Powerpoint default printing settings
sultan
I work for lab support at a large university.
We are having problems with many of the students who
want to print out powerpoint presentations from their
professors. They download the 40 (or 50, or 100)
slide presentation, and then want to print it out.
When they go to FILE -> PRINT, and the print manager
defaults to printing "SLIDES" which prints 1 slide
per page. This is unnecessary, and wastes a lot of
paper, toner, and time.
What we would like is to set a default of printing
"HANDOUTS" and 3 or 6 slides per page.
I have scoured the microsoft knowledge base, as well
as the web, and I can't see any capabilities to change
this default.
Does anyone have any ideas, or can point me to
some better references?
Thank you.
-shane dunlap
please remove "nospam" from the reply address.
+=================================+
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Steve Rindsberg
Try going to Tools, Options, Print tab and setting the presentation to use
the specific settings you want.
These settings, or at least some of them, seem to travel with the
presentation, and are not specific to a user's machine.
--
Steve Rindsberg, PowerPoint MVP
PPT FAQ - http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq
RnR PPTools - http://www.rdpslides.com/pptools
ZAP! for service bureaus - http://www.rdpslides.com/zap
sultan <sul...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:39F646B9...@uwm.edu...
shane dunlap
I understand that you can CHOOSE to print handouts.
That's not the problem.
The problem is that the average computer IQ of our
lab users is equivalent to that of a 3 week old
halloween pumpkin. They just want to print out the
notes from their classes, and they just assume that
the computer will KNOW what type of format they want
to print. They click on the print button, and by
default, SLIDES get printed. The user doesn't even
know this until they go and wait in line at the printer
and collect their output, which is a stack of 100 pages,
1 slide per page. (It's quite an accomplishment for most
users when they're even able to download the presentation
from the prof's web site without assistance...)
What we're looking for is to change the *DEFAULT* print
setting to print HANDOUTS. IE, a user clicks on
FILE -> PRINT then hits the print button **without changing
any other settings** and PowerPoint prints out 6 slides per
page by default, and the user has to *TAKE* action to print
out 3 slides per page, or handouts.
Is it possible to make 6 slides per page the **DEFAULT**??
thanx.
-shane
Joan wrote:
-
- If you choose File/Print then at the bottom of the box you will see
- Print What with a list of options such as Slides, Handouts, Note
- pages. Just click on Handouts (you have a choice of 2, 3 or 6 slides
- per page) and it will print the slides as handouts.
-
- On Tue, 24 Oct 2000 11:16:31 -0500, shane dunlap <jsdu...@uwm.edu>
- wrote:
-
- >I don't see a newsgroup for PowerPoint problems, so
- >I was hoping that someone here would help me.
- >If there is a PowerPoint newsgroup, could someone
- >point me to it? Thanx.
- >
- >I work for lab support at a large university.
- >We are having problems with many of the students who
- >want to print out powerpoint presentations from their
- >professors. They download the 40 (or 50, or 100)
- >slide presentation, and then want to print it out.
- >When they go to FILE -> PRINT, and the print manager
- >defaults to printing "SLIDES" which prints 1 slide
- >per page. This is unnecessary, and wastes a lot of
- >paper, toner, and time.
- >
- >What we would like is to set a default of printing
- >"HANDOUTS" and 3 or 6 slides per page.
- >
- >I have scoured the microsoft knowledge base, as well
- >as the web, and I can't see any capabilities to change
- >this default.
- >
- >Does anyone have any ideas, or can point me to
- >some better references?
- >
- >Thank you.
- >
- >-shane dunlap
- >
- >please remove "nospam" from the reply address.
Steve Rindsberg
I'll give it another shot. Please do read it a bit more carefully this
time.
The person who saves the presentation (the prof, presumably) should go to
Tools, Options, choose the Print tab and set the options there to:
- Use the following default print settings
- Handouts (6 slides per page)
- Whatever options they like
THEN save the presentation.
If someone else opens the presentation and clicks the print button, it will
print 6-up handouts by default.
If you've tried that and it doesn't work for some reason, please say so.
The only alternative I'm aware of is to write a VBA add-in that removes the
normal print buttons and menu options and substitutes those of your own
devising. A good bit of work, as you might imagine.
--
Steve Rindsberg, PowerPoint MVP
PPT FAQ - http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq
RnR PPTools - http://www.rdpslides.com/pptools
ZAP! for service bureaus - http://www.rdpslides.com/zap
shane dunlap <jsdu...@uwm.edu> wrote in message
news:39F73CC6...@uwm.edu...
Chris & Steph
> Look. I really don't need the shouting or the condescension.
Hear! Hear!
Why are your students printing out these millions of PowerPoint paper
copies? Can't you just photocopy the notes pages and give them to your
students? Regards, Chris Littler
shane dunlap
it was not intended as such. i was just trying
to get my point across.
we've considered changing the base template for
the "blank presentation", and have that set to
3 slides per page, which would be great for new
presentations, but it's the professors who are
making the handouts, and putting them on their
web site, so the main source of the problem
wouldn't be affected. and we don't have access
to get this blank template out to the computers
in the profs' offices. and going machine to machine
is out of the question...
as for photocopying the notes...that would be more
work for the profs, which, of course, is out of the
question. we've got 22,000 students, and probably
over 1,000 profs, and getting them to conform on
anything is just about impossible, much less something
that would require more work.
we kinda figured that this was impossible, but
i wanted to check with someone who knew more than
i before we gave up all hope.
again, sincerest appologies for any misunderstandings.
i appreciate the advice. i had hoped that microsoft
had implemented something to change the defaults, but
i guess not.
if there are any other suggestions, i'd be happy to
entertain them.
thanx for your time.
-shane
--
Steve Rindsberg
> appologies for the interpreted shouting.
Accepted, and thanks for offering them.
A bike rider, huh? I knew you had to be an OK person. ;-)
Moving along, then ...
> we've considered changing the base template for
> the "blank presentation", and have that set to
> 3 slides per page, which would be great for new
> presentations,
FWIW, that will work. New presentations based on a POT with the printing
options set will take on the same default options. But as you say:
>but it's the professors who are
> making the handouts,
which leaves you in the position of herding cats, doesn't it?
That's a problem.
And I don't suppose it'd be acceptable to whack the offending students over
the head with 100 pages of rolled up wasted printouts? No. I guess not.
Pity.
Do you have any programmer-types you can call on for help with this? As I
mentioned, it'd be a major pain to replace all of PPT's print features with
your own version, but it wouldn't be that awful a job to do an add-in that
ditches PPT's File, Print command and the print icon on the toolbar and
replace it with another that automatically prints 3-ups, 6-ups or whatever.
Students would still be able to press Ctrl+P to get the normal PPT print
dialog - I don't know of any way to get around that one.
If you use PS printers, you could also conceivably do something like this:
Set the student computers up to print to file rather than directly to the
printer.
All output PS files would be directed to a single network directory
A program on the server or any other computer with access to that directory
continually scans the directory looking for new PS files.
When it finds one, it reads and parses the last few lines in the PS file to
determine the number of pages contained in the file. This isn't especially
difficult to do and would be quite fast.
If it finds that the number of pages in the file is under some pre-set
limit, it passes the file on to the print queue for printing. If the file
contains too many pages, the program deletes it and instead creates a simple
one-page PS file that prints out the name of the original (too large) file
and an explanation of why it didn't print (and suggestions on what to do
with it).
==
Another thought:
If you have Acrobat installed, set the default printer driver to Acrobat and
set Acrobat up to automatically display the results. Then the drill would
be:
Student hits the print button, thinks later.
Acrobat churns through the resulting print file, produces PDF
Acrobat auto-displays the PDF in the student's face
Student sees PDF, thinks (with a little luck) "Whoa. Didn't meant to do
THAT."
And reprints again with more appropriate options. This time the results are
expected, so student can then print from Acrobat.
Or am I being too naive? ;-)
===
Or another:
Again, this only works if you're using PS printers.
Set the default driver to the Adobe PS driver for the printer.
Set it up to print 2/3/6/whatever pages per sheet.
Anything that gets printed comes out n-up that way.
It's simple enough to override this when necessary. And just non-obvious
enough that people who insist on just hitting the Print icon will never work
it out.
Y'know, I think this might be the ticket.
Steve O.
all use PowerPoint. I think the simplest solution is the first one
offered. Get the staff to go into their presentations and change the
defaults. Send a blanket email to all staff with step by step
instructions for existing presentations and how to create new ones. Get
their attention, threaten their tenure, threaten their computer
privileges. Go to the president of the university with cost
comparisons, it's not hard to come up with cost *estimates*. Make a lot
of verbal noise. Most people will get it. The ones that don't wouldn't
under any other solution either.
There are no offending students here. They are not supposed to know
PowerPoint and all the slick things it can do. If they want a hardcopy,
they click print. Just like anyone else. If that's a problem its a
problem with the product, not the user.
Way back when I first started programming, it was with punch cards.
Print-outs where handled by the computer operators. They had software
somewhere (on the mainframe ?? or the printer driver ??) that counted
the pages. If a job tried the print too many pages it cancelled. This
way they caught infinite loops in student programs. Maybe you need to
catch huge print jobs and warn the user before they start printing.
Should be easy to do with PostScript. This would catch potential
problems with any program, not just PowerPoint. If several hundred
students all contact their professor because the university limit on one
time printing won't let them print his notes, he'll get the message.
Either he'll fix his presentation or he'll teach his class how to do it.
It just sounds easier to me to get most of your professors to work
smarter. Rather than going out and writing unique code that's going to
wind up on each professors workstation anyhow.
"Steve Rindsberg" <drop...@someplace.else> wrote in message
news:Onw3w#0PAHA.243@cppssbbsa05...
Steve Rindsberg
> Print-outs where handled by the computer operators. They had software
> somewhere (on the mainframe ?? or the printer driver ??) that counted
> the pages. If a job tried the print too many pages it cancelled.
Aha, another punchcard curmudgeon! A man after my own heart. <g>
Been there.
Done that.
And got chewed out by the High Priests of the Kingdom of Fortran for it.
> It just sounds easier to me to get most of your professors to work
> smarter. Rather than going out and writing unique code that's going to
> wind up on each professors workstation anyhow.
One other option that occurred to me ...
If the presentations are stored by the profs in a central repository or at
least someplace predictable, it should be possible to write a routine that
runs periodically (at night, for instance) and iterates through the
available PPT files, checks the custom properties of each for a flag
indicating that they've already been processed. If the flag isn't there,
they GET processed - ie, the desired print options are forcefed to the PPT
file and it's re-saved.
Sonia
And wasn't it hell when you dropped one of the four boxes of cards that you were carrying to the
computer room?!! In my case I had to go to another building, which meant crossing the busiest
intersection in San Francisco at the time! At midnight it was a real challenge dodging the drunk
drivers and making it safely to the seventh floor. At that time, computer operators also took their
breaks at the local bar, so I would have to stick around and insist that I wanted to load the cards
myself <G>. It was against policy, but they feared my reprisals if they didn't let me have my way.
Nothing like using fear as a "power" tool! LOL!
Ah, the fond memories!
"Steve Rindsberg" <drop...@someplace.else> wrote in message news:OXUF8kqQAHA.165@cppssbbsa04...
Steve Rindsberg
you were carrying to the
> computer room?!!
I saw enough grad students crying over that one (and chasing the things
around in the wind!)
Never got that unlucky myself.
Besides, I always managed to get myself Purgatorized with just a handfull of
punchcards.
gzf...@theprosandthecons.com
Want to get the profs to do it. Easy. Charge them for the number of sheets of paper the students use printing the prof's handout.
cstan...@gmail.com
https://forums.tomsguide.com/faq/print-settings-are-lost-in-ms-powerpoint-2013.340075/