Even after 60 years, one of the most effective ways to take notes and remember what they mean has to be the Cornell note-taking system. Devised in the 1950s by educationalist Walter Pauk at Cornell University, for many it is the best way to condense and organise notes. The Cornell system works based on the following system: divide your notepaper into two columns: the note-taking column (usually on the right) should be twice the size of the questions/key word column (on the left). It's best to leave five to seven blank lines from the bottom of the page.

Notes taken during a lecture, for example, are written in the note-taking column; notes usually consist of the main ideas of the text or lecture. Long sentences should be avoided; and symbols or abbreviations are a must. To jog your memory, relevant questions (which should be recorded as soon as possible when ideas are fresh in the mind) or key words are written in the key word column. Notes must be revised as soon as possible with questions and then a brief summary is written in the bottom five to seven lines of the page. This helps to increase understanding of the topic. The idea is to have a concise but detailed and relevant record of what has been discussed.

When reviewing the material, cover up the note-taking (right) column to answer the questions/keywords in the key word or cue (left) column. It's a good idea to reflect on the material and review the notes regularly.

But when it comes to note-taking we all do it in different ways: some prefer to jot down key points and highlight important key phrases, while others try to write down every word they hear. However it's a fact that learning is easier if you try to focus more attention on listening: all great note taking begins with listening. If you are not listening, you are not fully engaged intellectually, and your notes will reflect that. There is an obvious difference between listening and hearing. Listening is active by nature, while hearing is passive.

I know that when I am covering a particularly deep or fact-based presentation, I prefer to facilitate learning by providing a handout of my PowerPoint document. It's not quite as regimented as the Cornell system, but it certainly gets a great reaction.

PowerPoint gives me the flexibility of working with my presentations, but also thinking how anyone is going to consolidate learning from what I deliver. In the Print Menu, you will see the option to change the print range. Here, you can select All to print all the slides in your presentation; Current slide to print only the current slide; or you can enter slide numbers in the Slides field necessary to print only certain slides. Slides prints a full-page slide on each page. Handouts prints as many slides as you designate on each page. The Notes Page prints one slide with that slide's notes on each page. And the Outline view prints the outline of the presentation.

It's easy to print handouts from print preview, or change the handout master, and adapt the layout alternatives such as printing handouts in Microsoft Word. In PowerPoint, you can set handout options for printing in either of the following ways: Through the Print dialog box (File menu, Print command); or in print preview (Print Preview button on the Standard toolbar). With print preview, you can see how the layout you choose looks, and you can add or change header and footer text in this view.

Sometimes you might need to include headers and footers on a handout. To size these or position differently, or to change the font, make the change on the handout master. Header and footer changes you make to the handout master carry over to a printed outline. In print preview, in the Print What box, select the type of handout you want, then click the Close button. In normal view, on the View menu, point to Master, then click Handout Master. Now, can do any of the following:
- To move a header or footer placeholder, point to it, and when the pointer becomes a four-headed arrow, drag the placeholder to a new position.
- To resize a header or footer placeholder, select it, point to a sizing handle, and when the pointer becomes a two-headed arrow, drag the handle.
- To change a header or footer font, select the placeholder, and then on the Format menu, click Format, and select options in the Font dialog box.
- To add or change a fill color or border for a placeholder, select the placeholder, and then on the Format menu, click Format, click the Colours and Lines tab, and select options under Fill and Line.

To see how the changes look on the handout with your header and footer text, click the Print Preview button on the Standard toolbar. If you just want to close the handout master, on the Handout Master View toolbar, click Close Master View.

If you delete a placeholder on the handout master, you can reapply the placeholder in handout master view. On the Format menu, click Handout Master Layout, select the check box for the placeholder you want, and click OK.

However, it's just as easy to use a layout type that PowerPoint doesn't include, by creating more handouts in Word. On the file menu, simply point to Send To, click Microsoft Word, and then select a layout option. For example, if you want to print three slides per page but do not want lines for audience notes, send the handout to Word and choose the Blank lines next to slides option, then delete the lines in Word. Or, for another notes option in Word, select Blank lines below slides, which includes blank lines for audience notes with only one slide per page, in a vertical format.

And if you want to print single handout pages while keeping the correct page numbering, send the presentation to Word using one of the available formats; use the headers and footers in Word to number the pages; and if you need to print a single page, select the page you want to print.

Of course you can also post PowerPoint presentations on the Internet. This is ideal if you want to save your documents as web pages so that anyone can view the presentation even if they do not have PowerPoint installed on their computer. To do this, select Save As Web Page from the menu bar when saving. Choose your web page directory on the network from the Look in: drop-down menu and name the file in the File name: box. Click Save to save the presentation in web format.