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When you're creating a presentation, you can add speaker notes to refer to later while delivering the slide show in front of an audience.

During your presentation, the speaker notes are visible on your monitor, but aren't visible to the audience. So the Notes pane is the place to store talking points that you want to mention when you give your presentation.

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Add notes while creating your presentation

The Notes pane is a box that appears below each slide. (It is outlined in magenta in the picture below.) An empty Notes pane will prompt you with text that says, Click to add notes. Type your speaker notes there. If you don’t see the Notes pane or it is completely minimized, click Notes on the task bar across the bottom of the PowerPoint window (also marked in magenta in the picture below).

Shows the speaker Notes pane in PowerPoint

If your notes exceed the allotted length of the Notes pane, a vertical scroll bar appears on the side of the pane. You can also enlarge the Notes pane by pointing your mouse at the top line of the pane and then dragging upward after the pointer turns into a double-headed arrow.

What the notes look like in Presenter view

Tip: You can add notes either while you’re presenting, directly from Presenter view, or as you’re editing your presentation. For information on how to add speaker notes to while editing your presentation, see Add speaker notes to your slides. 

When your computer is connected to a projector and you start the slide show This button starts a slide show, beginning from the first slide in the presentation., Presenter View appears on your computer's screen, while only the slides appear on the projector screen. In Presenter view, you can see your notes as you present, while the audience sees only your slides:

Presenter View in PowerPoint 2016, with a circle around the Speaker Notes

The notes appear in a pane on the right. If you need to add or delete something, simply click in the text box to edit it. The text wraps automatically, and a vertical scroll bar appears if necessary. You can also change the size of the text in the Notes pane by using the two buttons at the lower left corner of the Notes pane:

Change the size of the text in the Notes pane in Presenter view

Presenter view isn't something you have to create. PowerPoint assembles it for you by gathering the notes you've typed for each slide and pairing them with a set of controls for navigating through your presentation.

By default, PowerPoint is set to use Presenter view when you run a slide show. You can change this setting on the Slide Show tab of the PowerPoint ribbon:

The Presenter View option is controlled by a check box on the Slide Show tab of the ribbon in PowerPoint.

Read Start the presentation and see your notes in Presenter view for more details about how to see and use Presenter view.

Print speaker notes

See Print slides with or without speaker notes.

See Also

Print slides with or without speaker notes

Start the presentation and see your notes in Presenter view

Transfer slides from one presentation to another

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