You may create the best presentation in the world, but what happens after the presentation has been delivered? Don't you want to provide the
information you presented in a document that you can distribute to attendees, or even send them a recap via email? Handouts are meant for such
occasions, and PowerPoint lets you create some amazing handouts from your slides, that can also contain extra notes that were not visible on the
slides. In this tutorial, we will explore an amazing option that creates handouts for PowerPoint presentations in
Microsoft Word.
Follow these steps in PowerPoint 2013 to create handouts in Word:
- Make sure your individual slides have notes within the Notes Pane.
Save your presentation. Then, access the File menu to bring up
Backstage view. Select the Export tab to
bring up the options you see in Figure 1, below. Click the Create Handouts option, highlighted in
red within Figure 1. You will now see the Create Handouts button, highlighted in
blue within Figure 1. Click this button.
Figure 1: Create Handouts button
- This will bring up the Send to Microsoft Word dialog box that you can see in Figure 2, below.
Figure 2: Send to Microsoft Word dialog box
We will now explore all options available within this dialog box, as marked in Figure 2:
A. Notes next to slides
Places your slide notes next to a slide thumbnail, as shown in Figure 3, below. Depending upon, the length of your notes, 1 to 3
slides are placed on each Handout page.
Figure 3: Notes next to slides
B. Blank lines next to slides
Places some blank lines next to a slide thumbnail, as shown in Figure 4, below. The blank
lines will allow recipients and attendees to jot down some of their own notes, as needed. Three slide thumbnails with blank lines are placed on each
Handout page.
Figure 4: Blank lines next to slides
C. Notes below slides
Places a single large slide thumbnail and related slide notes beneath the thumbnail, as shown in
Figure 5, below. One slide is shown in each Handout page.
Figure 5: Notes below slides
D. Blank lines below slides
Places a single large slide thumbnail and blank lines beneath the thumbnail, as shown in
Figure 6, below. One slide is shown in each Handout page.
Figure 6: Blank lines below slides
E. Outlines only
Places the outline of the slides, do note that outlines only include textual content from the Title and Content placeholders. Also, the fonts used
in the slides are used in Microsoft Word too. You may want to change fonts in Word, especially if you have a fancy-looking font, as shown in
Figure 7, below.
Figure 7: Outlines only
F. Add slides to Microsoft Word document
You see two radio buttons within this section, and only one of these can be selected.
Paste: Creates the outlines in Microsoft Word as a one-time exercise. Changes in your PowerPoint slides are not reflected in the
Handout Word document.
Paste link: Creates the outlines in Microsoft Word as a linked document. Changes in your PowerPoint slides are reflected in the
Handout Word document.
Once the Handout document loads in Word, you must save it, ideally within the same folder as the PowerPoint presentation, as explained in our
Guidelines: Using Excel and PowerPoint
Together tutorial. Although the linked article pertains to using PowerPoint and Excel together, the same concepts also work when you use
PowerPoint and Word together.
See Also:
Exporting Word Handouts in PowerPoint 2016 for Windows
Exporting Word Handouts in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows
