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Sunday 12 July 2009

Powerpoint slides: how to print without dark background






Here's how to print out Powerpoint slides without dark background which is hard to read on paper.

The problem is that some Powerpoint slides with dark background colour or patterns don’t print out very well (e.g. text is hard to read against the background). They waste printer ink too. Who wants or needs that when you’re printing a hard copy for the text and diagrams?

Conversely, sometimes the text is too light against a light background but you want to print it out with darker, more legible text.

So here's a small tip: there’s a little section in the Print options which lets you print Microsoft Office Powerpoint slides without all the guff.

After you choose Print for the slides, but before you hit OK to print them, check out the “Print what” section (bottom left in PowerPoint 2003 at least).

Under the “Color/grayscale” subheading (outlined in red above), make sure you select “Pure Black and White” before you hit OK - and it should now print without the extra background or text that’s virtually unreadable because it’s the same colour as the background!

This can be a real time and frustration saver, but it only works for slides in Powerpoint, not slides in PDF. Shame.

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