What should a handout look like

That extra information can be in the handout. 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. The handout may be passed onto people who were not at your presentation.

Make sure that it will make sense to them. 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.

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:. 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.

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. 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.

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.

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. I ask for your email address to deliver the course to you and so that I can keep on supporting and encouraging you with tips, ideas and inspiration. I will also let you know when my group program is open for enrolment.

I will keep your email safe and you can unsubscribe at any time. Best-selling author and speaker Seth Godin never provides slides to his audiences. I am your guide. If you are dead set on using your slide deck as your handout, keep in mind these PowerPoint best practices for handouts:.

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.

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. 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. My goal for this post is to provide you with the best information available for creating effective handouts for your presentations. Did you find this post valuable? Do you agree with these best practices for handouts?

Do you have any more wisdom about handouts to add? Please share your thoughts in a comment below! 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.

Her website is CarmaSpence. Table of Contents What Is a Handout? Why Use Handouts? What Should Be Included in a Handout? It is easy to forget to implement all the good advice you just read. You could create your own checklist of best practices for handouts using this post. But, I never said you were creating them both from scratch. This approach leverages a technique I use well before the presentation, during the brainstorming and design process. 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. 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. It is an efficient technique that saves me loads of time while walking the two document line. The Handouts view is so lousy for handouts, it should be sent to the corner.

In your PowerPoint presentation, open your Notes Master. 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. 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. Only in the case of handouts and phone-only presentations do I recommend page numbers. For every slide, format the notes you wrote using bold, numbered lists, and here, bullet points are ok. Remember, you are not there to guide them, so write your notes in a professional yet conversational manner.

Consolidate some slides if you feel a single idea is too sparse for one slide. Remember, you want to pace your live audience one idea at a time.