Beamer: Only command and the handout mode

Question

I have a faceted (layered) presentation where I introduce some color from one to the next slide. I want them to be part of the same frame to save a page in handout mode. I use \only to divide the sections.

When I create the slides for presentation mode, everything is fine. However, when I create them for handout, i get 4 bullet points, all items are simply thrown together. Is this the normal behavior? I always assumed that it would pick the last (highest) number (<2> in my case) and use that.

When I think about it, i can understand that this might not be solvable in a generic manner. Perhaps I am just using the wrong tool for the job?

% handout mode
%\documentclass[hyperref={pdfpagemode=UseThumbs, pdfpagelayout=SinglePage, bookmarks=true, },handout,xcolor=dvipsnames]{beamer}

% presentation mode
\documentclass[hyperref={pdfpagemode=FullScreen},xcolor=dvipsnames]{beamer}

\begin{document}

%\title{StackOverflow Example}

\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{Some Main Title}
    \framesubtitle{Some Subtitle}
    Some text text text text text text. \\
    \begin{itemize}
        \only<1>{\item One: This is the first item}
        \only<2>{\item \textcolor{red}{One:} This is the first item}
        \only<1>{\item Two: This is the second item}
        \only<2>{\item \textcolor{blue}{Two:} This is the second item}
    \end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

Answer 1

As explained in this post, you can specify rules for handout mode in the only command. For example \only<1|handout:0>{content} hides this part in the handout. You can also enter numbers to order your content on the handout.

See your modified example below:

% handout mode
\documentclass[hyperref={pdfpagemode=UseThumbs, pdfpagelayout=SinglePage, bookmarks=true, },handout,xcolor=dvipsnames]{beamer}

% presentation mode
%\documentclass[hyperref={pdfpagemode=FullScreen},xcolor=dvipsnames]{beamer}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{Some Main Title}
    \framesubtitle{Some Subtitle}
    Some text text text text text text. \\
    \begin{itemize}
        \only<1|handout:0>{\item One: This is the first item}
        \only<2>{\item \textcolor{red}{One:} This is the first item}
        \only<1|handout:0>{\item Two: This is the second item}
        \only<2>{\item \textcolor{blue}{Two:} This is the second item}
    \end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\end{document}