Jan's PowerPoint Basics: Print Dialog

Step-by-Step:Print Dialog

What you will learn:

to open the Print dialog
to select a printer
to select slides to print
to select a print layout from the dialog
to configure printer with the printer's Document Properties dialog
to print only selected slides

Start with: , issues.ppt from previous lesson

The Print Dialog is packed with choices! It's great to have such flexibility, but it can be confusing, too.

From your Class disk, open issues.ppt. This is the presentation you modified while learning about all the views in PowerPoint. As promised, you will now get to print part of this presentation.

This file may be showing still in the Recent Files list at the bottom of your File menu, in the New Presentation task pane, or in the Getting Started task pane. If it is not, click the Open button and navigate to where you saved this presentation earlier.

Dialog: Header and Footer

From the menu select View | Header and Footer... The Header and Footer dialog appears with the Slides tab showing.
Click the Notes and Handouts tab.
Type in your name in the Header text box.
Click on OK.

Print Dialog: Printer

You may have only one printer or you may have several to choose from.

From the menu select File | Print...
The Print dialog appears with the default printer selected.
Click on the arrow at the right of the Printer list. A list of all installed "printers" appears.

Don't change the printer. Just view your choices.
For the curious - In the illustration the list shows two copies of the same printer. The (Copy 1) was created when I changed which USB port that the printer was plugged into. Who knew!?

Print Dialog: Range & Copies

In the middle section of the dialog you choose what parts of the presentation to print and how many copies.

Range: The default is All.

All
Current slide only
Selection - only selected slides. (You cannot print part of a slide.)
Custom Show - a show based on just part of the presentation
Slides - only the slides listed by number or range, for example 1-3, 7, 10-12 would print slides 1,2,3,7,10,11,12.

Copies: default is 1

Collate: Important when you want several copies and the presentation will take several pages to print. Collating will print out one whole copy before starting over with page 1 again.

Click on the radio button for Slides to select it.
In the Slides: box, type 1, 3-5.
This will print slides 1, 3, 4, and 5.
Leave the number of copies at 1. For this print job the Collate choice won't matter. You are only going to have 1 page to print.

Dialog: Print - Range and Copies sections

Print Dialog: Bottom section

The choices in the bottom section of the Print dialog will be familiar if you are using PowerPoint 2002/03. They were on the Print Preview toolbar in the Print what: control box and the Options menu.

Select Handouts in the Print what: box.
In the Handouts section, set Slides per page to 4 and Order to Horizontal.
Click on the Frame slides checkbox to check it.
If you have a color printer, choose Color. If your printer won't do color, choose Grayscale.

The other choices are not important for this print-out. You did not write any comments!

Dialog: Print - bottom section

Print Dialog: Printer Document Properties

Your printer's Document Properties dialog may have more or fewer choices than the illustrations. These vary with manufacturer and model for the printer. You may need to consult with your instructor or network administrator about which printer to use and what choices to make. For example, are you allowed to print in color on a classroom printer?

Changes made in the Document Properties dialog are remembered by the printer. The next document you create or open with the same program will use these same Properties settings.

Click on the Properties button to open the dialog of Document Properties for your default printer. Different printers will show different tabs and have different choices.
View all of the choices on all of the tabs. Use the Dialog Help tool to find out about choices you are not familiar with.

[Click the Dialog Help button. The mouse pointer changes shape to an arrow with a question mark. Click on the dialog item that you want to know about]
Make the following choices, if they exist for your printer:
- Orientation: Portrait
- Page Order (depending on your printer type):
  - Laser printer: Select Front to Back
  - Ink jet printer: Select Back to Front.
  Why the difference? It's because of the way the pages come out of the printer. In a laser printer the pages come out face down. So the pages in a document with multiple pages are stacked correctly.
  
  An ink jet printer sends the pages out face up. The pages will be stacked in reverse order. Not what you want! By changing the order in which the pages are printed, you can avoid the reshuffle. However, it may slow your printer down on a large document.
  
  You are only printing 1 page, so your choice won't really matter this time.
- Media: Plain Paper
  
  It is important to choose the correct Media. You choice changes how much ink or toner is used. Too much or too little makes for a bad result.
  Photos print much better on photo paper. Photo paper produced by your printer's manufacturer will usually give you better results. Really. It does make a difference!
- Quality settings: Normal
  
  Draft quality is good for the first printing of a document that you expect to edit. Don't use Best quality until you are sure you are finished editing. It will be much slower, especially if there are graphics or photos in the document. For some purposes you will not notice a difference between Normal and Best, but for photos you will.
- Color: Color, if you are allowed. Otherwise, Black and White
Click on OK to close the Document Properties dialog. Your choices are saved and you are back to the Print dialog.

Print Preview again!

It is usually a good idea to preview your work again after you have changed printer settings. The mouse may have gotten away from you without your noticing!

Click on the Preview button at the bottom of the Print dialog. The Print dialog vanishes and the Print Preview window appears. There is only one page because you are not printing all of the slides.
Check to be sure that you are printing the right things and that your header is there.
Check the spelling and style.

Print Selected Slides

Click the Print button on the toolbar to open the Print dialog again.
Click on OK to start printing and close the Print dialog. At last!!
Click the Save button to save your changes. [issues.ppt]

How to handle a full Class disk
Close the presentation.

Until you get some experience in printing presentations, it would be nice to have a checklist of all these things that you might want to change. Got one! Pre-Print Checklist