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What is a leave behind deck?
A leave behind deck is the version of a presentation given to the audience after a meeting, so they can review it, share it and act on it without the presenter. Because nobody is there to explain the slides, it carries more text, full sentence headlines and supporting detail than the sparse deck shown on screen during the meeting itself.
The deck that works on a screen with a speaker beside it often fails in an inbox. The leave behind is the version written for the person who opens it on Thursday, with no memory of what was said on Tuesday.
Nuwan Madhusanka · Co-founder
5 min read · Published
| Presented deck | Leave behind deck | |
|---|---|---|
| Text density | Low: headlines, numbers, images | Higher: full sentence headlines and short explanatory paragraphs |
| Headlines | Can be short, the speaker explains | State the conclusion, since nobody explains |
| Speaker notes | Carry what the presenter says | Content moved onto slides or into a short cover note |
| Length | Fits the meeting slot | Can add an appendix with detail and sources |
| Design | Built for a screen across a room | Built for a laptop or print, closer reading distance |
| Format | Live in presentation software | PDF or link, often forwarded |
Written for the reader who was not there
A leave behind has two audiences. The first is the people who attended, who will reread it to remember what was agreed. The second, often more important, is the people who were not in the room: a partner at a venture firm, a finance director at a customer, a manager who will approve the budget. Geoff Ralston's seed fundraising guide for Y Combinator makes the point for investors, telling founders to make sure the slide deck is a coherent leave behind, since venture capitalists may show it to other partners. A presented deck that relies on the speaker to connect its slides leaves that second audience with pictures and no argument.
Where the term comes from
Leave behind is sales language: the brochure, spec sheet or proposal a salesperson left with a prospect after a visit. As slides replaced brochures, the deck itself became the leave behind, and presenters discovered that the same file could not do both jobs well. Nancy Duarte's free book Slidedocs formalises the distinction, describing a slidedoc as a visual document developed in presentation software that is intended to be read and referenced instead of projected, and suggests pre reads and leave behinds as natural uses for it.
How to make one from a presented deck
Start from the presented deck, so structure and numbers match what the audience saw. Rewrite each headline to state its conclusion. Move the essential parts of the speaker notes onto the slide as a short paragraph or caption, since notes are rarely visible or included in exports. Add the answers to questions raised in the meeting. Put detailed tables, methods and sources in an appendix rather than on the main slides. Finish with a clear next step and a date, and send it within a day, while the meeting is still fresh for those who attended.
Common mistakes
The first is sending the presented deck unchanged, so a slide that said only 38% leaves the reader guessing what it measured. The second is the opposite: building one dense deck for both purposes, which bores the room during the meeting and still reads awkwardly afterwards. The third is including internal speaker notes or comments in a file sent outside the company. The fourth is a leave behind that contradicts the meeting, because numbers were updated in one version and not the other. The fifth is no date or version, so an old leave behind keeps circulating long after the figures have changed.
Leave behind, pre read and read deck
A pre read is sent before a meeting so participants arrive informed; a leave behind is sent after. Both are read without a presenter and follow the same writing rules. A read deck is the broader category of decks built to be read rather than presented at all, such as a board paper or a monthly investor update. A leave behind is the read deck that accompanies a particular presentation. That link is worth making explicit on the first slide, with the meeting name and date, so a reader who receives it second hand knows it summarises a conversation they did not attend, and knows who to ask when a slide raises a question the document itself does not answer.
Where it shows up in the product
Two delivery routes suit a leave behind here. The share link opens a read only viewer that always shows the last saved version, so corrections reach everyone, but it has no password, expiry or revoke button, and anyone with it can press N and read the speaker notes, so clean the notes first. The PDF export is free and gives a fixed copy, one image per slide, so its text cannot be selected or searched. Neither export carries notes. The investor update example on this site is written to be read alone, with a short version of the month in two paragraphs on its second slide and four specific asks at the end.
Questions people ask
Should I send my presentation slides after a meeting?
Usually yes, but not unchanged. Send a leave behind version in which each headline states its point, key spoken explanations appear on the slides and questions raised in the meeting are answered. A sparse presented deck sent as is often confuses anyone who was not there, including the decision maker it was meant to persuade.
How is a leave behind different from a pre read?
Timing and purpose. A pre read is sent before a meeting so people arrive prepared and the meeting can focus on discussion. A leave behind is sent afterwards to record the content and help people act on it or share it. The writing rules are similar, since neither has a presenter to explain it.
How much text belongs on a leave behind slide?
Enough that the slide makes sense alone: a full sentence headline, the evidence, and a short caption or paragraph explaining what the evidence shows. That is still far less than a document page. If a slide needs several paragraphs, the content belongs in an appendix or a separate written document.
Should a leave behind be a PDF or a link?
A PDF is fixed, easy to forward and opens anywhere, which suits formal proposals and investor material. A link always shows the latest version, which suits documents that change. Here the share link exposes speaker notes to anyone who has it, and the PDF is built from images, so choose accordingly.
Do I need two separate decks?
For important meetings, usually. Duplicate the presented deck and rewrite the copy as a leave behind, keeping the same order and numbers. For routine internal updates, one deck written slightly fuller than a pure presentation often serves both purposes adequately, especially when most people will read it rather than see it presented.
Make one with presentations
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Create a presentation with OneCraftRelated questions
- What is a read deck?A read deck is a presentation built to be read on a screen or page, not projected. How it differs from a presented deck and a memo, and when each is right.
- What is a data room in fundraising?A data room is the shared folder investors open after the pitch to check the company in detail. What goes in it, where the deck fits, and when you need one.
- Speaker notes vs a full scriptSpeaker notes are short cues; a script is every word you plan to say. The trade offs, the risk of reading aloud, and how to choose for your next talk.
Step by step in the builder: Share a presentation with a link, then Export a presentation to PowerPoint or PDF.
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