How to insert PowerPoint notes!

Inserting PowerPoint notes: Here's how to do it quickly and easily!

May 3, 2023|Tom Schweitzer

Whether it's an important presentation to your company's management or a presentation at university, in 2023 almost nothing is possible without Microsoft Office PowerPoint . There are many good reasons for this.

Well-prepared PowerPoint presentations serve two purposes: firstly, as memory aids and visual support for your presentation ; and secondly, to provide a guide during your presentation and prevent you from losing your train of thought.

PowerPoint notes are a valuable tool for delivering a clear and professional presentation . In this article, we'll show you how to insert, view, and much more.

What exactly are PowerPoint notes?

How to insert PowerPoint notes into your presentation

Do you sometimes wonder how you're supposed to remember or cram everything you want to say during your presentation onto index cards? The solution lies in PowerPoint Notes.

How can you use notes in presentations?

As bullet points with reminders of important elements you want to address.
As planning for processes and transitions
These are interactive questions that you can incorporate into your presentation if appropriate.

Notes can be inserted into PowerPoint in such a way that only you, as the presenter, can see them, while your audience only sees the slides. This article explains how to use this simple trick and how to insert, view, and print PowerPoint notes.

Inserting PowerPoint notes onto slides – a practical tool

There are almost endless possibilities for designing your PowerPoint slides. These include font, color, format, graphics, and also PowerPoint notes. These are helpful features that you can find in the workspace view below each slide .

This allows you to note down what's important to you for each slide, in addition to the slides themselves and their content. Memory aids and pre-written phrases are also well-suited to your notes. This will help you impress your audience and get your ideas across concisely.

But how exactly do you insert PowerPoint notes? We'll explain that in the following paragraph.

How to integrate PowerPoint notes into your presentation - Here's how

The following instructions should help you insert the speaker notes:

First, open your presentation on your Windows or Apple computer.
Below the current slide you will see a small box that says "Click to add notes" .
If this is not the case, you can alternatively right-click to open the "View" menu item and click on "Notes " under "Show ".

Alternatively, you can proceed as follows:

Also select "Notes" at the bottom of the PowerPoint menu bar.
First, open the slide you would like to annotate and then click on the "Notes" tab mentioned above.
To hide your speaker notes, select "Notes" again.

To make your PowerPoint notes as effective as possible, it's advisable to use bullet points instead of full sentences. This will make it easier for you to grasp the most important content and avoid interrupting the flow of your presentation.

When creating PowerPoint notes, you have the opportunity to format your text and, for example, highlight particularly important passages in color. Making specific words bold or italic is also no problem in the notes section of PowerPoint.

We would also like to point out that it is essential to save your PowerPoint presentation regularly. This is the only way to avoid losing your notes or the associated slides.

A video tutorial is available here .

Edit existing PowerPoint notes

If you later realize that the notes you've already created aren't serving their purpose, you can easily edit them. To do this, first open the note in question and click in the text field to rewrite or delete the text.

Delete PowerPoint notes

Just as easily as you can create and edit PowerPoint notes, you can also delete them. You have the option to either remove individual notes from a particular slide or delete all notes at once.

To do this, first open the presentation and select the "File" menu item. Then, under "Info," click the "Check for Issues" button and then "Check Documents." A list will appear, with your PowerPoint notes at the very bottom. Check the box next to them, uncheck all other boxes, and confirm your selection by clicking "Check."

In the next step, you can delete your notes using the "remove all" option.

Pay attention to the design of the notes

Make sure your notes are legible when inserted into PowerPoint. It's pointless to include lengthy sentences in a small font size if you can't read them later. We recommend a minimum font size of 16pt.

You can highlight particularly important information within the PowerPoint notes using color or bold .

However, avoid using color combinations that are difficult to read, such as light text on a light background.

Using PowerPoint notes during a presentation

To use your notes effectively, it's important to present your presentation in Presenter View. You can find more information about Presenter View here . To activate it, open the presentation and then, under "Slide Show" on the right, select Presenter View by checking the box.

You can now start your presentation as usual under the options "from the beginning" or "from the current slide" .

Within presenter view, you can choose between different playback options . On the left side of your screen, you'll see what your audience can see, while the right side displays a preview of the next slide. To enlarge your notes, you can select an "A" to the right of the notes field, which will make the text appear larger or smaller.

Print PowerPoint notes

If you would like to print your notes for yourself or include them in a handout, you can do so either on their own or in combination with the respective slide. Further information about PowerPoint handouts can be found here . To print the presentation along with the slides, proceed as follows:

First, open your presentation and then select the "File" option from the menu bar.
Now select the "Print" menu item and then decide how you want to print your presentation.
A print preview of the presentation will then be displayed, in which you should find the respective slide with the associated notes.
In this step you can also decide whether you want to print the presentation completely or only partially.
You can then confirm everything using the "Print" menu item to start printing.

If you would like to print your PowerPoint notes without the accompanying slides, that is also possible. Here's how:

Open your presentation and then select "Presentation Views" under "View" . Now select the Notes page.
Next, you need to delete the thumbnails on each slide. To do this, click on the individual images and then confirm your selection with the Delete key.
Repeat this process for all slides where you only want to print the notes.
Once you have done this, you can confirm your selection by clicking on "Print" .
On the following page, under "Slides" , select "Notes page" to obtain the desired printout.
As mentioned before, you can also select individual pages here.

Using hyperlinks within PowerPoint notes

Hyperlinks can be used in PowerPoint notes to embed additional information or resources that can be referenced during the presentation. For example, link to a website or video.

To insert a hyperlink, simply click in the text box where you want to insert the hyperlink and select "Insert" from the ribbon. Then click "Hyperlink" and enter the target URL.

Print slides using the Notes Master

A third option for printing your notes is the so-called notes master. If you choose this method, it is important that you first format your slides so that they are suitable as a handout.

To do this, in your open presentation, go to "View," then "Master Views," and then "Notes Master." This will open a template that is ideally suited for a handout and already offers several placeholders and background formats. In the Notes Master, you also have the option to insert a header and footer (for your logo, company name, address, etc.) and thus transform your PowerPoint notes into a clear and concise handout.

If you have edited your notes using the Master View, you can exit it via the "Notes Master" tab, then the "View" menu item, and finally "Normal." You will then see the standard view again, as it appears in PowerPoint. Please note that the changes you have made will often only be visible after printing.

To print the presentation including the notes, select "Print" from the "File" menu. Then, in the "Settings" section, open the first menu item located below the slides and select "Notes Master" .

You now have the choice of printing only specific pages or the entire presentation.

Conclusion: PowerPoint notes – a practical tool for your presentations!

In conclusion, it should be said that PowerPoint notes are an extremely helpful tool that can help you make your presentations even more professional.

If you have any questions regarding PowerPoint notes or PowerPoint in general, please feel free to contact us by email at becker@presentationload.de . We are happy to help and advise you!