how to record powerpoint presentation with notes

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How to see my notes while recording narrations in PowerPoint

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Let me help you to see the Narration while recording.

Refer to the sections Record a narration before or during a slide show and Preview a narration in the following link and check if it helps:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/record-and-add-narration-and-timings-to-a-slide-show-HA102749693.aspx

Let us know if the steps mentioned in the link were helpful to you.

Thank you.

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Thanks for your reply.

I can see narrations recording on the screen but I still can't see my notes that are my narrations. Do I have to memorize them all?

The step 3 in the "Record comments on a slide" article said that I can see "record" but there is no "record" in the dialog. And can't record comments either on a slide.

By the way, I have Surface Pro with windows8.1 installed Office 365 home premium.

Thanks for your help.

4 people found this reply helpful

Hi, everybody out there, who are wondering why we can't see the notes while recording. No we can't. Because it does not have the function for it. That's why Microsoft Support Team wasn't reply to my question here, I guess or because I haven't paid enough for the software.

I think that PowerPoint doesn't have this functions yet. I maybe wrong but I couldn't get any reply from Microsoft Support Team but I figured out how to see the notes for my narrations during recording. There is a way to see them I found. I had to use the dual monitor configuration and run the slideshow. That case I can see the presenter screen on my PC and the slideshow on the another monitor. Again, this is not for building the presentation. It's only for the record of the voice for the slideshow we are running.

I think that it's for our boss to see if we did right while we were doing the presentation correct on the end of the day. If we have done OK for our work, we can use it again with the recorded one on the next show.

So, we have to look for an alternate and a better one if we like to have this function, I guess. Or add on, such as an articulate.com. I probably haven't paid enough for Microsoft but I've paid whatever they required, but yes, they said it's without any support. And they said to me if you wanted any support, you should pay more. I just couldn't afford to pay more than $300.00 to find out "Sorry, you can't!"

I was looking for the solution including "Sorry, you can't" or "There is a way but you have to pay for it."

I just wanted to find out if I could do it or not.

THAT'S THE ANSWER FOR THIS QUESTION. THANKS. PLEASE REPLY IF I'M WRONG.

67 people found this reply helpful

I'm still having very hard time to record voices on the slides and playback. I figured out this MS Powerpoint doesn't have a function to record voices while building a presentation although we can record our voice while presenting but it's not easy and controllable.  

When I go on the menu on top,  

SLIDE SHOW  

Record Slide Show (Both Checked)  

MY Slide Show is launched and the presenter slide show with note displays on my Surface Pro and the presentation displays on the another monitor since I have dual monitor configuration. I also see recording diagram with elapsed time on the presenting monitor.  

Then, I pressed Enter key to move the next slide, the recording diagram will disappear. It works on the another monitor and on my Surface Pro screen but either slide sample on the left nor notes on the presenter screen. When I hit enter key again, the new slide will insert on the presenter PC.  

In this same operation it works sometimes as I expected. That is moving the next slide and notes as well by pressing enter key.  

Rehearse Timing in the menu does the same.  

And no selection available if I have custom slide shows. The recording slide show will be only the first one in the custom slide show list.No chance to pick up other ones.  

Am I missing something to do?  

Thanks for your help.  

36 people found this reply helpful

• Article Author |
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If you don't need the sound to be continuous from one slide to the next, you could record your narration in a sound editor like Audacity (free), which'll give you FAR better control over the sound quality and allow you to edit out any oopsies.  Save each slide's sound to a file as you finish recording it, then insert it on the slide (Insert | Audio).  

Or you can Insert | Audio | Record Audio to record and insert the audio using PPT's default settings.

You can then either have the audio start when clicked (the default) or you can select it, then Animations | add a PLAY animation, change timing to Start: With Previous to have the sound play automatically.

You can do all of this in normal view, where you can see your slide notes.

Or you could print your notes.  To dead trees, or save them as PDF and open the PDF and PPT (in windowed view) and record your narration.

10 people found this reply helpful

That link is similar to the answer found in the PowerPoint ? icon.  However, it does not show you how to set a mode in which you can see your notes and record your voice at the same time.  This is frustrating.

My solution:  Copy & paste my notes into Note Pad and start my narration for each slide.  I think that the notes in PowerPoint were developed to be viewed only for live presentations--not voice recordings.

It would be a wonderful upgrade if we could record narration and see our notes at the same time.  ;-)

15 people found this reply helpful

• Volunteer Moderator |
• Article Author

1 person found this reply helpful

I agree with you, that this would be a great feature.

And I agree with John; his suggestion is the best way of getting your request in front of the developers who add features to PPT.

Meanwhile, here's a bit of VBA that'll automatically export your notes text to a file and open the file.  Saves all that wrist-wearying select/copy/paste stuff.

Export the notes text of a presentation

I could not find the VBA for exporting notes to another file. That would have been helpful.

I fail to see why MS has not corrected the problem of why one feature (recording) turns off another related feature (presenter mode). It would seem that Steve as an authorized moderator could count how many people over what period of time want this corrected rather than direct us to have to log it into a list of requested enhancements.

And, BTW, this thread was about the 10th item list from the Google search on "cannot see speaker notes when recording in powerpoint" --so some would have gotten fed up by the 5th on the list. 

12 people found this reply helpful

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How to Record a PowerPoint Presentation with Narration

Can be helpful in creating a dramatic narrative

Microsoft PowerPoint has a built-in recording tool that allows you to narrate your presentations using recorded audio. You can export and share recorded presentations as video files.

This tutorial covers everything about recording PowerPoint presentations on Windows and Mac computers.

Record PowerPoint Presentation with Narration

Open the PowerPoint file/presentation you want to record and follow the steps below.

Record PowerPoint Presentation on Windows

• Select the slide you want to start recording from on the slide thumbnail pane.

• Head to the Record tab on the ribbon and select the Record button to start recording from the current/selected slide.

To record from the first slide, select the down-facing arrow icon below the Record button and select From Beginning .

You can also record a presentation from the Slide Show tab. Select Slide Show on the ribbon and select Record , From Current Slide , or From Beginning .

That’ll open PowerPoint’s presentation recorder in a fullscreen window.

• Select the Record icon and start speaking after the three seconds countdown.

PowerPoint records the presentation window and captures your voice and webcam feed as you navigate the slides. Select the left-facing and right-facing arrows to move to the previous and next slides in the presentation.

Record PowerPoint Presentation in macOS

• Open the Slide Show tab and select Record Slide Show .

• Select the Record button on the toolbar to start recording your narration.

Use your keyboard arrow keys to move back and forth between slides. Press N or Space Bar to move to the next slide or animation in the presentation. Press P or Backspace to return to the previous slide or animation.

Select Tips in the top-left corner for more keyboard shortcuts and other presentation tips .

Note: The narration tool doesn’t record slide transitions. When moving between slides, wait for the destination slide to appear on the screen before speaking.

PowerPoint Recorder Control/Settings

You’ll find a handful of controls and options on the recording tool. We’ll show you how to use these controls to include voiceovers or audio recordings in your presentation.

Using Presentation Pointer Tools

PowerPoint provides several tools to mark up your slides when narrating your presentation. There’s a pen tool, eraser, laser pointer, and highlighter.

With the Pen tool, you can draw on slides during narration/recording. Press Ctrl + P (Windows) or Command + P (Mac) to use the pen tool. You can also select the Pen icon to convert the pointer to a pen.

The Laser pointer tool converts your cursor to an onscreen laser. Use the laser pointer to draw attention to something on a slide/presentation.

Press Ctrl + L (Windows) or Command + L (Mac) to use the laser pointer. There’s also a Laser pointer icon on the toolbar.

Pressing Ctrl + I (or selecting the Highlighter tool ) converts your cursor to a highlighter.

Use the Eraser tool to remove inks and highlight from slides. Select the Eraser icon or press Ctrl + E and select the ink to erase.

On macOS, select the Erase Pen icon (or press E ) to erase all drawings and highlights on the slide.

You can change the pointer tools ink from the color selection boxes. However, one major limitation is that you can’t change the size of these pointer tools.

Pause and Resume Your Recording

In Windows, press I on your keyboard or select the Pause button in the top-left corner to pause your recording.

Press I again or select the Record icon to resume the recording.

If you use a Mac, select the Pause icon in the top toolbar to pause the recording.

Unmute or Mute Microphone

Check that your microphone is unmuted before recording. Select the microphone icon in the bottom-right corner to mute or unmute your mic.

PowerPoint for Windows allows you to mute and unmute your microphone in real time while recording video/audio narrations. The macOS version of PowerPoint only lets you configure your camera and microphone settings before recording.

Switch Microphone or Camera

Want to record your presentation with an external microphone or camera? Press Ctrl + M or select the audio/camera settings icon in the top-right corner and choose your preferred microphone/camera.

In macOS, select the microphone icon to mute or unmute your microphone. Select the arrow-down icon next to the microphone or camcorder icons to switch input devices.

Enable and Disable Camera

The recorder displays your camera or webcam feed in the bottom-right corner of the presentation slides.

Select the camcorder icon to remove your webcam feed from the recording. Select the icon again to display your webcam feed in the presentation.

You can also use the Ctrl + K keyboard shortcut on Windows computers to enable or disable your camera.

On Mac computers, you’ll find the video control icon on the top toolbar.

Note: The recording tool greys out the camcorder icon if your microphone is turned off.

Enable or Disable Camera Preview

PowerPoint allows you to disable the camera preview without turning off your camera or webcam.

Press Ctrl + J (Windows) or select the Camera Preview icon in the bottom-right corner to disable or enable the camera preview.

End a Recording

Press S on your Windows keyboard or select the Stop icon to end the recording.

Replay or Preview Your Recording

When you end a narration, press V on your keyboard or select Replay to preview or watch the recording.

The recorded narration will include all pen inks, highlights, and laser pointer gestures made during the presentation.

You can also preview/replay the narration outside the recording tool. Open the Slide Show tab and choose to watch the playback From Beginning or From Current Slide .

PowerPoint allows you to preview the playback on individual slides. A speaker/audio icon appears in the bottom-right of PowerPoint slides with narrations.

Choose the slide you want to preview, hover your cursor on the speaker icon in the bottom-right corner, and select Play .

Delete Current Narration/Recording

Did you spot an error when previewing your presentation? Want to delete the current narration and start from scratch?

Select the Clear existing recordings icon and choose whether to Clear Recordings on Current Slide or Clear Recordings on All Slides .

On Mac, select the Bin icon to delete the entire narration/recording.

Close the Narration Tool

Select the X icon on the title bar to close the presentation narration tool and return to Powerpoint.

Select End Show in the top-left corner to close the recording tool on a Mac computer.

Delete Narrations from Slides

Want to delete the narration or timing on an individual slide or the entire presentation? Select the slide with the narration you want to delete and follow the steps below.

• Open the Record tab and select the down-facing arrow below the Record icon.
• Select Clear and choose to clear timing or narration on current or all slides.

Export Recorded or Narrated Presentation

You can export a narrated PowerPoint presentation as a video file. The video output includes ink strokes, recorded audio/video, laser pointer gestures, and webcam/camera recording.

• Open the Record tab and select Export to Video .

Alternatively, open the File menu, select Export on the sidebar, and select Create a Video .

• Choose the quality of the video export in the first drop-down box—Ultra HD (4K), Full HD (1080p), HD (720p), Standard (480p).

• Choose Use Recorded Timings and Narrations in the next drop-down box and select Create Video .

• Give the recorded presentation a file name and select Save .

Narrate Your PowerPoint Presentations

The Microsoft PowerPoint web app doesn’t have a recording tool. As a result, you can only record presentations with narrations using PowerPoint for Windows or Mac.

You might meet issues recording a slide show if you use an outdated version of PowerPoint. Also, the recording tool on older versions of PowerPoint has a different interface and lacks some controls. Update PowerPoint and restart your computer if you cannot record a slide show.

Sodiq has written thousands of tutorials, guides, and explainers over the past 4 years to help people solve problems with Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows devices. He also enjoys reviewing consumer tech products (smartphones, smart home devices, accessories, etc.) and binge-watching comedy series in his spare time. Read Sodiq's Full Bio

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How to Record A PowerPoint Presentation [2022 User Guide]

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By Nikolay Kaloyanov

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If knowing how to record a PowerPoint presentation wasn’t necessary a decade ago, this isn’t how things stand today. The pandemic taught us a valuable lesson – if we don’t catch up with technology, we will fall short.

Fortunately, Microsoft’s app is the global leader in presentation software and provides you with all the required tools to create an excellent presentation you can show in front of your audience. But how to record a presentation on PowerPoint, and is it easy to do so?

Article overview: 1. What are the benefits of recording PowerPoint presentations? 2. How to record a PowerPoint presentation? 3. How to live stream a PowerPoint presentation? 4. Frequently asked questions

1. What are the benefits of recording PowerPoint presentations?

I am are pretty sure that if recording presentations weren’t helpful, PowerPoint wouldn’t offer it to its users. Well, we all know that’s not the case. Recording your PowerPoint slides can bring a ton of benefits. Let’s see which they are:

• Save time  – regardless if you’re a lecturer or present in front of colleagues, having a video of your recording will save you many hours. Imagine speaking in front of your marketing team, but 2 members are on summer holidays. It’s fine. They’ll catch up later when they watch your PowerPoint recording.
• Focus on the presentation  – usually, if you’re presenting in front of an audience, it’s typical to get asked many questions that you need to answer promptly. But that is a good reason to get distracted from your core information. Thus, it makes sense to record your presentation beforehand.
• Practice before presenting – the best way to carry out a great presentation is to spend some time at home, focusing on key details. When you record your PowerPoint slides, you can find areas of improvement and work on them.

2. How to record a PowerPoint presentation?

There are many tools that you can use to record a PowerPoint presentation. From Loom and Panopto, and even Apple’s basic Quicktime and Windows’ own recording tool. But here we will discuss none of the other options. Why? The answer is simple: PowerPoint has its own in-built, robust recording tool.

Unlike other options, PowerPoint’s recording feature enables you to record slide by slide. This effectively means you can create as many recordings as you like, until you like the playback version, and move on to the next slide.

Pro tip : PowerPoint doesn’t record slide transitions. You need to start recording each slide when it is opened and finish the recording before you move on to the next one.

Let’s see how to record a PowerPoint presentation with video and audio in just a few steps.

Step #1: Open your PowerPoint presentation

The first step is to open the PowerPoint presentation you wish to record. Ensure you have all the necessary slides and information on them. While this seems logical, there aren’t one or two cases when presenters have recorded wrong or unfinished slides, which leads to a disappointing outcome.

Step #2: Prepare your video and audio devices

Before you start the recording, you should check your camera and microphone. Try to make a sound check and see if your camera works properly.

Step #3: Select the slides you wish to record

PowerPoint gives you the option to record a presentation right from the beginning, or from a specifically selected slide.

• Pick “ From Beginning ” (1) from the Record tab of the Ribbon if you wish to start from the first slide.
• Pick “ From Current Slide ” (2) from the same tab in case you would like to start from a selected slide (which isn’t the first one).
• Click the Record button (3) which is positioned in the top right corner, between the Comments  and Share buttons. It starts the recording from the slide you have currently selected.

Step #4: Start the recording

Once you click on one of the options, you are ready to start narrating your PowerPoint presentation. You will see a countdown timer, after which you can start narrating slides.

Step #5: Manage your PowerPoint recording

You have probably seen a couple of other options aside from the recording one. Let’s see which they are:

• Timer with a grey/red light – if you are recording your narration, you will see a timer and a small circle with a red light that indicates you are recording. If you pause, the small circle indicator will become grey again and the timer will stop counting.
• Refresh icon – right next to the timer there is a refresh-like icon but it serves a different purpose – to re-take the recording. You have the option to record again the current slide or all slides.
• Start/Stop button  – the big red button serves as a start/stop button for your recordings. Only stop the recording when you want to move on to the next slide.
• Pause button – if you would like to stop the slide recording, in order to drink some water or read your speaker notes, you can use the Pause button, and then resume the recording. Bear in mind you cannot pause and move to the next slide. You have to stop the recording, to indicate you have finished with the current slide.
• Camera button  – clicking the camera button will work as a toggle on/off.
• Microphone Button – clicking the microphone button will work as a toggle on/off.
• Ellipsis – this is the place where you can select camera and microphone settings, as well as erase recordings from the current slide or all slides.

Step #6: Export your PowerPoint video recording

The last button from the menu is the Export setting. You can export your narration as an mp4 file in Full HD size by default. However, you can customize your export and get your narration in 4 sizes – 480p, 720p (HD), 1080p (Full HD – standard), and 4K. We don’t recommend Ultra HD exports.

Pro Tip : Exporting 4K PowerPoint presentation recordings doesn’t necessarily mean you will get better quality (unless you have 4K resources within your presentation) but it does guarantee a significantly larger file size – up to 4 times more than on standard Full HD recordings.

3. How to live stream a PowerPoint presentation?

If you have already honed your skills and would like to stream your PowerPoint slides directly to your audience, there are many ways to do so. We are going to cover two of them.

3.1. How to stream a PowerPoint presentation from OneDrive?

Microsoft has invested a lot of resources to make OneDrive a powerful cloud service, and so far they have been quite successful. Let’s see how to record a PowerPoint presentation in front of live audiences.

Step 1 – save your PowerPoint presentation in OneDrive.

Step 2 – open your PowerPoint slides from PowerPoint online.

Step 3 – go to Present Live  from the Slideshow Ribbon tab.

Step 4 – share a  live link with your audience.

3.2. Stream your PowerPoint presentation in Zoom

Zoom is one of the most popular conference call apps which has plenty of tools, including live streaming presentations. Since PowerPoint is the leading presentation program in the world, Zoom developers have created some amazing things, like PowerPoint presentation recording with a web camera on a transparent background. If you’re interested, you can check our guide on how to record a Zoom presentation .

Does PowerPoint have a screen recording?

PowerPoint has a screen recording window and you can select the area you would like to be recorded. Go to Record  (from the Ribbon), then select Screen Recording , choose the area and start recording.

Can I view speaker notes while recording narration?

You are able to access your speaker notes if you have created them beforehand. To insert speaker notes, you have to go to View -> Notes Page  and you will have a text box that you can utilize for speaker notes.

What format does PowerPoint use for video?

PowerPoint records videos in mp4 format. The default resolution is 1080p (Full HD).

Recording your PowerPoint presentations can make the difference between a successful and smooth speech and a bad narration. Being able to record each slide means you can get the best narration possible for your whole presentation.

And if you would like to stream your presentation live, there are more than enough options to do so – both via the online version of PowerPoint or via third-party apps like Zoom.

If you found this article helpful, you can also check some of our other PowerPoint tutorials:

• Add Audio to PowerPoint: The Quick Step-by-Step Guide
• Insert GIFs into PowerPoint – a 2022 Pocket Guide
• How to Convert Your PowerPoint Presentation into Google Slides ?

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Home Blog PowerPoint Tutorials How to Record a Presentation in PowerPoint

How to Record a Presentation in PowerPoint

Recording PowerPoint presentations can have several benefits. They can serve as recordings of a session that can be uploaded online, shared with participants who might not be able to attend a presentation session, or used as tutorials for passing on instructions.

How to Record a PowerPoint Presentation

PowerPoint provides multiple options for initiating recording for a presentation. You can also choose to record audio and yourself presenting the slides using your camera. When recording your presentations, you can choose PowerPoint templates or something minimalist made by you to record the session. Just be mindful of the graphics to ensure the video does not appear overpowering to the viewer.

How do I Record a PowerPoint Presentation as a Video?

You can start recording your presentation using the following method.

• Record Tab: To record a PowerPoint presentation, go to the Record tab and select whether you wish to record from the beginning, from the current slide, a specific area on the screen, or record audio.
• Slide Show Tab: you can also initiate recording a PPT via Slide Show -> Record to initiate recording from the current slide or the beginning of your presentation.

Record Button: If you’re using the latest version of PowerPoint, you can start Recording your presentation from the current slide via the Record button in the top right corner.

Record from the Current Slide or Beginning of the Presentation

Starting your recording from the beginning of the current slide will open your presentation in recording mode. Hit Record to start the recording.

Screen Recording in PowerPoint

If you initiate screen recording in PowerPoint, you can start recording a screencast by selecting the area you wish to record. This is similar to recording a PowerPoint presentation as a video, with the added advantage of recording other parts of your desktop. This method can also be used for recording a screencast, even if you’re not using a PowerPoint presentation in your video recording.

To start the recording, click Record or use the Windows+SHIFT+R hotkey. To stop the screen recording, click Pause to temporarily halt the recording to resume later or Stop or the Windows+SHIFT+Q hotkey to end the recording session.

The recorded video will be instantly added to your slide once you click Stop .

Record Audio

Another option in the Record tab in PowerPoint is to record audio narrations for your PowerPoint presentation. Simply click Record to start, Pause to temporarily halt, and Stop to stop the recording process.

Once the recording stops, the audio will be added to your PowerPoint presentation.

How can I Annotate Slides in PowerPoint During a Recording?

Once you enter recording mode, you can start annotating your slides using the Pen or Highlighter tool. Other tools in the menu include a Laser pointer and Eraser.

How can I Record a PowerPoint Presentation with Audio?

To enable audio for your Powerpoint recording, unmute the mic from the audio icon on top, CTRL+M hotkey, or click the three dots ( More options for recording menu), followed by the Microphone to select the audio device for recording. You can only record audio if an audio device is connected to your computer. This is a fairly simple process, unlike other presentation platforms. For example, in an earlier article, we showed you how to do a voiceover on Google Slides , which entails a slightly more elaborate process.

How to Record Yourself Presenting a PowerPoint?

Enable the camera during a recording session.

Like turning on audio, you can toggle the camera on or off using the icon on top. The camera input device can also be selected via the Camera option or CTRL+K hotkey, which can be revealed via the three dots from the top menu.

Insert Video Recording in a Slide using Cameo

PowerPoint’s Cameo feature enables recording a video to insert in a slide. You can use the feature to quickly insert a video message in your slides that can be played during a presentation session. This option might also be relevant if you intend to convert PowerPoint to video . If you are looking how to video record yourself presenting a PowerPoint, then follow the steps below.

Once Cameo is turned on, you can also choose to stylize the camera shape, style, border, and add effects. Cameo is quite a unique feature in PowerPoint that currently does not have alternatives in rival presentation apps. For example, you cannot use a similar feature if you wish to convert Google Slides to video .

How to Save Recording for a PowerPoint Presentation?

After you have completed your recording, click Export to save the presentation recording.

You can customize your recording settings via Customize Export or continue the process via Export Video .

Using the Customize Export option, you can choose between a desired output quality for your video, including Ultra HD (4K), Full HD (1080p), HD (720p), and Standard (480p).

Other options in the menu include the ability to choose and preview timings and narrations.

After you are satisfied with your recording settings, you can export your presentation to video.

The video recording of your PowerPoint presentation can be played using any standard video player. The video can also be embedded in PowerPoint slides, uploaded online, such as to a YouTube channel, or shared via cloud storage apps like Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, etc.

Final Words

Recording a PowerPoint presentation can provide a record of a session that might be required for further sharing. The best way to record a presentation is to ensure that your slides aren’t visually overpowering, your audio is clear and audible, and if using a camera, the cam input isn’t hazy, grainy, or too dark.

Once you are familiar with how to record a presentation on PowerPoint, it might take a bit of practice to make your video recording look professional and crisp. It’s best to practice your sessions before recording them until you can seamlessly record presentation decks.

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Everything You Need to know About Notes in PowerPoint

• Post author: Jacob Stauttener
• Post published: October 11, 2021
• Post category: Presentations
• Post last modified: August 15, 2022
• Reading time: 23 mins read

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Do you have a presentation to make and find yourself wondering how to add notes to PowerPoint?

Adding notes to your PowerPoint Presentation is a simple and effective way to make presenting easier. In this article, we will go over how you can add notes to PowerPoint, tips on using those notes, and how to print some fancy PowerPoint notes.

Now, let’s get right into it!

Why Would I Want Notes in my PowerPoint?

PowerPoint Slides are not meant to be your script. They are meant to enhance your message and help guide the attention of your audience. Generally, you want the audience’s focus to be on you and your spoken word – not your slides.

The temptation for many first starting with PowerPoint is to place all of the information they need to discuss on the slides. The problem with this is that the audience begins to read your slides and lose concentration on the words from your mouth. When the audience reads your slides ahead of you, they often lose their interest fast and their attention is split between your words and what is on the slide.

PowerPoint gives you a simple way to add notes to your slides that your audience never sees. These notes are there to help you so you never have to use your presentation deck as your script. Instead, you the notes section.

So, how do we add notes to PowerPoint?

How to Add Notes to PowerPoint

Microsoft made adding notes to PowerPoint extremely easy. All you have to do is go down to the bottom of the screen where it says “Click to add notes”. Once you click there, you can add in your notes for the presentation.

I recommend that you use this for a point form. For my videos made from converted PowerPoint files, I like to write my full script there. I have also seen marketing, communications and presentation professionals use this space for stage and technical directions too.

What to do if you Don’t See the Notes Section

If you don’t see the notes section, there is a little tab at the bottom of the screen that you can click to make the notes appear.

I want to point out that the you can adjust the separating bars between sections. You can change the size of the notes area by hovering over the line and then clicking, holding and dragging that line to resize the area.

Different Views and Adding Notes

Speaking of different views, you don’t need to write out all your notes on the default slide design page (also known as the “Normal” View). You can also access these notes in the “Outline View” and the “Notes Page” too.

Personally, I like editing my notes in the “Normal View”. Remember that you can resize your notes window by hovering over the bar above it. When you see the two sided arrow, click and drag to resize the window. That will give you ample room to edit your notes while viewing your slides. The “Notes Page” is also a good view for editing your notes.

How Should I Write Up my Notes in PowerPoint?

How you write up your notes for your presentation is completely up to you. My opinion is that the best method is to write out a series of point form notes that remind you of your salient points and to act as a guide to keep you on track. This way, you don’t get off track, cover everything you want and maximize your potential interaction with the audience.

To me, so long as you know the content, this is the best way to present to your audience as it allows flexibility in your delivery to cater to the room. It his harder to adjust to your delivery if your presentation is fully scripted out.

• My opinion – point form notes are the best
• State only your salient points
• Use as a guide to stay on topic and to remember important points
• There are also plenty of reasons to fully type out your presentation script

While I prefer bullet point scripts when I present, your support crews would likely prefer that you stick to a fully written script with stage directions. This helps the show go smoothly for larger events where you have people helping the presenter in the delivery of their message. When the presenter follows a full script completely it helps everyone involved in that delivery stay on track and not miss queues such as when to change the slide, join in the conversation, or adjust an AV setting (like lighting).

As mentioned earlier, you could add stage directions in the PowerPoint notes section for the presenter or tech crew. Let’s talk a little bit about that now.

Use Your Notes for Stage Directions Too

Using the Notes section of PowerPoint, you can add in reminders for yourself (and anyone helping) about stage and technical directions. Perhaps you have an external video that you want queued up or a secondary source shown for a live demo. You can add this there to keep everyone on track. If you have multiple presenters delivering different parts of the presentation to your audience, you can also use the Notes section to direct who will be presenting each part.

[Square Brackets] are a common way to differentiate the spoken script words from the presentation directions. Italics also work well .

Highlights will show up in your handouts “Notes Page”, but they don’t generally show in other modes of PowerPoint. I advise sticking to Square Brackets, Italics or whatever you find already works with you and your support staff.

Again, how you choose to write your script in PowerPoint notes is up to you. As a presenter, I prefer bullet points. When I use PowerPoint to create hobby videos, I like to use a full written script. While supporting presenters as a media technician, I prefer a fully scripted notes section with stage directions.

You will have to find what works best for you. Now, let’s chat about how to actually use the notes section of PowerPoint when it comes to Presenting, Recording and printing Handouts.

How to use PowerPoint Notes – Presenting, Recording and Handouts

Now that we have the notes in our presentation, how do we use them? Microsoft gave us three effective ways to use these notes. You can use them as your speaker notes while you present to an audience, notes while you record a presentation, and as part of a handout for your audience. Let’s go through how to do all three of these uses for PowerPoint notes.

How to Present with Speaker Notes

Just like adding notes, presenting with speaker notes is extremely easy. All you have to do is present in Presenter view with two screens. This second screen could be your home monitor, a TV at the office or a projector at a convention center.

To make sure that your presentation is set up to take advantage of presenter view, go to “Slide Show”. From there, make sure that “Use Presenter View” is selected. When you go to show the presentation, the computer will automatically set up one screen with the presenter’s view and the other with the full screen slides.

You can change which screen the slides show on by changing the “Monitor”. The other will become your Presenter View screen.

A Quick Look at the Presenter View

This is a fantastic tool for both anyone who has to control a PowerPoint presentation in front of a live audience or anyone presenting to a virtual audience too. As a media technician I use this view all the time. It is great for following the scripts of the presenters and also works out great while running webcasts too. The only problem about this view is that you need two monitors to get the option to function.

The screen shot above shows a PowerPoint deck that I turned into a video for a YouTube channel. This is the presentation showing in “Presenter View”. The slide is on the left, the next slide is on the right and under it is my script (or the notes section).

When you go to record your slide deck, you can also still access your notes. Let me demonstrate below.

How to Record with Speaker Notes

To record a presentation, you go to “Slide Show” followed by “Record Slide Show”.

There you will find the notes on a toggle button near the top middle of your screen.

I find this one annoying to use because it is so small, but its location forces you to look almost directly into your laptop’s webcam (as most laptops have it located at the top of the computer screen). If you are recording video with you content in PowerPoint, this is a huge bonus! I can’t think of a better place to put the script other than right under the camera for giving the audience the impression that you are talking to them when you are reading your script.

How to Print Speaker Notes with Slides in PowerPoint

Even though we live in a paperless society, we still need to make printouts and hand outs. You can make them electronically (as PDFs) or physically on paper. One great way to access your notes is through the Notes Page. You can find this by clicking on “View” and then “Notes Page.”

If you have any presenters that want a printed copy of the notes for the podium (or technical or communications staff that also need the notes), I recommend that you print off the slide deck’s “Notes Page”.

To print your notes, select “File” and then “Print”. Here you will find a drop down for the slide layout. It likely says “Full Page Slides” to start. Change this to “Notes Pages”. You will see an image of the printer page further down in the article when I show you how to make fancy handouts with this same view.

Below is how the printout will look by default. Personally I find this layout very straight forward to work with.

“But wait, you mentioned I can turn this view into good looking handouts. How do I do that?”

Creating Impressive Handouts with Notes – Altering the Layout of Handout Notes in PowerPoint

Now let’s look at how to take the notes (or script) of your presentation and turn that into a nice handout to give to your audience.

As a tip, I like to back up my files before I mess around with the layouts, but that is up to you on whether you do that or not.

To print, I went to “File” and then “Print”. On the print screen, I make sure that I choose the “Notes Pages” under the settings.

You can then print these handouts as PDF files or as physical copies.

Creating PowerPoint Handouts with Word

As with all things computers, there are usually multiple ways to doing things. Sometimes, those ways lead to different results but cover the same end goal. Here is another way to do handouts. This time, we utilize Microsoft Word.

You may want to back up your work before you go through with this just to be on the safe side.

As a note, the function to export PowerPoint to Word takes a lot of memory. If you run into problems or see the message “PowerPoint couldn’t write to Microsoft Word,” restart your computer. Then run the Export with all other programs closed. If that still does not work, split the PowerPoint into two separate presentations. One with the first half of the slides and the other with the second half. Export both of those presentations and then combine them in Word.

Relevant Links…

In this post, I made reference a few times to my hobby videos On top of Tech Presenters, I run another website focused on tabletop gaming. That website also has a YouTube channel connected to it. I made all of my early videos on that channel using PowerPoint. Now I use video editors instead, but it is surprising how much you can do with PowerPoint.

If you are interested in video editors, check out my article “ The Best Free Video Editors Out There For the PC” . You can also find more PowerPoint Tips right here on Tech Presenters. One article that I would like to direct your attention to is “ The Hottest PowerPoint HotKeys for Presenters “. Be sure to check that article out for some HotKeys that could help you present better in front of an audience.

Turning back to this article, the PowerPoint files that I screen captured are from the videos listed below. I made them using PowerPoint and even wrote my scripts into the notes section of the program.

• LED Lamp Review for Painting, Building and Photographing Miniatures – Lamp by GameCraft Miniatures
• 28mm WW2 Soviet Train Station Review – MDF Terrain by Things from the Basement soon on Kickstarter
• Monster Scenery Terrain Review – Broken Ground – Pre-painted terrain for miniature gaming and RPGs

On top of these videos, I also have a related Website called Must Contain Minis .

For those wondering, I am using Office 365 on Windows 10.

Now, let’s finish up this article.

Bringing it Together…

In this article, we went over how to add notes to PowerPoint. Not only that, but we went further and also discussed how to use the notes during presentations, for recording and for printing off handouts.

As a presentation support professional, I find coupling my slides with notes extremely handy. As a presenter, these notes help me stay on track and to make sure that I cover all of the important points that I wanted to make. Knowing how to use these notes, and how to get the most out of them, really helps in delivering the best presentations that you can.

Personally I like to keep back up files and older versions of my files in case I run into any problems. In general, I am pretty cautious in my approach and there is not harm in keeping multiple files. Just make sure that you name them well and work on the newest version. I figured I would leave that reminder here. If you are playing around with the layout of your notes page or messing around with what appears on them, it might be a good idea to keep a back up to go to in case things don’t work as intended.

Until next time, Happy Presenting Everyone!!!

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Record a Slide Show in PowerPoint – Instructions

How to record a slide show in powerpoint: video.

            This video lesson, titled “ Record a Slide Show ,” shows how to record a slide show in PowerPoint. This video lesson is from our complete PowerPoint tutorial , titled “ Mastering PowerPoint Made Easy v.2019 and 365 .”

Overview of How to Record a Slide Show in PowerPoint:

What to know before you start recording a slide show in powerpoint:.

            Before you record a slide show in PowerPoint, you must have a computer with a sound card, speakers, and a microphone. To optionally record video, too, you must have a camera. These tools let you record your presentation, slide by slide, as you deliver it. When recording the slide show, PowerPoint records its narration, slide advancement timings, annotations, and any optional video you record.

            PowerPoint saves this data on a per-slide basis, so you can easily reorganize the slides after recording without losing recorded content. This also lets you re-record only a selected slide if you need to correct a mistake during recording. However, PowerPoint doesn’t record audio or video during slide transitions, so do not speak during slide transitions or it will be lost. You should also give yourself a small buffer before and after a slide transition to ensure all your narration is recorded.

            After you finish recording, you can play the recording in Slide Show view or save the presentation as a video file. This helps you deliver a presentation to others if you cannot deliver it in person.

How to Record a Slide Show in PowerPoint:

            To record a slide show in PowerPoint, click the “Record Slide Show” drop-down button in the “Set Up” button group on the “Slide Show” tab of the Ribbon. Alternatively, if you have the “Recording” tab in the Ribbon enabled in your version of PowerPoint, you can click the same drop-down button which also appears in the “Record” button group there. To start recording from the first slide in the presentation, then select the “Record from Beginning…” command. Alternatively, to start recording from the currently active slide, choose the “Record from Current Slide…” command.

            At that point, the presentation then opens in the Recording window, which is very similar to the Presenter View. The selected slide appears in the center of the window. To record, pause, or stop recording, click the desired button in the upper-left corner of the Recording window.

            Optionally, to disable audio, video, or the video preview, click the desired button in the lower-right corner of the window. To change your camera or microphone, if needed, click the “Settings” button in the upper-right corner of the window, roll over the desired category, and then select your choice from the side menu that appears. To show speaker’s notes, click the “Notes” button at the top of the window.

A picture showing how to record a slide show in PowerPoint using the Recording window in PowerPoint for Microsoft 365.

            To start recording the slide show, click the “Record” button, which looks like a red circle. A three second countdown then starts, after which you can start delivering your presentation. To make annotations, click the desired tool at the bottom of the Recording window. Then select a color to the left, if needed. Then draw the annotation. Annotations are also recorded with the slide.

            To pause the recording, if needed, click the “Pause” button in the upper-left corner of the Recording window after the recording starts. To stop the recording, when finished, click the “Stop” button in the upper-left corner of the Recording window.

How to Clear Slide Recordings, Replay Recordings, and Close the Recording Window:

            To clear all recording from a slide when you are not recording, navigate to the slide in the Recording window. Then click the “Clear” drop-down button towards the upper-right corner of the window. Then select the “Clear Recordings on Current Slide” command from the drop-down menu that appears. You can then re-record the content for the slide. Alternatively, to delete all recordings from all slides, select the “Clear Recordings on All Slides” command from the drop-down menu, instead.

            To play the recording from the current slide, if desired, click the “Replay” button in the upper-left corner of the Recording window. To return to Normal view after you finish recording, press the “Esc” key on your keyboard click the “X” button in the upper-right corner of the Recording window.

Playing a Recorded Slide Show and Clearing Slides in Normal View:

            To play the recorded slide show in Slide Show view, just click the “From Beginning” or “From Current Slide” button in the “Start Slide Show” button group on the “Slide Show” tab of the Ribbon when in Normal view, as usual.

            To clear either recorded slide timings or narrations (meaning audio, video, and annotations) from one or all slides in PowerPoint when using Normal view, first select the desired slide, if needed. Then click the “Record Slide Show” drop-down button on either the “Slide Show” or “Recording” tab of the Ribbon. Then roll over the “Clear” command in the drop-down menu. Finally, select the desired type of element to clear and from which slides to clear it from the four choices in the side menu that appears.

How to Manually Present a Recorded Slide Show:

            After you record a slide show in PowerPoint, you may want to manually present it again without the recorded narrations or slide timings. You can toggle those settings off to accomplish this. If you want to disable recorded timings and/or narrations for a slide show, click the “Slide Show” tab in the Ribbon. To disable slide timings, uncheck the “Use timings” check box in the “Set Up” button group. To disable narrations, uncheck the “Play Narrations” checkbox in the “Set Up” button group.

Instructions on How to Record a Slide Show in PowerPoint:

Things to know before recording a slide show in powerpoint:.

• Before you record a slide show in PowerPoint , you must have a computer with a sound card, speakers, and a microphone.
• To optionally record video, too , you must have a camera.

Instructions on Recording a Slide Show in PowerPoint:

• To record a slide show in PowerPoint , click the “Record Slide Show” drop-down button in the “Set Up” button group on the “Slide Show” tab of the Ribbon.
• Alternatively , if the “Recording” tab of the Ribbon is enabled in your version of PowerPoint, you can click the same drop-down button in the “Record” button group there.
• To start recording from the first presentation slide , select the “Record from Beginning…” command.
• Alternatively, to start recording from the currently active slide , choose the “Record from Current Slide…” command.
• The presentation then opens in the Recording window and the selected slide appears in the center of the window.
• To record, pause, or stop recording , click the desired button in the upper-left corner of the Recording window.
• Optionally, to disable audio, video, or the video preview , click the desired button in the lower-right corner of the window.
• To change your camera or microphone, if needed , click the “Settings” button in the upper-right corner of the window, roll over the desired category, and then select your choice from the side menu.
• If you want to show speaker’s notes , click the “Notes” button at the top of the window.
• To start recording the slide show , click the “Record” button, which looks like a red circle.
• A three second countdown then starts, after which you can start delivering your presentation.
• If you need to make annotations , click the desired tool at the bottom of the Recording window, select a color to the left, if needed, and then draw the annotation. Annotations are also recorded with the slide.
• To pause the recording, if needed , click the “Pause” button in the upper-left corner of the Recording window after the recording starts.
• To stop the recording, when finished , click the “Stop” button in the upper-left corner of the Recording window.

Instructions on How to Clear Slide Recordings, Replay the Recording, and Close the Recording Window:

• If you want to clear all recording from a slide when you are not recording , navigate to the slide in the Recording window.
• Then click the “Clear” drop-down button towards the upper-right corner of the window.
• Then select the “Clear Recordings on Current Slide” command from the drop-down menu that appears.
• You can then re-record the content for the slide.
• Alternatively, to delete all recordings from all slides , select the “Clear Recordings on All Slides” command from the drop-down menu, instead.
• To play the recording from the current slide, if desired , click the “Replay” button in the upper-left corner of the Recording window.
• To close the Recording window and return to Normal view after you finish recording , press the “Esc” key on your keyboard.
• Alternatively, click the “X” button in the upper-right corner of the Recording window.

Instructions on How to Play a Recorded Slide Show and Clearing Slides in Normal View:

• To play the recorded slide show in Slide Show view , just click the “From Beginning” or “From Current Slide” button in the “Start Slide Show” button group on the “Slide Show” tab of the Ribbon when in Normal view, as usual.
• To clear either recorded slide timings or narrations (meaning audio, video, and annotations) from one or all slides in PowerPoint when using Normal view , first select the desired slide, if needed.
• Then click the “Record Slide Show” drop-down button on either the “Slide Show” or “Recording” tab of the Ribbon.
• Then roll over the “Clear” command in the drop-down menu.
• Finally, select the desired type of element to clear and from which slides to clear it from the four choices in the side menu that appears.

Instructions on Manually Presenting a Recorded Slide Show:

• After you record a slide show in PowerPoint, you may want to manually deliver it again without the recorded narrations or slide timings. You can toggle those settings off to accomplish this.
• If you want to disable recorded timings and/or narrations for a slide show , click the “Slide Show” tab in the Ribbon.
• To disable slide timings , uncheck the “Use timings” check box in the “Set Up” button group.
• To disable narrations , uncheck the “Play Narrations” checkbox in the “Set Up” button group.

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• Writing Tips

How to Record a PowerPoint Presentation

• 5-minute read
• 16th November 2022

If you’re a professional , chances are you’re familiar with giving presentations or will have to give one at some point. Recording presentations is a great tool, whether it’s to share the videos with remote colleagues or to watch the videos to see where you can improve as a presenter.

Fortunately, you can record your next presentation in a few simple steps, either with Microsoft PowerPoint’s built-in tool or by using a third-party screen recording tool. Check out our guide below to find out more!

Microsoft PowerPoint offers a user-friendly tool that allows you to record, markup, and export a presentation. Here’s how:

1. Present Slide Show

Once you’ve put together a great presentation , navigate to the Slide Show option in the ribbon toolbar at the top of your screen and select Record Slide Show.

If you’re using a Windows computer, you’ll either start recording from the start of the presentation or from your current slide. If you’re on a Mac, you’ll want to open the slide you want to start recording from before selecting the record button.

2. Utilize Recording Tools

The recording toolbar will then appear at the top of the next screen.

The tool options may differ slightly depending on your operating system, but they include options to start and stop recording, pause or delete the recording, and select whether you’d like to use a camera to record yourself during the presentation and/or a microphone to add narration.

3. Record Presentation

Once you click start, you’ll get a three-second countdown before the recording begins.

You’ll see the Presenter View during recording, which includes speaker notes on the right side of your screen and markup tools, including a laser pointer and highlighter, under the slide currently being presented:

You can progress through your presentation using the arrows on the screen or those on your keyboard. It’s important to note that narration won’t record over slide transitions, so you should pause speaking until transitions have completed.

4. Save and Export

Once you’ve reached the end of your presentation, you should click Stop on the toolbar and then End Show on the left side at the top of your screen.

Next, navigate to the File menu option to save and export your video:

Once you’ve selected your desired file format, you can choose video quality and timing settings before exporting:

5. Watch and Share Your Presentation

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After the export has completed, you’ll have a complete recording of your presentation, including all narration and markup!

If you’re looking for another tool for recording presentations, Loom is a third-party screen recorder that you can use in a web browser or on your desktop. You’ll first need to sign up for free and then download the desktop app to use it with PowerPoint.

1. Setup Recording Tools

When you first open Loom, you’ll see a toolbox with camera, microphone, and screen recording options:

You can choose to record your entire screen or just one app, like PowerPoint, and you can also create speaker notes that will only be visible to you.

2. Record Presentation

Once you click Start recording, like PowerPoint’s tool, you’ll be given a three-second countdown, and then you can navigate to play your slideshow in your desired view (i.e., standard or presented).

Note that although PowerPoint can create a video of only the slide show and none of the presenter’s view, Loom creates a recording of your screen exactly as you see it.

When the recording begins, a toolbar will be added to the left side of your screen with similar options to start, stop, pause, delete, and markup:

3. Save and Edit

Once you’ve reached the end of your presentation, you should click Stop on the toolbar. Loom will then automatically save a copy of the recording and redirect you to your library on their website.

From here, you can use the settings menu on the right side of the video to make any necessary edits, such as trimming the recording.

4. Download and Share

Next, you can click on the three dots above the video to either download the recording or copy a link to it, which you can share with anyone you want to send your presentation to:

Proofreading and Editing

Before recording and sharing your presentation, don’t forget to proofread it, as spelling and punctuation errors can come across as unprofessional. Our expert editors can help ensure your presentations are clear, concise, and error-free, and we can work in over 15 document formats ! Learn more by submitting a free trial document today.

And if you want more help with Microsoft Office, check out our MS Word series on YouTube, where we’ll add videos with helpful tips, like how to create a list of abbreviations in Word on a Mac.

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How to Make PowerPoint Notes Invisible While Presenting

Making PowerPoint notes invisible during a presentation is a straightforward process. Simply use the Presenter View option, which shows your notes on your screen but not on the audience’s view. With a few clicks, you can deliver a seamless presentation without your notes being visible to everyone.

After completing this action, you will be able to present your PowerPoint slides without the audience seeing your personal notes, creating a more professional and clean presentation.

Introduction

Imagine you’re giving a big presentation. Your slides are perfect, but you’re a bit nervous and could use some notes to keep you on track. The last thing you want is for your audience to see these notes, distracting from the impact of your slides. That’s where the ability to make PowerPoint notes invisible during a presentation comes in handy.

PowerPoint is an incredibly powerful tool for creating compelling presentations. Whether you’re a student, a business professional, or a lecturer, mastering PowerPoint is a valuable skill. One of the lesser-known features of PowerPoint is the ability to keep your speaker notes private while presenting. This feature is particularly important for anyone who relies on cues or additional information to deliver their presentation smoothly. It’s a simple trick that can make a big difference in how confidently you present your information.

Step by Step Tutorial on Making PowerPoint Notes Invisible

Before getting into the steps, it’s important to understand what we’re aiming for. By following these steps, you will be able to view your notes on your computer while only the slides are displayed to your audience. This allows you to reference your notes discreetly during your presentation.

Step 1: Set Up Multiple Monitors

Ensure that you have a second monitor or projector connected to your computer.

Having a second monitor or projector connected is essential for using Presenter View. This allows you to view your notes on one screen while the audience sees only the presentation on the other.

Step 2: Enable Presenter View

In PowerPoint, click on the ‘Slide Show’ tab and check the ‘Use Presenter View’ box.

Enabling Presenter View is the key action that hides your notes from the audience. This option is usually found in the ‘Monitors’ group on the ‘Slide Show’ tab.

Step 3: Start Your Slide Show

Start your slide show as you normally would, and your notes will be visible only to you.

Once Presenter View is enabled and you start your slide show, you’ll see your notes on your screen, while the audience will see only the slides.

Having your notes hidden from the audience helps maintain the focus on the content of your slides, rather than on your personal cues. This contributes to a more professional appearance and can help you make a better impression.

Knowing that you can reference your notes without the audience seeing them can be a significant confidence booster. This safety net allows you to focus on delivering your message rather than memorizing it.

With Presenter View, not only can you see your current slide’s notes, but you also get a preview of upcoming slides. This flexibility can be a game-changer, allowing you to better plan your transitions and manage your presentation’s pace.

One significant limitation is the need for additional equipment. Without a second monitor or projector, you won’t be able to use Presenter View.

Technical issues can also pose a problem, such as when the second screen isn’t immediately recognized by your computer, which could cause delays or disruptions to your presentation.

For those who are not tech-savvy, using Presenter View may require a bit of a learning curve. Becoming comfortable with this feature can take some practice.

Additional Information

When preparing for a presentation, there are a few extra tips you might find useful. First, rehearse with Presenter View ahead of time to become comfortable with toggling between your notes and the slides. Familiarize yourself with the controls, so you don’t fumble during the actual presentation.

Another tip is to keep your notes concise. Since you’ll be the only one seeing them, it might be tempting to write down everything, but this can be counterproductive. Short, keyword-based notes are generally more helpful than lengthy paragraphs.

Also, always have a backup plan. Technology can be unpredictable, so be prepared to give your presentation without your notes being visible on your screen. This could mean having a printout of your notes or being familiar enough with your material that you can present without them.

Finally, remember to engage with your audience. While it’s great to have notes, don’t become so reliant on them that you fail to make eye contact and connect with your audience. Presenter View is just a tool to aid you, not a crutch to lean on.

• Connect a second monitor or projector.
• Check the ‘Use Presenter View’ box in PowerPoint.
• Start your slide show to view notes on your screen and slides on the audience’s screen.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is presenter view.

Presenter View is a PowerPoint feature that allows you to view your notes on your screen while the audience sees only the presentation slides.

Can I use Presenter View without a second monitor?

No, Presenter View requires a second monitor or projector to function correctly.

How can I ensure my notes are completely invisible to the audience?

By using Presenter View and making sure your laptop is not mirrored on the projector or second screen.

What should I do if my computer doesn’t recognize the second monitor?

Check your connection and make sure that you have the correct display settings on your computer.

Can I still see the next slide in Presenter View?

Yes, Presenter View allows you to see not only your notes but also a preview of the upcoming slide.

In conclusion, making PowerPoint notes invisible during a presentation is a nifty trick that can make a significant difference in your delivery. It allows for a more professional appearance and can help boost your confidence as a speaker. By following the steps outlined, you’ll be able to leverage the power of Presenter View to keep your notes private while still engaging your audience with a polished presentation.

Always remember to practice ahead of time, keep your notes concise, and, most importantly, ensure that you’re prepared for any technical hiccups that might arise. Good luck with your presentations, and may your PowerPoint notes always remain invisible to your audience!

Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.

After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.

His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.

Read his full bio here.

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How-To Geek

How to record voiceover narration in powerpoint.

If you're not able to physically present your slideshow, record a voiceover narration to make sure no points are missed.

Quick Links

Preparation, record a voiceover for your presentation.

If you’re sending out your presentation instead of giving it in front of an audience, but you feel adding a vocal explanation would better help to deliver the message, record a voiceover narration. Here’s how to do it.

Before you begin your PowerPoint narration, you’ll need to make sure you’ve made the proper preparations.

Set Up Your Mic

First, you’ll need a microphone. Most modern computers have a built-in microphone that gets the job done, but investing in a USB microphone will increase the audio quality of the narration by quite a bit.

The built-in microphone will be set as your input device by default, so if you plan on using it for the PowerPoint narration, you don’t need to take any additional steps in setting it up. However, if you plan to use a USB microphone for the narration, be sure to set it as the input device.

To do this on Windows, right-click the volume icon found on the right of the taskbar. In the menu that appears, select “Open Sound Settings.”

The “Sound Settings” window will appear. Here, scroll down to the “Input” section and click the box under “Choose your input device.”

If you’re using a USB microphone, it will appear here. Select it to set it as the input device.

The steps for Mac users are extremely similar. The only difference is you should go to "System Settings" and select "Sound" instead of right-clicking the volume icon like on Windows. From there, the steps are the same.

Take Notes and Rehearse

With your mic set up, you’re ready to start recording, right? Well, not quite. While you may not be physically standing in front of the audience delivering this presentation, you still need to treat it as though you are. This means going through the basics---taking notes and rehearsing your delivery.

One thing you can do to help you record a successful narration is to write out a script. As with a live presentation, though, you don’t want to sound like you’re reading straight from your notecards. Practice reading through the script a few times so that it sounds natural and fluid.

Once you’re confident in your delivery, it’s time to start recording.

Open the PowerPoint presentation in which you would like to record a voiceover narration. Head over to the “Slide Show” tab and, in the “Set Up” group, select “Record Slide Show.” Once selected, a drop-down menu will appear. Here, you can choose to start the narration from the beginning or from the current slide. If you choose to start recording from the current slide, make sure that you’re on the slide you’d like to start recording from.

Related: How to Record Your Screen with Microsoft PowerPoint

In this example, we’ll choose “Record from Beginning.”

Now, you’ll be in full-screen mode. You’ll notice a few extra tools appear, including a record button at the top-left corner of the screen. When you’re ready to start recording, click this button.

When you select the record button, a countdown timer will appear, giving you a three-second delay between clicking the button and starting your recording.

You can now start recording your voiceover narration! Continue through the presentation by clicking the right arrow to go to the next slide.

You can pause the recording at any time by pressing the pause button in the top-left corner of the window. The recording will automatically end when you make it to the last slide. Alternatively, you can press the stop button, also located at the top-left corner of the screen.

If you want to play your narration back, you can select the replay button.

A speaker icon will appear at the bottom-right corner of each slide that has a recorded narration. You can also play your narration back on each slide by hovering over the icon and pressing the play button.

If you’re not satisfied with the narration, simply repeat these steps to re-record.

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How to print PowerPoint notes

Crafting an impactful PowerPoint slideshow and delivering a captivating presentation are distinct skills. The first focuses on designing appealing visuals to convey a clear message, while the second involves employing effective presentation techniques to ensure the audience grasps the idea. 

The content of this article will help you with the latter part of this process, guiding future presenters on  how to print PowerPoint with speaker notes to enhance your presentations success and effectiveness .

What are notes in PowerPoint?

How to print powerpoint with speaker notes.

The information included in the notes section of a PowerPoint is meant for the presenter's eyes only. While the slides themselves display all the visuals and text required to build a compelling visual experience for the audience, notes often contain crucial details the presenter should keep in mind during their talk.

In PowerPoint, you’ll find the notes section right beneath each slide. Just click on “Notes” along the taskbar at the bottom of the PowerPoint window to get started.  This article provides you a step-by-step guide to learn how to add speaker notes in PowerPoint.

During presentations, some may prefer to use Speaker Notes so they can see their notes on a second screen. However, if you’re more comfortable holding your notes or if a second screen isn't available, printing your notes is a fantastic alternative.

Printing your PowerPoint slides along with the speaker notes attached to each is straightforward, though the steps can vary slightly whether you're using Windows, Mac, or Word. Let’s explore each one of these processes.

How to print slides with notes on Windows

Printing slides with notes on Windows involve a few simple steps:

• Open the presentation with your speaker notes.
• Go to “File” in the top left corner.
• Choose “Print” from the sidebar menu.
• Specify the number of copies in the “Copies” field.
• Select the printer you want to use in the “Printer” field.
• For extra printing settings, click on “Printer Properties”.
• Underneath “Settings”, select “Full Page Slides” to open the dropdown menu.
• Choose“Notes Pages”.
• Hit “Print” to start printing your slides with notes.

How to print a PowerPoint with notes on Mac

Printing notes from your Apple device is not rocket science. Here’s how to print PowerPoint with lines notes on Mac:

• Open your presentation with speaker notes.
• Click “File” in the top left corner.
• Select“Print”.
• Choose your printer under “Printer”.
• Go to “Show Details” at the bottom of the Print window.
• From the “Layout” menu, select “Notes”.
• Finally, click “Print” to obtain your PowerPoint slides with notes.

How to print a PowerPoint using Word

If you want to print notes in PowerPoint by using Word, here’s how to do it if you’re working on a PC:

• Open your PowerPoint presentation that includes your speaker notes.
• Go to “File”.
• Choose “Export”.
• From the Export panel, select “Create Handouts”.
• A “Send to Microsoft Word” dialog box will pop up. Here, you can pick either “Notes Next to Slides” or “Notes Below Slides”.
• Click the “Paste” option from the same dialog box.
• Click “OK”.
• Word will automatically open the document for you. Once open, go to “File”.
• Select “Print”.
• Adjust the printing settings as needed.
• Finally, hit “Print” to get your document with notes ready.

Everyone has their unique style when it comes to giving presentations. Having your speaker notes printed out is an awesome technique to keep track of the key messages you’d like to convey. You can even hand out to your audience these prints afterward so they can get further insight on your topic.

No matter which operating system you’re using, printing PowerPoint speaker notes is a pretty straightforward process. The important thing is to continually seek out new methods to elevate your presentation skills and find more dynamic and engaging ways to communicate with your audience.

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how to record powerpoint in presentation mode

• Thread starter Marg L
• Start date Oct 28, 2021
• Oct 28, 2021

Hi: I am trying to present Powerpoint in presentation mode so I can still see presentation notes, while in Zoom - I have laptop and extra monitor when I try to put Powerpoint setting to "browse by an individual window" (to show up in OBS recording window), it no longer allows me to select Presentation Mode (to see my notes) so I can either Is there some other way I can offer this presentation to an audience, see my notes and still record? thank you  

• Oct 29, 2021

IMHO you don't need PowerPoint to browse by an individual window . When in fullscreen presentation, have the Presentation Mode window at your external monitor and the presentation itself on your laptop behind the OBS Studio window. Have the Window Capture source point to the POWERPNT.EXE]: PowerPoint presentation - name of the presentation.pptx window (I don't have an English PowerPoint version, so don't expect it to be literally this). In the past we had difficulties on Windows 10 to capture this presentation, make sure Capture Method is not Automatic but Windows 10 (1903 and up) .  

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How to Record a Video Presentation With Google Slides

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Google Slides now lets you record a presentation with inset video from your webcam. Each recording may be a maximum of 30 minutes long. No longer do you need to turn to a third-party tool or web meeting app, such as Google Meet , to record a presentation. Instead, you can start and finish the task with nothing more than Google Slides on a laptop.

As of March 2024, slide recordings may be made by customers who use Google Workspace Business Standard or Plus; Enterprise Starter, Essentials, Essentials Plus, Standard or Plus; and Education Plus editions.

How to make a basic slide recording in Google Slides

To create a slide recording, you’ll need to use Google Chrome on a computer that has a camera and microphone.

• Go to Google Slides and open your presentation.
• Select the Rec button in the upper right area, then select the Record new video button ( Figure A ).

The system will switch to the screen recording interface, with recording controls displayed below your slides. By default, the system will display your inset (picture-in-picture) video in medium size in the lower right corner of a slide, since this portion of a slide is often empty.

• Optionally, before you start recording, you might adjust three settings:

• Modify the size of the inset video frame. Select the size icon, found to the right of the video inset location icon, then choose either a small, medium or large video frame size.
• Open speaker notes with the button found to the immediate left of the back slide (<) icon. This will display speaker notes for your reference while recording. (Ideally, you would not need to refer to speaker notes, so that you could instead look directly at the camera as you record.)
• When you are ready to record, select the large red button at the bottom of the screen.
• If prompted, you may need to allow access ( Figure C ) to the tab, along with the camera and microphone. For example, when recording on a Chromebook, you may be prompted to “Allow docs.google.com to see this tab?” and “Also allow tab audio.” Select Allow, if prompted.

In a few cases, you may need to visit the following links in Chrome to adjust permissions for:

• Camera: chrome://settings/content/camera.
• Microphone: chrome://settings/content/microphone.
• A brief countdown should display (i.e., 3, 2, 1), then your recording will begin. Record your video, advancing your slides as desired.
• To pause recording, press the large red button at the bottom of the screen.
• Once paused, you may select from two options ( Figure D ):

After you select Save to Drive, wait a bit until the system indicates the file has been saved. If you leave or close the tab too soon, you may lose your recording.

How to select inset video shapes and sizes

On any slide, you may use the Insert | Speaker spotlight option ( Figure E ), then select a shaped video frame. This inserts a frame where the speaker video will display on that slide. You may reposition or resize the frame: Select the shape, and then drag-and-drop it to move it to a different place on your slide, or select a corner and drag it to resize it.

When you insert a speaker spotlight shape, that supplants the position and size you might have selected on a basic recording. In other words, the speaker’s video will display in one of the corners or the center, and in the small, medium or large shape chosen with the settings — unless you’ve inserted a speaker spotlight shape on a page ( Figure F ). Use the speaker spotlight option to convey the most polished professional effect, since it allows precise control over the shape, size and location of a video frame.

How to play, share and manage slide recordings

You may access slide recordings within Google Slides on a computer. However, unlike recording, which requires you to use Google Chrome, you may access and play existing recordings within Google Slides on a variety of modern browsers. For example, the following steps all work when you use Google Slides within either Google Chrome or Apple’s Safari browser.

To access recordings associated with a Google Slides presentation, follow these steps.

• Select the Rec button in the upper right area. The recordings you’ve made of the presentations will display. Importantly, the system shows both the date and duration of each recording.
• To view, share or download a recording, click anywhere on the playback icon or title of the recording ( Figure G ). It should open in a new tab. Within this tab, you might:
• Select the Play icon in the center of the video image to play the recording.
• Select the Share button in the upper right corner of the screen to modify access settings and give other people access to the file.
• Select the Download icon in the down arrow above a tray icon in the upper right area of the screen to download the file.

• Select the three dot menu to the right of a listed recording to:
• Rename a file something other than the default recording title.
• Remove a previously made recording you no longer need.
• Copy link and obtain the Google Drive URL for the recorded file.

All Google Slides recordings are stored in a Slides recordings folder on Google Drive. The recordings are saved as .webm files, which is a widely supported web video format. You may easily open and play .webm files on both Apple and Android mobile phones. Any recordings you make using Google Slides should be easy to view on almost any device.

Does the ability to record a presentation within Google Slides streamline your workflow? What sorts of video presentations will you create with this new capability? Mention or message me on X ( @awolber ) to let me know how you use screen recording within Google Slides.

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• Add, change, or remove transitions between slides Article
• Animate text or objects Article
• Use the Morph transition in PowerPoint Article
• Insert a video from YouTube or another site Article
• Add or delete audio in your PowerPoint presentation Article
• Record your screen in PowerPoint Article

Record your screen in PowerPoint

You can record your computer screen and related audio, and then embed it in your PowerPoint slide—or you can save it as a separate file.

Open the slide that you want to put the screen recording on.

On the Insert tab of the ribbon, select Screen Recording .

Tip:  PowerPoint automatically records the audio and the mouse pointer, so by default those options are selected on the control dock. To turn them off, deselect Audio  and Record Pointer.

Select  Record . Use Pause as needed and Stop when you're done. 

Note:  Unless you pin the Control Dock to the screen, it will slide up into the margin while you record. To make the unpinned Control Dock reappear, point the mouse cursor at the top of the screen.

Your video is added to the slide. Right-click the video frame, select the  Start  icon and pick how you want your video to start: In Click Sequence , Automatically , or When Clicked On .

You can change the look of the video by right-clicking the video frame, select the  Style icon, and pick another shape. 

Important:     To use the screen recording feature in PowerPoint 2013, install the February 16, 2015 update for PowerPoint 2013 .

On the Insert tab, click Screen Recording .

On the Control Dock, click Select Area (Windows logo key+Shift+A).

The minimum size area you can record is 64x64 pixels.

Tip:     PowerPoint automatically records the audio and the mouse pointer, so by default those options are selected on the control dock. To turn them off, deselect Audio (Windows logo key+Shift+U) and Record Pointer (Windows logo key+Shift+O).

If you have already done a screen recording during your current PowerPoint session, your prior area selection will appear on the screen. You can proceed with recording if that selection area suits you, or you can click Select Area to start over.

Click Record (Windows logo key+Shift+R).

Tip:    Unless you pin the Control Dock to the screen, it will slide up into the margin while you record. To make the unpinned Control Dock reappear, point the mouse cursor at the top of the screen.

To control your recording:

Click Pause to temporarily stop the recording (Windows logo key+Shift+R).

Click Record to resume recording (Windows logo key+Shift+R).

Click Stop to end your recording (Windows logo key+Shift+Q) (shown below).

When you are finished recording, save your presentation: File > Save . The recording is now embedded on the slide you selected in step 1.

To save the recording itself as a separate file on your computer, right-click the picture on the slide that represents the recording, and select Save Media as . In the Save Media As dialog box, specify a file name and folder location, then click Save .

Save your screen recording as a separate file

Right-click the video frame, and select  Save Media as .

In the Save Media as box, choose a folder, and in the File name box, type a name.

Select  Save.

Trim your video

Right-click the video frame, and select  Trim .

To determine where you want to trim your video footage, in the Trim Video box, select  Play .

When you reach the point where you want to make the cut, select  Pause . Use the Next Frame and Previous Frame buttons to specify precise timing.

Do one or more of the following:

To trim the beginning of the clip, select the start point (shown in the image below as a green marker). When you see the two-headed arrow, drag the arrow to the desired starting position for the video.

To trim the end of the clip, click the end point (shown in the image above as a red marker). When you see the two-headed arrow, drag the arrow to the desired ending position for the video.

Select  OK .

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How to Record Customized Camera Feeds With Cameo in PowerPoint

T he widespread adoption of remote work and virtual meetings has led many people and organizations to realize they don't have to be physically present in the same conference room to make presentations. In fact, you don't even need to conduct them live.

However, recording your PowerPoint slides with your face on them requires technical know-how and third-party apps like OBS. This makes recording presentations a bit difficult and discourages people from doing it.

Thankfully, Microsoft has addressed this issue in PowerPoint 365 with the Cameo feature. Here's what it is and how to use it.

What Is Cameo in PowerPoint?

Cameo is a PowerPoint feature that lets you add your webcam or any other camera feed into your presentation. This makes it easier to present virtually, as your audience can see you from within your slides.

Previously, you needed a third-party app like OBS to overlay yourself on your presentation. You can also use a green screen overlay in Capcut or other similar apps to achieve the same effect. However, this takes a lot of effort and know-how.

But with this feature, you can do it from inside PowerPoint with just a few clicks. Here's how to insert a cameo into your slides.

• Go to Insert > Cameo .
• After clicking on Cameo, PowerPoint will insert a placeholder object on your current slide and open the Camera Format tab.
• You can edit the object as you wish, much like any other shape on PowerPoint. You can also click on the options in the Designer pane on the right side of the screen to help you work faster.
• Once you're happy with its placement on your slide, click on the Preview button to see your live video.

With that, you can start presenting your PowerPoint slides via screen sharing while still keeping yourself on the screen.

How to Record Your PowerPoint Presentation With Cameo

You can also insert a cameo from Record > Cameo . Clicking on this will bring you to the same menu tab and insert a placeholder object for your video. However, even if you didn't set up Cameo beforehand, you can insert it directly while recording your presentation. Here's how:

• Go to Record > From Beginning or Record > From Current Slide .
• In the recording screen, click on the Camera icon at the top. This will insert a round object containing your video in your slides' lower-right-hand section.
• Click on the Red icon to start recording your presentation.
• Go through your presentation as usual. For more information, check out our guide on turning your presentations into videos .
• Once you've finished, click the Red icon again to stop recording.
• Click Export to go to the Export to video screen .
• Change the File Name as needed, then click Browse to select the location where you will save your recorded video.
• Once done, click Export Video .

With that, you don't have to spend much effort to add your video feed to your PowerPoint presentation recording. However, the app only places your video at one location across every slide; it might cover some of your content. That's why it's better to use the Cameo feature when you're building or editing your PowerPoint presentation.

If you're unhappy with your recording, press the Retake Video on the left of the record icon. You can pick between On Current Slide or On All Slides .

What You Need to Record Customized Camera Feeds

You need a webcam and a Microsoft 365 account to record your customized camera feed. Furthermore, you cannot use Cameo or record presentations in the PowerPoint web app. You need to download and install it on your computer to use these features.

The Cameo feature is already available on Microsoft PowerPoint 365 in Windows and Mac. However, recording your presentation with Cameo is only available on Windows. As of the time of writing, this feature isn't available for the main PowerPoint 365 for Mac version.

If you're running macOS, you must be a Microsoft 365 Insider to get this feature. However, since the Cameo recording feature is already announced in the Microsoft 365 Insider blog , we hope it will be available in the mainstream PowerPoint for Mac version in a few months.

Recording Your Presentations Is Now Much Easier

The Cameo feature has made presenting PowerPoint slides in video calls easier. And with the recording function, you no longer need a third-party app to put your video over your presentation.

You can integrate it into each slide, allowing you to control where you are on your screen. And you also save a lot of time and effort, as you can record and save your presentation as a video from within Microsoft PowerPoint.