How to Add Notes to PowerPoint Effectively

Let's learn how to add notes to PowerPoint to make your presentation more impressive and persuasive.

What is the best way for speakers to control the presentation without lacking any piece of information? The secret of a successful presentation or speech can lie in preparing speaker notes in advance.

So, learning about How to add notes to PowePoint can help you be more confident while presenting any topic.

You may have numerous presentations during your school time and work, but not many of you realize the advantages of using notes in PPT slides to optimize your presentations.

If you are struggling to simplify and minimalize your slide while mentioning all the information that needs to be introduced to the audience, there is no better way than using the speaker notes function in PowerPoint. Let's start by learning how to add notes to PowerPoint for your successful presentation.

Table of Contents

• Add PowerPoint Notes to AhaSlides
• How to Add Notes to PowerPoint
• How to Start Presenting While Seeing Speaker Notes in the Presenter's View
• How to Print PowerPoint Slides with Notes
• How to See Notes when Presenting PowerPoint
• The Bottom Line
• Frequently Asked Questions

More PowerPoint Tips

• How to make an interactive PowerPoint
• How to make a word cloud in PowerPoint

Good News - You Can Now Add Powerpoint Notes to AhaSlides

Given that you have to know how to add notes to PowerPoint when it comes to interactive activities such as surveys, games, quizzes, and more, supplement tools like online presentation tools can be more convenient and practical. You absolutely avoid spending time all day designing these interactive activities with complicated tasks.

For example, you can use AhaSlides software which is already integrated into PowerPoint add-ins. It is not surprising that AhaSlides allows you to customize notes in each of their interactive slides.

• Step 1: Add AhaSlides to your PPT file via the PowerPoint add-in feature
• Step 2: Go straight to your AhaSlides account and the template you want to modify
• Step 3: Go to the slide you want to add notes
• Step 4: At the bottom of the page, there is an empty space section: the notes. You can freely customize texts as you want.

Tips

• Whatever you update in your main account will be automatically updated in PowerPoint slides.
• There are many available templates for you to edit based on your requirements which you definitely satisfied.

5 Simple Steps to Add Notes to Powerpoint

You will be beneficial when using notes in PowerPoint to deliver your presentation. So, how do you add notes to PowerPoint easily? The following 5 steps will save your day unexpectedly.

• Step 1. Open file to work on presentation
• Step 2. Under the Toolbar, check on the View tab and select the Normal or Outline View
• Step 3. Go to the slides if you want to add notes
• Step 4. There are two options for you to edit the notes:

Option 1: At the bottom of the slides, look for the section: Click to add notes. If this section isn't displayed, you can go to Notes in the Status bar and click it to activate the notes-adding function.

Option 2: Click the View tab, and look for the Notes page, you will be automatically moved to Shape Format to do the edit,  the below slide is the notes section, select the notes placeholders you want to customize.

• Step 5. Enter texts in the notes panes as much as you need. You can freely edit the texts with bullets, capitalize texts, and emphasize the font with bold, italics, or an underline depending on your need. Use the Double-headed arrow pointer to drag and expand the notes' boundary area if needed.

Tips: When it comes to a group project, go to Set Up Slide Show, and check the box to keep slides updated.  

How to Start Presenting while Seeing Speaker Notes in Presenter’s View

When adding notes, many presenters worry that audiences can see these notes accidentally or you cannot control the notes line if it is too many. Don't panic, there are ways to handle it easily by using the presenter view function. You will be able to view the notes for each slide on your screen while presenting the slideshow on another. 

• Step 1. Find the Slide show and click Presenter view
• Step 2. Your notes will be on the right-hand side of the main slide. As you move each slide, the notes will appear accordingly.

• Step 3. You can scroll down your notes if they are too long on your screen.

Tips: Select Display Settings, and then select Swap Presenter View and Slide Show if you want to distinguish the sides with notes or without notes.

How to Print PowerPoint Slides with Notes

You can set up Notes pages as a standalone document that can be shared with the audience when they want to read more details. Your slides can make sense and be explained clearly to the audience when they are displayed with notes.

• Step 1: Go to File in the ribbon tab, then select the Print option
• Step 2: Under Setting, choose the second box (it is called Full Page Slides as default), then go for Print Layout, and select Notes Pages.

Tips: Modify other settings for additional changes, choose the handouts version, which slides to print, set the number of copies, etc, and print as usual. 

Ref: Microsoft support

How to See Notes when Presenting PowerPoint

To see and add speaker notes while presenting a PowerPoint slideshow, you can follow these steps:

1. Open PowerPoint: Open your PowerPoint presentation, which contains the notes you want to view while presenting.
2. Start the Slideshow: Click on the "Slideshow" tab in the PowerPoint ribbon at the top of the screen.
3. Choose a Slideshow Mode: There are different slideshow modes to choose from, depending on your preference:
   • From Beginning: This starts the slideshow from the first slide.
   • From Current Slide: If you're working on a specific slide and want to start the slideshow from that point, select this option.
4. Presenter View: When the slideshow starts, press the "Alt" key (Windows) or "Option" key (Mac) and click on your presentation screen. This should open Presenter View on a dual-monitor setup. If you have a single monitor, you can activate Presenter View by clicking the "Presenter View" button in the control bar at the bottom of the screen (Windows) or using the "Slide Show" menu (Mac).
5. View Presenter Notes: In Presenter View, you'll see your current slide on one screen, and on the other screen (or in a separate window), you'll see the presenter view. This view includes your current slide, a preview of the next slide, a timer, and, most importantly, the presenter's notes.
6. Read Notes While Presenting: As you advance through your presentation, you can read your presenter notes in the presenter view to help guide your presentation. The audience will only see the slide content on the main screen, not your notes.
7. Navigate Through Slides: You can navigate through your slides using the arrow keys or by clicking on the slides in the presenter view. This allows you to move forward or backwards in your presentation while keeping your notes visible.
8. End the Presentation: When you've finished your presentation, press the "Esc" key to exit the slideshow.

Presenter View is a useful tool for presenters as it allows you to see your notes and control your presentation without the audience seeing those notes. It's particularly helpful if you're giving a talk or presentation that requires you to refer to detailed information or cues.

Bottom Line

So, did you learn all you need about How to add notes to PowerPoint? Updating new skills every day is needed to perform better in both working and learning. Besides, learning about using AhaSlides and other supplement tools can give you competitive advantages to impress your ideas to your teachers, bosses, customers, and more.

Try AhaSlides right away to unlock incredible potential.

Frequently Asked Questions