Add notes to a slide

You can add speaker notes to help prepare what to say when presenting to an audience. During the slide show, presenter view displays the speaker notes on your monitor so that only you can see them (while also allowing you to take meeting notes as you present). If you want to share your notes with the audience, you can print them for distribution.

Do any of the following:

Add a note

In normal view, you can add notes directly under the slide as you create your presentation.

1. In the navigation pane, click the slide you want to add notes to.

   How to select slides in the navigation pane

   1. On the View menu, click Normal.

   2. In the top of the navigation pane, click the Slides   tab, and then click a slide.Depending on the width of the navigation pane, you will either see the and  named tabs or the Slides  and Outline  icon tabs.  

2. Click in the notes pane located below the slide, and then type your note for the current slide.

   Tips: 

   1. If you do not see the notes pane, drag the bar that is located below the slide.

   2. You can apply text formatting such as bold, italic, and underline to the notes. Text formatting is visible in presenter view and notes page view.

Take meeting notes while you present

In presenter view, any speaker notes that you made for a slide when you created the presentation appear on the left side of the notes pane. You can also type meeting notes while you present.

• Click inside the notes pane on the right, and then type your notes.

  Note: When you exit presenter view, the meeting notes appear below the speaker notes for that slide.

Change or format a note on a slide

You can change the text or format a note while you create a slide or before you print handouts that contain both slides and notes. You can apply text formatting such as bold, italic, and underline to the notes. Text formatting is visible in presenter view and notes page view.

1. In the navigation pane, click the slide that you want to add notes to.

   How to select slides in the navigation pane

   1. On the View menu, click Normal.

   2. In the top of the navigation pane, click the Slides   tab, and then click a slide.Depending on the width of the navigation pane, you will either see the and  named tabs or the Slides  and Outline  icon tabs.  

2. On the View menu, click Notes Page.

3. Do any of the following:

To	Do this
Modify notes	Click in the notes pane, and then type your changes.
Format your notes	Select part or all of the text in the notes pane, and then make the formatting changes that you want. Note: Text formatting such as bold, italic, underline, and bulleted lists appears under notes in both presenter view and normal view. Font formatting such as font size, font type, and font color only appears under notes in presenter view. Some changes that you can make in notes page view — for example, WordArt or images — are included in printed handouts but do not appear in normal view or presenter view.

See also

Print your slides and handouts

Use presenter view

Deliver your presentation