How to Create and Print PowerPoint Presentation Handout Notes

So, you’ve designed a stunning presentation and you’ve perfected your delivery. The only thing that’s left to do on your list is to create PowerPoint presentation handout notes for your audience. 

But you might be wondering what’s the purpose of PowerPoint handout notes and why you should bother creating them.

If that’s the case, you’re in the right place. In this tutorial, we’ll explain why you should create PowerPoint handout notes for your presentation and how to create them. 

What Are PowerPoint Presentation Handout Notes?

PowerPoint presentation handout notes are nothing more than a printed version of your presentation slides. They give your audience something tangible from your presentation that they can easily refer to later on. They can also include space for notes so your audience can jot down any information they want to remember from your presentation. 

Why Create PowerPoint Handout Notes For Your Presentation

There are three reasons why you should create PowerPoint handout notes to go with your presentation: 

1. There’s Too Much Information

If you've got a presentation packed with information, it can be tricky to keep your audience’s attention. During a typical presentation, you've got a limited amount of time if you want to make sure you’re covering all the points on your slide. So, it’s crucial to deliver the important information before your audience loses their attention. 

A presentation handout allows you to reduce the amount of text on each slide and add that extra information to the handout. Your audience can then refer to it and read through it at a later date.

2. To Further Explain or Summarize Data 

Like the point above, if you've got a lot of charts and graphs it can be difficult to remember all that information. Your audience is more likely to remember that your company made a bigger profit in a particular country than the exact figure.

You can give your audience a PowerPoint presentation handout that summarizes key findings and data to make it easy to reference later on. This way, they can reuse that data whenever they need as well as use it to make strategic decisions. 

3. As Extra Educational or Reference Materials

If your presentation is more educational in nature, creating PowerPoint presentation handout notes is even more important. They allow your audience to take away notes that go along with your presentation. This helps them retain important information.

Luckily, PowerPoint makes it easy to create handout notes that have ample space for note taking. 

Find Your Own Great PowerPoint Template on Elements

If you’re looking for the best PowerPoint templates to create presentation handout notes, Envato Elements is the best place to start. Envato Elements is a subscription-based marketplace with a compelling offer. 

For a low monthly price, you get access to thousands of PowerPoint templates as well as other creative assets. It includes:

• stock photos


• icons


• web templates


• and more

Download as many items as you need for your creative project. Then, customize them to your needs. 

Envato Elements’ offer is hard to beat. But if you don’t need creative assets regularly, stop by GraphicRiver. It's a part of Envato Market, a suite of marketplaces that cater to various creative needs. This is the best marketplaces to buy individual PowerPoint templates and other design assets.

How to Create a PowerPoint Presentation Handout Notes

As mentioned earlier, creating PowerPoint presentation handout notes isn't as difficult as it seems. For this tutorial, we'll be working with the Enjoy PowerPoint Template from Envato Elements. Download it now to follow along with the tutorial, or use your own template choice.

Once you’re familiar with PowerPoint’s printing and layout options, creating PowerPoint handout notes is easy. Let’s take a look at how you can access those settings:

1. Open Print Dialog

First, open your presentation in PowerPoint and click on File > Print. This is the first step in creating your presentation handout. 

2. Select Show Details

Once the Print dialog opens up, you’ll need to click on the Show Details button. This lets you access all the extra printing and layout options we’ve mentioned above.

3. Choose Your Slide Layout

In this new window that opens up, in the PowerPoint section, click the drop-down menu next to Layout. Here, select which layout you want to use for your handout notes. You can also configure a slew of other printing options.

As you can see from the screenshot below, you can choose the number of copies you want to make and set your paper size. 

The most important setting here is under PowerPoint > Layout. Here, you can choose between several different layout options: 

• 1 per page


• 2 per page


• 3 per page


• 4 per page


• 6 per page


• 9 per page

You can also opt to include speaker notes, or choose an outline view to try to condense the PowerPoint slides. Other settings include:

• orientation


• whether you want to print the slides in color or black and white


• printing scale


• adding header and footer to slides


• handout notes 

4. Save as PDF or Print

When you’re done setting up your handout notes, you can print them out immediately. Or, you can save the file as PDF and let your audience print the handout notes before your presentation. 

Decide Which Layout and Printing Options to Use for PowerPoint Handout Notes

Microsoft PowerPoint offers several layout options. So, you might wonder which option to choose. There isn’t a right or wrong answer here. It depends on your personal preferences as well as a couple of other factors: 

• 
  How much content you've got in your presentation. If it’s a long presentation with lots of content, three slides per page saves you paper in the long run while still leaving enough room for notes. 


• 
  If you've got a lot of images. Printing out handout notes in color might burn through your ink quickly, not to mention it might be more expensive. Using four slides per page might be a great choice here.

5 Awesome PowerPoint Templates From Envato Elements and Envato Market

Now that you know why and how to create PowerPoint presentation handout notes, let’s take a look at some of the best-selling PowerPoint templates. These awesome PowerPoint templates from Envato Elements and Envato Market will serve as a beautiful starting point for your presentation:

1. 44 Clean Presentation

As the name implies, the 44 Clean Presentation offers 44 unique slides. The slides have a gorgeous and clean design. This ensures the content of your presentation stands out. This template is animated and can be used for any type of presentation. It was designed in both widescreen and standard resolutions for maximum compatibility. 

2. Novate PowerPoint Presentation Template

If you’re looking for an elegant and stylish PowerPoint presentation template, the Novate template is a great fit. It comes with more than 50 unique slides in widescreen resolution. It also has image placeholders so you can quickly replace the images with your content. Besides that, the template contains editable world maps and custom icons to spice up your presentations. 

3. Minimal Maska

Here’s a minimal, black and white PowerPoint presentation template. It would work well for any type of presentation thanks to its minimal design. The template includes 35+ unique slides based on master slides. This means the template and the slides are easy to customize and edit. You’ll also find drag and drop image placeholders, editable charts, and slides designed in widescreen resolution.

4. Bakun – Business PowerPoint Template

The Bakun PowerPoint presentation template is best suited for business presentations. It's got a modern and bold design. The template includes 39 professionally designed slides based on master slides. You’ll also get image placeholders and vector icons. The template was designed in widescreen resolution. 

5. Corporate Business PowerPoint Presentation

This corporate business PowerPoint template has a modern, clean, and professional design. The template comes with 290 unique slides, including regular slides, infographic slides, numbers slides, and more. It was designed in widescreen resolution and includes drag and drop image placeholders as well as a dark and a light version.

5 Quick Tips for Creating and Printing PowerPoint Handout Notes

Now that you know how to create PowerPoint handout notes, here are five quick tips to keep in mind and use. These tips will help you create handout notes that are useful and look great: 

1. Prepare the Handouts in Advance

The most important advice is to prepare your PowerPoint presentation handout notes in advance.

Set aside some time for preparing the handout notes during your presentation planning process to ensure they're set up correctly. 

2. Make Sure They've Got a Professional Design

It goes without saying your presentation handout notes should have a professional design. The easiest way to ensure this is to use a professional PowerPoint template as your starting point. 

Luckily, there are thousands of professional PowerPoint templates on Envato Elements that you can use for any type of presentation. 

3. Include References

Consider including an extra sheet with your handout notes that includes links to reference materials. This is a great way to make sure your audience has access to more information. If your presentation includes links to research materials, your audience can easily look it up later on if they’re interested in learning more about a particular idea or topic. 

4. Distribute Your Handout Notes at the Beginning of Your Presentation

Don’t wait until the end of your presentation to distribute your presentation handout notes. Waiting until the end defeats the purpose of creating the handout notes for note taking.

So, make sure you pass out the notes at the beginning of your presentation. This makes it easy for your audience to follow along and ensures they won’t lose interest in your presentation. 

5. Consider Adding Your Contact Information

Finally, consider adding your contact information at the end of your handout notes. This makes it easy for people to reach out to you if they've got any questions about your presentation or any topics you’ve covered. 

Create and Print Amazing PowerPoint Presentation Handout Notes Today

PowerPoint presentation handout notes help both you as the presenter as well as your audience. Handout notes allow you to keep the content on your slides minimal and at the same time allow your audience to take notes about the presentation. 

As you can see, creating and printing amazing PowerPoint presentation handout notes isn't hard. Once you know where to start and how to adjust all the settings, it’s an easy process. 

If you’re still in the beginning stages of working on your presentation, you’ll need a solid PowerPoint template to use as a starting point first.

Visit Envato Elements and take a look at the top PowerPoint presentation templates. Or stop by Envato Market to find the perfect PowerPoint template for your presentation.