Providing handouts to an audience often is necessary and desirable. At the same time, doing so (in our opinion) has done more to destroy the effectiveness of digital communication than any other factor. We'll look at why, and then discuss practices that are appropriate with interactive delivery.

The vast majority of PowerPoint users, when providing a handout, use the software's handout functionality to print the slides that will be shown. This practice encourages speakers to place a great deal of text on slides, so that audience members will have the necessary facts and details later. The result: a horrendously uninteresting and boring visual performance. Creating handouts from slides also encourages speakers to keep all of their content in a single linear slide show. It's easier to print that way. This practice tends to discourage the use of helpful animations, hidden content, video, audio, and other media—because these items don't print well. In short, we strongly recommend that you DO NOT print slides as handouts, period. If the audience needs a handout, then give them a real HANDOUT, a one- to four-page summary that has been condensed appropriately, with added visuals.

Aspire training materials have additional suggestions as well, such as recording performances (very easy). When presenting relationally, either make up a separate, real handout with key facts, references, and so forth, or put together a short summary slide show (linear) from key slides that will be covered. If using the latter strategy, you might consider putting detail in the notes section and printing the slide show with notes.