roman

The structure of your handout should follow the structure of your presentation, especially if you give out the handout during your presentation. It is best to limit your points to those which support your main argument. Keep the sub-items on the handout as simple as possible and don’t go into too much detail.

To make your handout visually appealing, it helps to think about the font. In addition to using clear, standard fonts , as mentioned above, try to keep the font size in the headers and footers uniform and smaller than in the main part.

TIP: Create an area for the audience to make their own notes on your handout. Either make the right margin wider or leave a few lines of space under your last point.

Handout Content – Short and to the Point

You’ve decided the layout of your handout, entered the key points and created a rough outline. Now it’s time to expand on individual points and create the main content of your handout.

Before doing so, focus on your target audience : how much background knowledge can you assume they have on the topic of your presentation?  Keeping your audience in mind means you tailor the handout to their level, avoiding technical terms where they would distract from your point, including them when you are faced with an audience knowledgeable in a particular discipline. 

It is very important to condense the core statements of your presentation into key points, rather than including a distracting stream of text. This way, you retain your audience’s full attention.

TIP: To arouse your audience’s curiosity right at the beginning of your presentation, you could include an upbeat quote, a proverb or a question. Choose a slightly provocative question to get your audience thinking from the start. You can repeat this verbatim on your presentation handout.

Although the main thing about handouts is that they should be short and concise , they should still be understandable when read outside the context of your presentation.  If this is forgotten, they can’t act as an aid to your audience’s memory afterwards.

Nice-to-have: Additional Information on Your Handout

The main elements of a handout, as covered above, can be supplemented by additional information as you choose. This can even include pictures or graphics. Depending on the topic, a visual element can really clarify and supplement your main argument and tie things together.

As a rule, however, it pays to keep pictures and graphics on your presentation slides because they take up too much space on the handout. The costs and benefits need to be weighed up in each individual case.

It is also a good idea to include contact information on the handout; an e-mail address is the minimum. Depending on the type and purpose of the presentation, you can also provide your business address and telephone number.

If your handout consists of several pages, it helps to put your contact details in the header so that they appear on every page. It can be useful to include a short bibliography in your handout if you’re using quotes or information from other sources. This way you can also link to relevant websites or further reading on your topic that may be interesting for your audience.

TIP : At the end of your handouts you can include questions or food for thought to stimulate discussion. This is particularly useful if you wish to conduct a question and answer session after your presentation.

Tutorial: Creating a Handout with PowerPoint

When time is of the essence, PowerPoint has a feature that allows you to create a handout in minutes. Using the “Create handout” function, you can transfer a PowerPoint presentation to Microsoft Word, adapt it there and optimize it for printing.

With just a few clicks you can choose which presentation slides should appear on the handout. The number of slides can also be easily adjusted and you can cut text or expand it as necessary. You can also decide whether the handout should include a note margin, a header and/or a footer.

Your PowerPoint presentation remains untouched during this whole process. In addition to the option of printing the handout, you can also save it directly in Word as a Word or PDF document – a simple way to make the handout digitally available to your audience.

• Open your presentation in PowerPoint.
• To find the handout master, open the View tab in the top taskbar.

3. In the Master Views submenu you will find, among other things, the Handout Master.

The practical thing about this is that with just a few clicks, you can choose slides from your presentation to form a basis for your handout. It’s also easy to customize headers and footers – to insert your contact details or page numbers, for example.

It’s really easy to choose the size, number and design of your pages here; and PowerPoint also offers the option of exporting the handout you have just created to Microsoft Word. This makes it simple to print out or offer to your audience as a file.

• To do this, click on “File” in the upper task bar and then on “Export” .

2. Select Create handout .

3. In the context menu that opens, you can decide whether your handout should have a margin for adding notes, for example, or other useful options.

When is the Best Time to Distribute Your Handout?

There is no such thing as the perfect time. To help you decide the timing for your particular presentation, it helps to understand how timings influence your audience:

• Handout before presentation : In this case, you have to expect at least some of your audience to have leafed through the handout and read ahead, meaning that at any point they know what’s next. This can sometimes mean that your audience’s concentration is divided, so you need to consider carefully whether this option is appropriate.
• Handout during presentation : Distribute your handout at the point when it is useful as support, either in terms of visual illustration or as a means to emphasize your argument.

Our tip: Share your handout prior to the presentation . It is often the same arguments that are used when it comes to giving out the handout before the presentation: ‘Too restless, the audience rustles with the papers and does not concentrate on the lecture’ and many more. You probably know the arguments.

Nevertheless, our 25 years of experience with PowerPoint shows that these arguments should not be believed. Experience shows that it does not negatively affect the concentration of the audience, but even has positive effects for many to know that they do not have to take notes and that a protocol is available so that they can fully concentrate on the presentation.

In addition, listeners can add other relevant notes directly to the handout. If you withhold the handout until the end of the presentation, you also run the risk of having carried out a kind of unspoken “disciplinary action.”

Conclusion: Don’t go without a handout!

Whichever timing you decide upon, a well-prepared handout can be an effective tool to support your presentation , acting as a guide and memory aid for both you and your audience. Used properly, they can increase the interest and attention of your audience, and allow you to give a clear and professional presentation.

Need help with creating a presentation and a great handout to go with it? We have years of experience in the field of PowerPoint presentations. Just get in touch, and our team can help you create exactly what you need ► presentation agency

If you have any further questions about handouts, or anything to do with PowerPoint, feel free to get in touch at [email protected] . We’re always happy to help!

You might also be interested in the following articles:

• PowerPoint Presenter View
• Insert Notes in PowerPoint

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How to Create a Quick & Easy PowerPoint Handout

5 second powerpoint handouts, instructions.

So… you’ve created an awesome presentation, you’ve practiced your delivery, and the presentation date is just around the corner. If the last thing on your checklist is to create a PowerPoint Presentation Handout , this post is for you! If you find yourself always scratching your head when it comes to creating handouts, bookmark this page right now. Trust us, you will be using it often.

How to create am amazing presentation handouts is one of the most frequently asked questions for the Presentation Geeks. Although Microsoft PowerPoint has an easy way to create a handout, many people make these so infrequently that it’s easy to forget what buttons to click and what options to select.

Before we jump into the 4 easy steps to create and print a PowerPoint handout , let’s talk about why a presenter might want to create a handout, what layout options are available for your slides, and finally, how many slides is optimal for your PowerPoint handouts.

Why would a presenter want to create a PowerPoint Handout?

Too much text.

When a presenter is given the opportunity to deliver a PowerPoint presentation, the time that they are awarded is valuable. The average attention span is only 17 minutes. This means that the presenter only has a limited amount of time to click through their slides and deliver their information before their audience loses interest . 17 minutes translates into a limited number of slides. The average presenter can deliver between 10 to 15 slides within this amount of time. Often, this limits the amount of text you can deliver and expect the audience to retain. In this case, a presenter might opt to print a handout that contains additional content so that the audience can take the handout and read through the additional text at a later date. Audiences like this approach because it allows them to focus on the presenter for a more engaging presentation.

Concepts versus Facts

If your presentation slides are filled with charts and data, it may be unrealistic to expect that the audience will retain this information. People generally remember concepts rather than facts. Audiences like when stories are included in presentations as they are often the most memorable parts of a presentation . Concepts are easy to understand because they don’t require additional context. One example of this is that your audience would sooner remember that a human foot contains many bones (concept) before they remember the number of bones in a human foot (it’s 26 just in case you were wondering). For a presentation that contains a number of facts, whether they are charts, tables, stats, or graphs, these are best included in PowerPoint handouts. It doesn’t mean that you can’t include a stat in your presentation, but you should follow them up in your handouts.

Educational Presentations

If you are delivering an educational presentation , you might want to include a handout that includes enough room for notes. Notes are an important way for people to recall information, and Microsoft PowerPoint includes layout options that contain notes. When printed, this may cause the slides on the handout to be smaller and a little tougher to view, and this should be considered when you select your text font size for your slides. The use of PowerPoint handouts in an educational presentation should strongly be considered when planning your presentation.

Microsoft PowerPoint offers multiple different layout options for your handouts. They include:

Additional options included adding speaker notes, or choosing an outline view to try to condense the PowerPoint slides.

Which Layout should I use for my PowerPoint Handout?

How do you know which layout option to select? it would depend on a few factors.

• Is there a lot of text on your slides? If so, you might want to select 3 or fewer slides per page so that the audience can view each slide without having to squint.
• are you slides full color? If your presentation is full of big beautiful pictures that span across the entire width of your slides, you may want to print 4 or more slides per page to avoid the additional expense when. it comes time to print.
• If you are presenting an educational presentation, the experts at Presentation Geeks recommend choosing. the 3 per page layout to allow your audience room to take notes.

HOT TIP: If you want to go for more of a custom handout, print the first slide as a full-page, and print the remaining slides as multiple per page.

Enough background.. let's find out how to use microsoft powerpoint to create a handout., step 1 - file > print.

To access the handout menu, click the File dropdown, and then use the Print option to begin creating your handout. This is the first step needed to create your presentation handout.

Step 2 - Click Show Details

What makes creating a presentation handouts tricky for most people, is remembering to click the “Show Details” button. Click the Show Details button in. order to unlock a bunch of cool new options you can use, including creating handouts. When you don’t click this button it can seem as though the handout option isn’t available, but using these steps will help you make creating a handout simple and easy.

Step 3 - Layout > Slides

The next step is to choose how many slides you would like on each page. We typically choose 3 slides per page allowing for room for notes, but as mentioned above, not all presentations require the audience to take notes. Click the dropdown menu to view all of the layout options. Using the preview on the left-hand side you may want to click through a few different options in order to find out slide size makes the text clear enough to read.

Step 4 - Save as PDF

The final step in your journey is to click the PDF button, and then select or click Save as PDF.

A Few Final Words

And that’s it! With a click here and there, you can use this article to create a PowerPoint Handout in 5 seconds. Hopefully, this helps you remember the steps required to create a handout the next time you have a big presentation coming up.

If you need a little help or require further customization, such as a personalized cover, full-page charts, or a customized infographic, please don’t hesitate to enquire about our Powerpoint Presentation services.

Author:  Ryan

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Presentation Handouts – DO’s and DON’T’s

As a presentation skills trainer and public speaking coach, I often get asked about how best to use handouts during a presentation. In this post, I’d like to share my responses to the most common questions my students ask on the topic of presentation handouts.

Should I give out presentation handouts, before my talk so that my audience can take notes on it while I speak?

• Some people (a minority in my experience) feel reassured when they have the notes beforehand.
• Some people will tell you that they like to have a copy of the slides so that they can take notes as you go.
• In a training situation, presenters often issue workbooks which, as well as containing course notes, contain exercises to complete and places to note down learner observations.
• You risk losing control of your audience’s  attention. A handout is one more thing that competes for their focus, and unless you are an amazingly engaging speaker, they won’t be able to resist the temptation to read.
• People will be tempted to read ahead and so may discover information that you don’t want them to know until later in the presentation.
• When you ask questions, people may look at your notes for the answers rather than think for themselves

My Advice: Unless you are running a training course, I recommend that you avoid handing out notes until the end of your presentation, but remember to tell people up front that they will get a handout later.

Tip – If you must give out the notes in advance here’s a great tip for minimising distraction. After distributing your handout, encourage your audience to take a moment to flick through them and to reassure themselves that they contain plenty of information. Finally, ask them to put the notes to one side and listen to you

Should I create custom presentation handouts or should I just print off my slides the way most people do?

It’s tempting to put everything you are going to say onto your slides and then print them off as a handout, but I wouldn’t advise it, and here’s why.

Text-dense slides don’t work well as visual aids in a live presentation

• The brain processes text differently to pictures.  Research shows that audiences remember almost 30% less when you use wordy slides. (Ref  Multimedia Learning, Cambridge University Press, Richard E Meyer)
• You cannot control which points people are paying attention to
• You are in competition with your slides for the audience’s attention

Unless you print off your slides full size, the resulting presentation handouts are often unreadable

• Many people use a small font size in PowerPoint to enable them to fit more text on their slides.  Small font sizes make your slides harder to read when projected, and often impossible to read when printed out as a handout. I recommend using a minimum font size of 24 point to ensure readability both on the screen and on printed copies.

My Advice:  Rather than just printing off your slides, create a separate document that summarises your key points and adds more supporting information or references if appropriate. Preparing handouts in this way will take a little longer, but you’ll end up with a much more useful document that your audience will appreciate. Notes produced like this can also be branded and include your contact details, making them a useful extension to your marketing materials.

Tip –  If you want to show a copy of your slides in your notes and still have readable handouts try using the “ Notes Page view ” function within PowerPoint. This feature was originally designed to allow presenters to add speaker notes to your slides, but can also be used to create handouts.  Notes Page view creates a page for each slide with a small image of your slide at the top of the page and beautifully formatted text notes below.

What can you add to this article?

Have you got any alternative solutions or ideas for the thorny topic of presentation handouts?  Share your comments and ideas using the comments box below.

I do believe all of the concepts you’ve introduced in your post. They’re very convincing aand can definitely work.

Nonetheless, the posts are very short for beginners. Could you please extend them a little from next time? Thank you for the post.

I agree with your points about handouts. I also use the Notes pane to create handouts. Just to be more specific, you then print Notes Pages rather than slides when you go to print. And you can also print to a PDF driver. Another option is the Send to Word option, which lets you print slides and notes or slides and lines for taking notes. It’s nice because it creates a Word document that you can modify in any way you want.

Thanks for adding value to this post Ellen.

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Presentations > How you can use AI to help you make the perfect presentation handouts

How you can use AI to help you make the perfect presentation handouts

Enhancing your presentation with a well-crafted handout can significantly improve its impact. A presentation handout, summarizing key information from your slides, not only aids in audience comprehension and engagement but also assists in your preparation.

What is a presentation handout?

Whether you’re creating a lecture, business presentation, or sharing research in a PowerPoint, giving your audience a presentation handout can help them retain the information. A handout can also help them follow along and engage with your presentation. And best of all, creating a presentation handout can help you prepare for the presentation itself— and AI can help you speed up the presentation-handout creation process.

Use AI to help you find examples of presentation handouts

If you’ve never made a presentation handout before, you might not know where to start. It can help to view examples of presentation handouts so you can gain an understanding of what’s expected of you. Use these prompts in your preferred AI platform to help you find presentation handout examples:

• I’m a student creating a presentation on scientific research. Can you show me an example of a presentation handout for a research presentation?
• I’m creating a PowerPoint to share new school rules with my students. Can you help me find a good example of a presentation handout for teachers?
• I’m presenting a business report. Can you help me find a few examples of handouts to go along with a business report presentation?

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Use AI to help you organize your presentation handout

If you’re not sure how to organize your presentation handout, AI can help. You can copy and paste each slide into your favorite AI platform or give it a summary of your presentation. It’s important that you give the AI tool as much context as possible about your presentation to get the best results. Once you’ve given the AI tool enough context about your presentation, try these prompts to organize it:

• What key points from my PowerPoint are essential to include in my presentation handout?
• Based on my presentation, how long does my presentation handout need to be?
• Is there any information in my PowerPoint that doesn’t need to be in my presentation handout?

Ask AI to proofread your presentation handouts

Once you’ve created your presentation handout, you can copy and paste it into your preferred AI platform and ask it to proofread your work. It’s important that your presentation handout is clear and easy to follow. If you want AI to proofread your presentation handout, try these prompts:

• How can I simplify my presentation handout?
• Is my presentation handout clear and easy to read?
• Are there any spelling errors in my presentation?
• How well does my presentation handout follow my presentation?
• Is there any crucial information missing from my presentation handout?
• Can you make sure the style and tone of my presentation handout is professional?

Remember, while AI provides invaluable assistance, a final personal review is essential to catch any details it might miss, such as incorrect contact information. Finally, ensure there’s space for audience notes in your handout and practice your presentation thoroughly for a confident delivery.

When you’re done proofreading your presentation handout, make sure to leave some space in it for your audience to take notes. If you’re printing out your handouts, ensure you have enough copies for your audience. Don’t forget to practice your presentation so that you feel confident.

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How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”

• Guy Kawasaki

Remember: Less is more.

A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some unique elements that make a presentation stand out.

• Fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred for their clean lines, which make them easy to digest at various sizes and distances. Limit the number of font styles to two: one for headings and another for body text, to avoid visual confusion or distractions.
• Colors: Colors can evoke emotions and highlight critical points, but their overuse can lead to a cluttered and confusing presentation. A limited palette of two to three main colors, complemented by a simple background, can help you draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the audience.
• Pictures: Pictures can communicate complex ideas quickly and memorably but choosing the right images is key. Images or pictures should be big (perhaps 20-25% of the page), bold, and have a clear purpose that complements the slide’s text.
• Layout: Don’t overcrowd your slides with too much information. When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences.

As an intern or early career professional, chances are that you’ll be tasked with making or giving a presentation in the near future. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others.

• Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist at Canva and was the former chief evangelist at Apple. Guy is the author of 16 books including Think Remarkable : 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference.

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White House announces $7.4B student debt cancellation to give 'breathing room,' takes dig at House GOP

Biden handouts announced as national debt tops $34.5 trillion.

White House cancels $7.4B in student loan debt for 277K borrowers: 'Breathing room'

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announces that President Biden will cancel $7.4B in debt for 277,000 borrowers across the U.S.

The White House on Friday announced it is canceling an additional $7.4 billion in debt as part of the Biden administration's most recent attempt at widespread student loan forgiveness ahead of the election.

The administration announced the handouts, targeted at an estimated 277,000 borrowers across the country, with the national debt topping $34.5 trillion. 

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT TRACKER: SEE WHAT AMERICAN TAXPAYERS (YOU) OWE IN REAL TIME

President Biden announced a new round of student loan handouts on Friday. (Reuters/Montage / Reuters Photos)

Biden touted his Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, which originated after the Supreme Court struck down Biden's student loan forgiveness plan .

"These 277,000 borrowers are enrolled in my administration’s SAVE Plan, or were approved for relief because of fixes we made to Income-Driven Repayment Plans and Public Service Loan Forgiveness," Biden said in a news release. "From day one of my administration, I promised to fight to ensure higher education is a ticket to the middle class, not a barrier to opportunity."

People rally to demand President Biden use "Plan B" to cancel student loan debt outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 30, 2023. (Paul Morigi/Getty Images for We The 45 Million / Getty Images)

The president promised to "never stop" working to cancel student debt — taking a dig at Republican lawmakers who have opposed altering student loan repayment plans.

‘Using every tool’

"Republican elected officials across 18 states want to prevent their own constituents from benefiting from the SAVE plan," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. "They want to end SAVE and make their constituents' monthly payments go up and keep them under mountains of loan debt with no end in sight.

"The president will continue fighting to give people more breathing room and using every tool at his disposal to help borrowers."

Students study at Biola University in La Mirada, California. (Sunny Tsai / Fox News)

Since President Biden took office, his administration has approved over $54 billion in debt cancellation for 1.4 million borrowers enrolled in programs similar to the SAVE plan.

NEW STUDENT LOAN LAWS CAN HELP BORROWERS MANAGE BETTER IN 2024

Biden has also canceled debt for nearly 900,000 public service workers, 1.3 million borrowers cheated by their schools or borrowers covered by related court settlements, and nearly 550,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability, including many veterans , the White House said in the announcement.

States file lawsuits

The White House announcement comes at the heels of 18 states suing over Biden's student loan plan.

Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Oklahoma and North Dakota joined a growing number of states and filed a complaint against the plan on Tuesday.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey's lawsuit argued that Biden's "SAVE" plan, announced in February, is illegal and would cost American taxpayers $475 billion.

Bailey's lawsuit comes just weeks after Kansas and 10 other states sued the Biden administration over the same plan.

"With the stroke of his pen, Joe Biden is attempting to saddle working Missourians with a half trillion dollars in debt. The United States Constitution makes clear that the President lacks the authority to unilaterally ‘cancel’ student loan debt for millions of Americans without express permission from Congress," Bailey told Fox News Digital.

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"The president does not get to thwart the Constitution when it suits his political agenda. I’m filing suit to halt his embarrassing attempt to buy the 2024 election in direct violation of the law. The Constitution will continue to mean something as long as I’m Attorney General."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This report has been updated to clarify the amount of student debt in the latest cancellation.

Fox News' Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

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Microsoft Pitched OpenAI’s DALL-E as Battlefield Tool for U.S. Military

Any battlefield use of the software would be a dramatic turnaround for OpenAI, which describes its mission as developing AI that can benefit all of humanity.

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Microsoft last year proposed using OpenAI’s mega-popular image generation tool, DALL-E, to help the Department of Defense build software to execute military operations, according to internal presentation materials reviewed by The Intercept. The revelation comes just months after OpenAI silently ended its prohibition against military work.

The Microsoft presentation deck, titled “ Generative AI with DoD Data ,” provides a general breakdown of how the Pentagon can make use of OpenAI’s machine learning tools, including the immensely popular ChatGPT text generator and DALL-E image creator, for tasks ranging from document analysis to machine maintenance. (Microsoft invested $10 billion in the ascendant machine learning startup last year, and the two businesses have become tightly intertwined. In February, The Intercept and other digital news outlets  sued Microsoft and OpenAI  for using their journalism without permission or credit.)

The Microsoft document is drawn from a large cache of materials presented at an October 2023 Department of Defense “AI literacy” training seminar hosted by the U.S. Space Force in Los Angeles. The event included a variety of presentation from machine learning firms, including Microsoft and OpenAI, about what they have to offer the Pentagon.

The publicly accessible files were found on the website of Alethia Labs, a nonprofit consultancy that helps the federal government with technology acquisition, and discovered by journalist Jack Poulson . On Wednesday, Poulson published a broader investigation into the presentation materials. Alethia Labs has worked closely with the Pentagon to help it quickly integrate artificial intelligence tools into its arsenal, and since last year has contracted with the Pentagon’s main AI office. The firm did not respond to a request for comment.

One page of the Microsoft presentation highlights a variety of “common” federal uses for OpenAI, including for defense. One bullet point under “Advanced Computer Vision Training” reads: “Battle Management Systems: Using the DALL-E models to create images to train battle management systems.” Just as it sounds, a battle management system is a command-and-control software suite that provides military leaders with a situational overview of a combat scenario, allowing them to coordinate things like artillery fire, airstrike target identification, and troop movements. The reference to computer vision training suggests artificial images conjured by DALL-E could help Pentagon computers better “see” conditions on the battlefield, a particular boon for finding — and annihilating — targets.

In an emailed statement, Microsoft told The Intercept that while it had pitched the Pentagon on using DALL-E to train its battlefield software, it had not begun doing so. “This is an example of potential use cases that was informed by conversations with customers on the art of the possible with generative AI.” Microsoft, which declined to attribute the remark to anyone at the company, did not explain why a “potential” use case was labeled as a “common” use in its presentation.

OpenAI spokesperson Liz Bourgeous said OpenAI was not involved in the Microsoft pitch and that it had not sold any tools to the Department of Defense. “OpenAI’s policies prohibit the use of our tools to develop or use weapons, injure others or destroy property,” she wrote. “We were not involved in this presentation and have not had conversations with U.S. defense agencies regarding the hypothetical use cases it describes.”

Bourgeous added, “We have no evidence that OpenAI models have been used in this capacity. OpenAI has no partnerships with defense agencies to make use of our API or ChatGPT for such purposes.”

At the time of the presentation, OpenAI’s policies seemingly would have prohibited a military use of DALL-E. Microsoft told The Intercept that if the Pentagon used DALL-E or any other OpenAI tool through a contract with Microsoft, it would be subject to the usage policies of the latter company. Still, any use of OpenAI technology to help the Pentagon more effectively kill and destroy would be a dramatic turnaround for the company, which describes its mission as developing safety-focused artificial intelligence that can benefit all of humanity.

“It’s not possible to build a battle management system in a way that doesn’t, at least indirectly, contribute to civilian harm.”

“It’s not possible to build a battle management system in a way that doesn’t, at least indirectly, contribute to civilian harm,” Brianna Rosen, a visiting fellow at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government who focuses on technology ethics.

Rosen, who worked on the National Security Council during the Obama administration, explained that OpenAI’s technologies could just as easily be used to help people as to harm them, and their use for the latter by any government is a political choice. “Unless firms such as OpenAI have written guarantees from governments they will not use the technology to harm civilians — which still probably would not be legally-binding — I fail to see any way in which companies can state with confidence that the technology will not be used (or misused) in ways that have kinetic effects.”

The presentation document provides no further detail about how exactly battlefield management systems could use DALL-E. The reference to training these systems, however, suggests that DALL-E could be to used to furnish the Pentagon with so-called synthetic training data: artificially created scenes that closely resemble germane, real-world imagery. Military software designed to detect enemy targets on the ground, for instance, could be shown a massive quantity of fake aerial images of landing strips or tank columns generated by DALL-E in order to better recognize such targets in the real world.

Even putting aside ethical objections, the efficacy of such an approach is debatable. “It’s known that a model’s accuracy and ability to process data accurately deteriorates every time it is further trained on AI-generated content,” said Heidy Khlaaf, a machine learning safety engineer who previously contracted with OpenAI. “Dall-E images are far from accurate and do not generate images reflective even close to our physical reality, even if they were to be fine-tuned on inputs of Battlefield management system. These generative image models cannot even accurately generate a correct number of limbs or fingers, how can we rely on them to be accurate with respect to a realistic field presence?”

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In an interview last month with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Capt. M. Xavier Lugo of the U.S. Navy envisioned a military application of synthetic data exactly like the kind DALL-E can crank out, suggesting that faked images could be used to train drones to better see and recognize the world beneath them.

Lugo, mission commander of the Pentagon’s generative AI task force and member of the Department of Defense Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, is listed as a contact at the end of the Microsoft presentation document. The presentation was made by Microsoft employee Nehemiah Kuhns, a “technology specialist” working on the Space Force and Air Force.

The Air Force is currently building the Advanced Battle Management System, its portion of a broader multibillion-dollar Pentagon project called the Joint All-Domain Command and Control, which aims to network together the entire U.S. military for expanded communication across branches, AI-powered data analysis, and, ultimately, an improved capacity to kill. Through JADC2, as the project is known, the Pentagon envisions a near-future in which Air Force drone cameras, Navy warship radar, Army tanks, and Marines on the ground all seamlessly exchange data about the enemy in order to better destroy them.

On April 3, U.S. Central Command revealed it had already begun using elements of JADC2 in the Middle East.

The Department of Defense didn’t answer specific questions about the Microsoft presentation, but spokesperson Tim Gorman told The Intercept that “the [Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office’s] mission is to accelerate the adoption of data, analytics, and AI across DoD. As part of that mission, we lead activities to educate the workforce on data and AI literacy, and how to apply existing and emerging commercial technologies to DoD mission areas.”

While Microsoft has long reaped billions from defense contracts, OpenAI only recently acknowledged it would begin working with the Department of Defense. In response to The Intercept’s January report on OpenAI’s military-industrial about face, the company’s spokesperson Niko Felix said that even under the loosened language, “Our policy does not allow our tools to be used to harm people, develop weapons, for communications surveillance, or to injure others or destroy property.”

“The point is you’re contributing to preparation for warfighting.”

Whether the Pentagon’s use of OpenAI software would entail harm or not might depend on a literal view of how these technologies work, akin to arguments that the company that helps build the gun or trains the shooter is not responsible for where it’s aimed or pulling the trigger. “They may be threading a needle between the use of [generative AI] to create synthetic training data and its use in actual warfighting,” said Lucy Suchman, professor emerita of anthropology of science and technology at Lancaster University. “But that would be a spurious distinction in my view, because the point is you’re contributing to preparation for warfighting.”

Unlike OpenAI, Microsoft has little pretense about forgoing harm in its “responsible AI” document and openly promotes the military use of its machine learning tools .

OpenAI Quietly Deletes Ban on Using ChatGPT for “Military and Warfare”

Following its policy reversal, OpenAI was also quick to emphasize to the public and business press that its collaboration with the military was of a defensive, peaceful nature. In a January interview at Davos responding to The Intercept’s reporting, OpenAI vice president of global affairs Anna Makanju assured panel attendees that the company’s military work was focused on applications like cybersecurity initiatives and veteran suicide prevention, and that the company’s groundbreaking machine learning tools were still forbidden from causing harm or destruction.

Contributing to the development of a battle management system, however, would place OpenAI’s military work far closer to warfare itself. While OpenAI’s claim of avoiding direct harm could be technically true if its software does not directly operate weapons systems, Khlaaf, the machine learning safety engineer, said, its “use in other systems, such as military operation planning or battlefield assessments” would ultimately impact “where weapons are deployed or missions are carried out.”

Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine a battle whose primary purpose isn’t causing bodily harm and property damage. An Air Force press release from March, for example, describes a recent battle management system exercise as delivering “lethality at the speed of data.”

Other materials from the AI literacy seminar series make clear that “harm” is, ultimately, the point. A slide from a welcome presentation given the day before Microsoft’s asks the question, “Why should we care?” The answer: “We have to kill bad guys.” In a nod to the “literacy” aspect of the seminar, the slide adds, “We need to know what we’re talking about… and we don’t yet.”

Update: April 11, 2024 This article was updated to clarify Microsoft’s promotion of its work with the Department of Defense.

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Cries of Sexism Greet a Nike Olympic Reveal

The sporting giant offered a sneak peek at its track and field outfits for Team U.S.A., and an unexpected backlash ensued.

By Vanessa Friedman

Ever since the Norwegian women’s beach handball team turned the fact that they were required to wear teeny-tiny bikini bottoms for competition into a cause célèbre, a quiet revolution has been brewing throughout women’s sports. It’s one that questions received conventions about what female athletes do — or don’t — have to wear to perform at their very best.

It has touched women’s soccer (why white shorts?), gymnastics (why not a unitard rather than a leotard?), field hockey (why a low-cut tank top?) and many more, including running.

So it probably should not have come as a shock to Nike that when it offered a sneak peek of the Team U.S.A. track and field unies during a Nike Air event in Paris celebrating its Air technology on Thursday (which also included looks for other Olympic athletes, like Kenya’s track and field team, France’s basketball team and Korea’s break dancing delegation), they were met with some less-than-enthusiastic reactions.

See, the two uniforms Nike chose to single out on the mannequins included a men’s compression tank top and mid-thigh-length compression shorts and a woman’s bodysuit, cut notably high on the hip. It looked sort of like a sporty version of a 1980s workout leotard. As it was displayed, the bodysuit seemed as if it would demand some complicated intimate grooming.

Citius Mag , which focuses on running news, posted a photo of the uniforms on Instagram, and many of its followers were not amused.

“What man designed the woman’s cut?” wrote one.

“I hope U.S.A.T.F. is paying for the bikini waxes,” wrote another. So went most of the more than 1,900 comments.

The running comedian Laura Green posted an Instagram reel in which she pretended to be trying on the look (“We’re feeling pretty, um, breezy,” she said) and checking out the rest of the athlete’s kit bag, which turned out to include hair spray, lip gloss and a “hysterectomy kit,” so the women would not have to worry about periods.

When asked, Nike did not address the brouhaha directly, but according to John Hoke, the chief innovation officer, the woman’s bodysuit and the man’s shorts and top are only two of the options Nike will have for its Olympic runners. There are “nearly 50 unique pieces across men’s and women’s and a dozen competition styles fine-tuned for specific events,” Mr. Hoke said.

Women will be able to opt for compression shorts, a crop top or tank and a bodysuit with shorts rather than bikini bottoms. The full slate of looks was not on hand in Paris but more will be revealed next week at the U.S. Olympic Committee media summit in New York. The Paris reveal was meant to be a teaser.

Mr. Hoke also pointed out that Nike consults with a large number of athletes at every stage of the uniform design. Its track and field roster includes Sha’Carri Richardson, who happened to be wearing the compression shorts during the Paris presentation, and Athing Mu. And there are certainly runners who like the high-cut brief. (The British Olympic sprinter Dina Asher-Smith , another Nike athlete, told The New York Times last summer that while she opts to run in briefs, she also leans toward a leotard style, rather than a two-piece.)

What Nike missed, however, was that in choosing those two looks as the primary preview for Team U.S.A., rather than, say, the matching shorts and tanks that will be also available, it shored up a longstanding inequity in sports — one that puts the body of a female athlete on display in a way it does not for the male athlete.

“Why are we presenting this sexualized outfit as the standard of excellence?” said Lauren Fleshman, a U.S. national champion distance runner and the author of “Good for a Girl.” “In part because we think that’s what nets us the most financial gain from sponsors or NIL opportunities, most of which are handed out by powerful men or people looking at it through a male gaze. But women are breaking records with ratings in sports where you don’t have to wear essentially a bathing suit to perform.”

The problem such imagery creates is twofold. When Nike chose to reveal the high-cut bodysuit as the first Olympics outfit, purposefully or not, the implication for anyone watching is that “this is what excellence looks like,” Ms. Fleshman said.

That perception filters down to young athletes and becomes the model girls think they have to adopt, often at a developmental stage when their relationships with their bodies are particularly fraught.

And more broadly, given the current political debate around adjudicating women’s bodies, it reinforces the idea that they are public property.

Still, Ms. Fleshman said, “I’m glad Nike put this image out as the crown jewel of Olympic Team design,” because it may act as the catalyst for another conversation that has been long overdue.

“If you showed this outfit to someone from the W.N.B.A. or women’s soccer, they would laugh in your face,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to normalize it for track and field anymore. Time’s up on that.”

Vanessa Friedman has been the fashion director and chief fashion critic for The Times since 2014. More about Vanessa Friedman