Creating a captivating and powerful PowerPoint presentation is about more than just aesthetically pleasing slides. Speaker notes are essential in assisting speakers throughout their presentations. These notes, concealed from the audience’s perspective, are a vital resource for presenters, providing extra information, cues, and reminders.

This article will talk about speaker notes in PowerPoint, explaining what they are, the advantages they provide to your presentations, and how to incorporate them effortlessly into your slides. Understanding and using speaker notes efficiently can be a game-changer in delivering exciting and confident presentations, whether you’re a seasoned presenter trying to improve your abilities or a newbie keen to make your presentations more successful. So, let’s get started and learn how to make the most of this useful PowerPoint feature.

Also read: How to See Speaker Notes While Presenting? >

What are speaker notes in PowerPoint?

Microsoft PowerPoint’s speaker notes tool lets presenters add information, reminders, and prompts to their presentations. These notes are hidden from the audience throughout the presentation and are just for the speaker’s use.

Speaker notes are often shown next to the slide being presented in the PowerPoint interface. They give speakers a private area where they may put critical facts, explanations, talking points, or even the complete script of their presentation. The following are some essential characteristics of speaker notes:

  1. Hidden Guidance: Speaker notes give speakers a discrete approach to keeping on track and confidently delivering their presentations. Presenters may guarantee a seamless and cohesive delivery by having crucial points, figures, or explanations at their fingertips.
  2. Content Flexibility: A speaker’s notes may include various possible information. You may use them to take notes, expound on complicated topics, enter URLs or references, or even provide stage directions for live demonstrations.
  3. Presentation Aid: These notes are handy when working with other presenters or transitioning between presentation portions. They serve as a script or teleprompter, lowering the likelihood of forgetting important information.
  4. Confidentiality: Speaker notes are intended just for the presenter, enabling them to discuss important details or private reminders without disclosing them to the public.

Benefits of using Speaker Notes in PowerPoint

Incorporating speaker notes into your PowerPoint presentations has various benefits that may dramatically improve the delivery and overall effectiveness of your presentation:

1. Enhanced Confidence:

Speaker notes give speakers a safety net, which boosts their confidence and lowers their nervousness. Knowing that crucial facts and reminders are nearby helps speakers concentrate on connecting with the audience.

2. Improved Audience Engagement:

Speaker notes assist presenters in keeping track of their essential points by maintaining a seamless and cohesive flow of information. This keeps the audience interested and attentive throughout the lecture.

3. Scripted Content:

Speaker notes allow speakers who prefer a more scripted approach to incorporate their whole speech or talking points. This is especially helpful for formal presentations or when exact phrasing is required.

4. Transition Guidance:

Speaker notes are useful for marking transitions between slides or portions of a presentation. To keep the audience informed, they might add suggestions such as “Next, let’s discuss…” or “Now, moving on to…”

5. Complicated Information:

Speaker notes let presenters explain, illustrate, and clarify complicated facts, statistics, and technical aspects without cluttering presentations. This guarantees that the audience can grasp complex material.

6. Collaboration:

In team presentations, speaker notes make collaborating easier for presenters to organize their presentations, providing a coherent and united message.

7. Private Reminders:

Speaker notes provide room for personal reminders, such as prompts to change slides, gestures, or body language. These little reminders assist speakers in maintaining their professionalism and composure.

8. Adaptability:

Unexpected inquiries or audience responses may emerge during a presentation. Speaker notes enable presenters to adapt quickly, making last-minute changes or addressing unexpected situations without losing their position.

Finally, PowerPoint speaker notes are vital for presenters to produce more confident, engaging, and structured presentations. Using speaker notes while presenting a professional speech, training session, or business pitch may dramatically improve your communication with the audience.

How Do I Add Speaker Notes in PowerPoint?

Including speaker notes in your PowerPoint presentation is a simple technique that can improve your ability to produce a clean and structured presentation. To smoothly include speaker notes in your presentations, follow these steps:

Step 1. Open the PowerPoint presentation you want to edit. Make sure your slides have substance.

Step 2. View tab in PowerPoint ribbon. Click on the ‘Normal’ view to see slide thumbnails on the left and the slide editing area on the right.

Select Normal View

Select Normal View

Step 3. Below each slide thumbnail is ‘Notes.’ Click below the slide to add remarks.

Add Remarks Under Slides

Add Remarks Under Slides

Step 4. Start typing speaker notes in Notes. You may explain, remind, highlight, or reference anything throughout the presentation.

Step 5. Keep going through the slide sorter on the left and adding speaker comments for each slide in your presentation.

Step 6. Adjust the font size if your notes are too tiny to read during the lecture. To change font size, highlight text, right-click, and pick ‘Font.’

Step 7. Click ‘Presenter View’ on the Slide Show tab for your speaker notes. This option shows the current slide on the screen with notes and a slide preview on your computer or auxiliary monitor.

Step 8. With speaker notes, practice your presentation. Knowing your notes can help you give a confident, engaging speech.

How to Add Speaker Notes in PowerPoint without Other Knowing?

PowerPoint allows for speaker notes to be added, but there may be instances when you’d rather keep them to yourself. TalkEze is a fantastic web app that lets you create and examine speaker notes in PowerPoint without drawing attention to yourself or your notes. Among TalkEze’s many great features are those listed below:

Now, let’s walk through the process of using TalkEze to add speaker notes in PowerPoint presentations discreetly:

Step 1. Launch the Gemoo TalkEze Tool and sign in via Gmail, Apple ID, or Gemoo ID.

Step 2. Configure quick settings for speaker notes from the Preferences. You can hide the script in the final video, change the font size, or adjust the scroll speed.

Preferences in TalkEz

Preferences in TalkEz

Step 3. Add the script in TalkEze. Your notes will be visible to you but invisible to others. Click on New Script and choose from the Enter Script or Import .txt file.

Add Script in TalkEze

Add Script in TalkEze

Step 5. Adjust the script scrolling speed. Click “Start” to initiate script scrolling and control text features seamlessly. TalkEze lets you transition between Windows and browser tabs without losing your scripts, providing a fluid display.

You can add speaker notes to PowerPoint presentations (during recording or live streaming) with confidence and privacy using TalkEze. This application helps professionals give captivating presentations without disclosing their behind-the-scenes notes.

How to Print Speaker Notes in PowerPoint?

Printing your PowerPoint speaker notes might be a convenient method to have a tangible copy of your notes while speaking. These notes will be useful as a reference throughout your presentation. Here’s how to print PowerPoint speaker notes:

Step 1. Open your PowerPoint presentation.

Step 2. Select “File” in the top-left corner.

Step 3. Choose “Print.” from File.

Choose Print

Choose Print

Step 4. In the Print menu, you will find a section named “Settings” on the right side. Find the “Full Page Slides” option here.

Step 5. Select “Notes Pages.” from the selection. This option will print your slides together with their related speaker notes.

Step 6. Select the number of copies, color choices, and printer settings.

Step 7. Click “Print” to print PowerPoint slides with speaker notes after entering your preferences.

Following these steps will allow you to produce a printed copy of your speaker notes throughout your presentation, guaranteeing a smoother and more confident delivery.

Final Thought

Including speaker notes in your PowerPoint presentations may help you give more interesting and insightful presentations. These notes serve as a useful reference point for you, allowing you to keep on course and give more insight to your audience.

The advantages are apparent whether you utilize the conventional way inside PowerPoint or explore user-friendly solutions like TalkEze, which simplifies the process and adds ease. Speaker notes enable speakers to deliver with confidence and structure, ensuring that crucial ideas are appropriately communicated. So, the next time you produce a PowerPoint presentation, consider including speaker notes to improve your speaking skills.

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The Gemoo Team is committed to building products that help people effectively communicate and collaborate.