How To Add Notes To PowerPoint

How To Add Speaker Notes In PowerPoint

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A lot of us use Microsoft PowerPoint as a format for our presentations but a key feature of PowerPoint is often overlooked. You can add speaker notes to PowerPoint to avoid reading off the presentation – but how?

In this guide, we’re going to take you through this in detail so you can better access your notes during a presentation, or provide them for a colleague or speaker to reference. Read, on and we’ll show you how to add notes to Powerpoint with ease.

Add Notes To PowerPoint: step-by-step

When you are viewing your PowerPoint presentation in its editing mode (that is the mode PowerPoint automatically opens up with) then you will notice a white or transparent box on the bottom right hand corner of the screen with the writing ‘Click to add notes’ written inside. That is the Notes section of the PowerPoint and where you can add your own notes for your presentation.

Step

1

Find The Notes Section

All you have to do is double click on the box and type in your notes.

Although it’s not recommended that you try to type in a whole script, you can write useful bullet points to keep you on track when presenting your PowerPoint.

PowerPoint automatically shows the Notes when you start a new presentation but if you minimize this box at any point, it will stay hidden.

To bring up your Notes box, just click the ‘Notes’ button shown on the bottom ribbon menu of the window. It will be situated close to the right hand side of the screen.

Click it and the Notes box will appear. Alternatively, you can press the ‘Normal View’ button which is next to the Notes button and is represented by an icon willed with lots of rectangles, mimicking the layout of the Normal View window.

You can also add new speaker notes in Powerpoint to every single slide. Just select which slide from the left hand side menu, and then enter in your notes in the Notes box.

Step

2

Add notes

All you have to do is double click on the box and type in your notes.

Although it’s not recommended that you try to type in a whole script, you can write useful bullet points to keep you on track when presenting your PowerPoint.

PowerPoint automatically shows the Notes when you start a new presentation but if you minimize this box at any point, it will stay hidden.

Step

3

Toggle the notes box

To bring up your speaker notes in Powerpoint, just click the ‘Notes’ button shown on the bottom ribbon menu of the window. It will be situated close to the right hand side of the screen.

Click it and the Notes box will appear.

Alternatively, you can press the ‘Normal View’ button which is next to the Notes button and is represented by an icon willed with lots of rectangles, mimicking the layout of the Normal View window.

You can also add new notes to every single slide in your PowerPoint. Just select which slide from the left hand side menu, and then enter in your notes in the Notes box.

Step

4

Set Notes To Present While Speaking

Speaker notes in Powepoint will not appear when you are presenting unless you have enabled it with Presenter View.

To do this, head to the Slide Show tab on the top menu. You can find it between Animations and Review in the middle of the middle of the tab menu.

Once you find it, select it and this will open up the Slide Show menu on the top ribbon menu.

Now, you need to find the ‘Use Presenter View’ option and make sure that the box is ticked.

You can find this option in the Monitors section towards the right of the menu. Find it, tick it and this will enable Presenter View.

This means that when you start to present your PowerPoint (by selecting the ‘Play From Beginning’ button on the left side of the Slide Show menu), your Notes section will appear on your monitor on your computer but it will not on the screen presenting to your audience.

That way, you can read your notes without it spoiling the overall appearance and professionalism of your PowerPoint presentation.

Why can’t I add notes to my PowerPoint presentation?

To add notes to slides, ensure you have your slideshow viewed in ‘normal view’. This will allow you to add notes. Then when you’re ready to present, ‘presenter view’ will provide the notes for the presenter to see as the slideshow plays.

Add notes to Powerpoint – final thoughts

Notes are an overlooked part of PowerPoint but they can really improve the performance of your presentation. Some of the most successful presentations are done when the speaker maintains good eye contact with their audience and isn’t constantly turning their back to read from a large screen. Also, scripts can be clumsy and feel unnatural because they are so, well, scripted.

So, try following the above guide to add speaker notes to your PowerPoint. This way, your presentation will feel more natural and will go down a lot better with your audience.