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Add speaker notes

Speaker notes are optional reference text for pages in a presentation that can keep you on track during a presentation without relying on a full script. They can also include prompts to start a video, or switch to a co-presenter, for example. Speaker notes are added when a presentation is made and are viewed when presenting in full screen in presenter mode. The notes are not visible to the audience.

Speaker notes are saved with a presentation and when it is shared as a presentation file (.prsx). You can optionally include speaker notes when the presentation is exported to a PDF file.

Add speaker notes to a page

You add speaker notes to any presentation page from the Speaker Notes panel. The panel can be hidden if necessary.

To add speaker notes to a presentation, complete the following steps:

  1. In a presentation, select a presentation page from the Contents pane.

  2. On the Presentation tab, in the Show group, click the Notes button .

    The Speaker Notes panel appears inside the presentation view next to the page you are currently editing. The panel cannot be repositioned but it can be made wider.

  3. Click in the text box area of the Speaker Notes panel to type the text for the current page.

  4. Optionally, apply text formatting from the options in the Speaker Notes panel, including bold , italic , underline , bullets , and numbering .

    Note:

    Subbullets and subnumber bullets are not supported in the speaker notes text editor.

  5. Select another page in the presentation to review or type new speaker notes for that page.

  6. Click outside the text box area to commit the edits to the presentation.

  7. Click the Notes button to hide the panel.

Use speaker notes while presenting

Speaker notes are visible in presenter mode in a full screen presentation. You can scale the font size of the speaker notes to ensure that they are legible while you present.

To use speaker notes when presenting to an audience, complete the following steps:

  1. On the Presentation tab, in the Playback group, check the Presenter Mode check box.

  2. On the Presentation tab, in the Playback group, click the Full Screen button to start the presentation.

    Alternatively, use the Alt + F keyboard shortcut to start full screen mode.

    The audience view displays on the monitor specified in the Full Screen drop-down list. The presenter view displays on the next available monitor. The speaker notes in presenter view appear in a read-only text box below the preview of the current page being displayed in full screen.

  3. Optionally, click either Increase Font Size or Decrease Font Size to scale the notes in presenter mode.

  4. Click End Presentation at the upper corner of presenter mode, or press Esc on your keyboard when you are finished presenting in full screen.

  5. Optionally, select a page in the Contents pane, and click Notes to open the speaker notes panel to make updates.

Save speaker notes to a text file

The speaker notes you add to your presentation pages are important talking points to help when you give your presentation. You can save a copy of the speaker notes locally to a text file (*.txt) or JSON file (*.json). You may want to save your speaker notes separately for many reasons such as the convenience of having a copy to print, for example if the presenter is using an exported video of the presentation and does not have access to the presentation file to demo live with presenter mode, or to edit notes or save a backup of the notes.

The plain text file format (*.txt) will display the page number with an indented body of text for the speaker notes. View the saved text file using a built-in text editor (for example, Windows Notepad) or optionally paste the contents of the text file into another 3rd party product (for example, Microsoft Word) if specific formatting is required before printing. The text file will be more readable than a JSON file, as it is a plain text format and does not display syntax. Choose the JSON (*.json) format if you need data structured with specific syntax rules or if you want to exchange between a different platform such as the web.

To save speaker notes to a text file, do the following:

  1. Ensure that notes have been provided for at least one page in the presentation. You can check this by filtering the Contents pane to only show pages that contain speaker notes by clicking the Filter button .

  2. Right-click the presentation in the Contents pane and choose Save Speaker Notes.

    The Save Speaker Notes dialog box opens.

  3. Review or update the path location you want the file saved.

  4. Provide a name for the file and set the file format to either Plain Text or JSON from the drop-down list.

  5. Click OK to save the file and close the dialog box.

Note:

A text file cannot display images so there is no preview of the associated page thumbnail included when you save speaker notes to a text file. If you require a preview of the page and the speaker notes together, export the presentation to PDF and check the option to include speaker notes.