I recently came across an article at Teach 42 about the dilemna of what to do if you wish to distribute your slides on paper, effectively making a "mute" presentation where the reader will not have the advantage of the speaker to elucidate the points on each slide.

There are various arguments that slides should have enough detail to able to be followed without the speaker, however I believe that this comes at a significant cost to the audience members who actually attended the presentation.  It must be noted that PowerOint or the like were, and still are, designed to be used for a presentation, not as a document generator.

Nonetheless, practicality sometimes demand that something be given left with audience members to remind them of the presentation content.  The correct approach, however, needs to addressed on 2 fronts:


1.  If you are a commercial organisation you should consider developing leave behind material separate from the slides.  A document should be prepared that will reinforce and, if necessary expand upon, the material in the slides.

2.  If the situation is one where the presentation doesnt warrant the expense of a separate document (read that as the financial return will not be sufficient) then distribute the slides by printing the Notes Pages function and add sufficient detail in the notes section to explain each point.  The process of writing these notes will add significantly to your preparedness for the presentation itself.

Only when you are clear that the slides are there to assist the audience understand and absorb the content of the presentation will you ever be a professional, highly respected presenter.  Every time you do something as a trade off in this area you sell the audience short.

Presentation software is for presentations, not document publication.  Would you write a letter in Excel?  Would you create a spreadsheet in Publisher?  Respect the time & attention your audience gives you and design a presentation SOLELY for them and create appropriate material, using appropriate software, for other occassions.