Create speaker notes

Use speaker notes to capture your talking points and the details you want to present with each slide.

For example, on the slide itself, include only essential points to keep the information simple and easy to scan.

Reserve the finer details for your speaker notes.

You’ll engage with your audience as you present this information, and they won’t have to read a crowded slide.

One way to use your notes is to print them out in a Notes Pages format and refer to them as you present.

Another way is to use PowerPoint’s Presenter view when you present.

Presenter view lets you see the slide and your notes on your laptop, while on the projector, your audience sees only the slide.

An added benefit of speaker notes is that you can print them as a handout for your audience, so people take away all the details.

To create speaker notes, click NOTES at the bottom of the editing window.

That opens the notes pane, where you type your notes for the slide.

To adjust the space in the pane, point to the top border and drag the double-headed arrow cursor up or down.

Type what you plan to say and the key points you’ll cover.

Apply formatting just the way you do for slide text.

For example, to make a bold-face heading, select the text, and on the HOME tab, click Bold, or to create a bulleted list, select the text, and on the HOME tab, click Bullets.

For each slide, add the notes you want.

As you work, and especially if you plan to print your notes, make use of Notes page view.

To open the view, click VIEW and Notes Page.

This shows the page as it will look when you print it, with the slide image and the notes.

You can add and format text here, too.

Let’s click Zoom In to see the text better.

Click the text to display its placeholder, this dotted border.

Any text outside this border won’t fit on the page when you print.

PowerPoint will print the extra text on a separate page.

But to keep it to this page, you have a few options.

Tighten up the notes text by deleting extra paragraph lines or revising text, if you can.

This info repeats the web address, so I’ll select it, and press Delete.

I’ll click Zoom Out to see more of the page.

If you want more space and don’t mind making the slide image smaller on this page, you can click the image to select it, point to the bottom-right corner, and drag the two-headed arrow upward to reduce the image size.

Then, display the text placeholder again, point to the top sizing handle, and drag the two-headed arrow cursor upward.

That adds space at the bottom of the placeholder.

I’ll click where I had the blank paragraph lines and press Enter to add them back.

Now, it looks better.

To move to another notes page, click Next Slide, the double arrows at the bottom of the scrollbar.

To return to the normal view, click Normal.

And if you are ready to close the notes pane, click NOTES.

Up next: Print notes or use Presenter view.