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The Global Insight

What are speaker notes on a slide?

Author

Christopher Ramos

Updated on February 11, 2026

What are speaker notes in PowerPoint? Speaker notes in PowerPoint help presenters recall important points, such as key messages or stats, as they give a presentation. The speaker note panel lives at the bottom of your screen in Normal view, although some users may have this section hidden.

How do you write speaker notes on a slide?

Add notes to your slides

  1. On the View menu, click Normal.
  2. Select the thumbnail of the slide you want to add notes to.
  3. The notes pane will appear beneath your slide. Click where it says Click to add notes and type whatever notes you’d like to add.
  4. To hide the notes pane, click the Notes button. on the task bar.

How do I show notes during slides?

View a presentation with speaker notes Open a presentation in Google Slides. In the top right corner, next to “Present,” click the Down arrow . Click Presenter view. Click Speaker notes.

What are the steps to create the speaker notes?

To create speaker notes, click NOTES at the bottom of the editing window. That opens the notes pane, where you type your notes for the slide. To adjust the space in the pane, point to the top border and drag the double-headed arrow cursor up or down. Type what you plan to say and the key points you’ll cover.

Can viewers see speaker notes in Google slides?

Head down to the bottom of the screen and click on the gear icon > Open speaker notes. Speaker notes will open in a new window, so if you’re displaying a presentation via a projector, a two-monitor setup works well (e.g., a laptop and an external monitor). Your audience will only see your presentation.

What does it mean when there is a star next to a slide thumbnail?

The stars are just an indication that the particular slide has custom animation. That was you can quickly see at a glance if a slide has content that is animated. The same star symbol is also shown when the slide itself has any slide transition set.

Can you see speaker notes on Zoom?

Note: To present in Presenter view with speaker notes, click the drop down arrow next to the Present button then select Presenter view. Your presentation will open. Speaker Notes will open in a new window that is not shared.

How do you present slides on Zoom?

Start or join a Zoom meeting. Click Share Screen in the meeting controls. Select your monitor then click Share. While sharing your screen, switch PowerPoint to slide show mode by clicking the Slide Show tab > From Beginning or From Current Slide.

What is a presenter note?

Speaker notes keep a presenter on track during a presentation. Speaker notes are notes added to PowerPoint presentation slides as a reference for the presenter. Notes in a PowerPoint slide are hidden during the presentation and only visible to the one presenting the slides.