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Quick Answer

Open your slide, click View > Notes to show the notes pane below the slide, and type. Your notes appear on your screen in Presenter View during the presentation — the audience only ever sees the slide.

How to Add Speaker Notes in PowerPoint ​

Applies to: Microsoft PowerPoint (Microsoft 365, PowerPoint 2021, PowerPoint 2019, PowerPoint for the web)
Article Type: How-To
Last Updated: 2026-07-29

Summary ​

Speaker notes hold everything you want to say but do not want on the slide — the figure behind the chart, the transition into the next section, the answer to the question you know is coming. This article covers writing notes, reading them in Presenter View while the audience sees only the slide, printing them as handouts, and deciding whether they travel with the file when you send the deck on.

Prerequisites ​

  • Microsoft PowerPoint. Every step works in the desktop app; Notes Page view and note printing are desktop-only, and the differences are called out in each step.
  • A presentation with at least one slide.
  • No admin rights required.

Instructions ​

1. Show the Notes Pane Below the Slide ​

The notes pane is hidden in a fresh PowerPoint window, which is why most people never find it.

  1. Open your presentation and select a slide in the thumbnail strip on the left.
  2. Click the View tab on the ribbon.
  3. In the Show group, click Notes. A pane opens across the bottom of the window reading Click to add notes.
  4. Alternatively, click Notes on the status bar at the bottom-right of the window, beside the zoom slider. It toggles the same pane.
  5. Drag the divider between the slide and the notes pane upward to make the writing area taller.

Note: In PowerPoint for the web, the button sits in the same place — View > Notes — but the pane is a simpler text box with no formatting options. Notes typed there sync to the desktop app and are visible to anyone with the file.

2. Type Your Speaker Notes ​

Write notes you can read at a glance under pressure, not a script you will end up reading aloud.

  1. Click inside the notes pane and type. The pane accepts as much text as you want and scrolls when it fills.
  2. Keep each note to short bullet-style lines. Presenter View shows a fixed area of text at a time, and long paragraphs force you to scroll mid-sentence.
  3. Put the details you cannot afford to blank on — figures, dates, names — at the front of the line where your eye lands first.
  4. Move to the next slide in the thumbnail strip. The notes pane clears and is now attached to that slide. Notes are stored per slide, so there is nothing to save separately.
  5. Press Ctrl + S to save the presentation.

Verification: Click back through your slides in the thumbnail strip. The notes pane changes content with each slide. If it stays empty on a slide you wrote notes for, you were on a different slide when you typed.

3. Use Notes Page View for Longer Notes and Formatting ​

The small pane is fine for a few lines. When you need real formatting or a full page of detail, switch views.

  1. Click View > Notes Page in the Presentation Views group.
  2. The window changes to a portrait page showing a small image of the slide at the top and a text box beneath it.
  3. Click inside the text box and type. Use the Home tab as normal for bold, italics, bullet lists, and font size.
  4. To insert a table, image, or diagram into your notes, use the Insert tab while in this view. These extras appear on the printed notes page and in the notes pane text, but not in Presenter View, which renders plain text only.
  5. Click View > Normal to return to the standard editing view.

Tip: To change the layout of every notes page at once — font, slide image size, header, footer, page number — click View > Notes Master. Edit the master, then click Close Master View. This is the fastest way to make printed notes readable at arm's length.

4. Check How Your Notes Look in Presenter View ​

Presenter View splits the display: your notes stay on your screen, the audience sees the slide alone.

  1. Click the Slide Show tab.
  2. Confirm Use Presenter View is checked in the Monitors group.
  3. Click From Beginning, or press F5.
  4. Your screen shows the current slide on the left, the next slide on the right, and your notes in a panel down the right-hand side. The audience display shows the current slide filling the screen — nothing else.
  5. Click the A buttons above the notes panel to increase or decrease the note text size. Set it large enough to read without leaning in.
  6. Press Esc to end the slideshow.

To rehearse without a second screen, start the slideshow, right-click anywhere on the slide, and select Show Presenter View. It opens on your only display so you can check the pacing and note length.

For the full set of Presenter View controls — the timer, pen, laser pointer, and how to swap displays when the notes land on the projector — see How to Use Presenter View in PowerPoint.

Note: In an online meeting, share the PowerPoint Slide Show window rather than your entire desktop or screen. Sharing the whole screen puts Presenter View — notes and all — in front of everyone on the call.

5. Print Handouts with Your Notes ​

Notes pages make a solid leave-behind: one slide per page with your commentary underneath.

  1. Press Ctrl + P, or click File > Print.
  2. Under Settings, click the second dropdown — it usually reads Full Page Slides.
  3. In the menu that opens, select Notes Pages at the top under Print Layout. Do not pick an option from the Handouts section; those print slides only.
  4. The preview on the right updates to show a slide image above its notes text.
  5. Set the copies, printer, and colour options, then click Print.

Tip: To hand out notes without using paper, choose Microsoft Print to PDF in the Printer dropdown with Notes Pages still selected. Click Print and pick a filename. You get a shareable PDF with slides and notes together.

The options in the Handouts section of that same dropdown produce audience copies instead — several slides to a page, with ruled writing lines on the 3 Slides layout. See How to Print PowerPoint Handouts for choosing a layout, adding a header, and cutting the toner cost.

6. Control Whether Notes Travel with the File ​

Notes live inside the file. This matters most when the deck leaves your hands.

  • Emailing or sharing the .pptx file: the notes go with it. Anyone who opens the deck reads them in the notes pane. Treat anything you type as visible to the recipient.
  • Saving as a standard PDF: notes are dropped. File > Save a Copy (or Save As) with the type set to PDF produces slides only.
  • Exporting a PDF that includes notes: click File > Export > Create PDF/XPS Document > Create PDF/XPS. In the dialog, click Options, set Publish what to Notes pages, click OK, then Publish.
  • Presenting through PowerPoint Live in Teams: your notes appear in your own presenter pane only. Attendees see the slide.

To strip notes from a copy before sending it out:

  1. Save a copy of the deck first — this removal cannot be undone.
  2. Click File > Info.
  3. Click Check for Issues > Inspect Document.
  4. Confirm Presentation Notes is checked in the list, then click Inspect.
  5. Beside the Presentation Notes result, click Remove All.
  6. Click Close and save the copy under a new name.

Verification: Reopen the cleaned copy and click View > Notes. The pane reads Click to add notes on every slide, confirming the notes are gone.

Troubleshooting ​

WARNING

Speaker notes are saved inside the .pptx file, not only on your screen. Before sending a deck to a client, customer, or anyone outside your team, run Inspect Document and remove the notes — internal pricing, reminders about a difficult stakeholder, and rough drafts have all reached the wrong inbox this way.

Symptom / ErrorPotential CauseSolution
No notes pane appears below the slidePane is toggled offClick View > Notes, or click Notes on the status bar at the bottom-right (step 1).
Notes panel is blank in Presenter ViewNotes attached to a different slideExit the slideshow, click through slides in Normal view, and confirm the text sits under the slide you expect.
Notes text is too small to read while presentingDefault Presenter View text sizeClick the larger A button above the notes panel during the slideshow (step 4).
Printing produces slides with no notesHandouts selected instead of Notes PagesIn the print settings, choose Notes Pages under Print Layout, not any Handouts option (step 5).
Notes missing from the exported PDFStandard PDF export excludes notesUse File > Export > Create PDF/XPS, click Options, and set Publish what to Notes pages (step 6).
Notes Page view is not on the View tabUsing PowerPoint for the webNotes Page and Notes Master are desktop-only. Open the file in the PowerPoint desktop app to format or print notes pages.
Formatting or images added in Notes Page view do not show in Presenter ViewPresenter View renders plain textThis is expected. Keep anything you need while speaking as plain text in the notes pane (step 3).