Google Slides includes a built-in Speaker Notes feature that allows you to write personal prompts, talking points, and reminders for each slide in your presentation. These notes are invisible to your audience during a live presentation but are displayed privately on your own screen through a dedicated Presenter View.
Whether you are preparing for a business meeting, a university lecture, or a conference keynote, mastering Speaker Notes and Presenter View will help you deliver a polished, confident presentation without relying on memorisation or reading directly from the slides.
How to Add Speaker Notes to a Slide
Speaker Notes are attached individually to each slide, allowing you to write unique prompts tailored to the content being displayed at that moment.
Step 1: Open the Speaker Notes Panel
Open your presentation in Google Slides. At the bottom of the editing window, you will see a narrow, collapsed panel labelled Click to add speaker notes. Click on this panel to expand it.
If the panel is not visible, click View in the top menu bar and ensure that Show speaker notes has a tick mark next to it. Click it to toggle the panel on.
Step 2: Write Your Notes
Click inside the expanded notes area and begin typing your talking points. You can write anything you like here—bullet points, full sentences, statistics to quote, or even personal reminders like “pause here for audience questions”.
Speaker Notes support basic text formatting. You can select text within the notes panel and apply bold, italic, or underline formatting using the standard keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl+B, Ctrl+I, Ctrl+U on Windows and Linux, or Cmd+B, Cmd+I, Cmd+U on macOS). You can also create simple bulleted lists by clicking the list icon in the small toolbar that appears above the notes area.
Step 3: Repeat for Each Slide
Navigate to the next slide using the slide panel on the left side of the screen. The Speaker Notes panel will update to show the notes area for that specific slide. Each slide maintains its own independent set of notes.
How to Use Presenter View During a Live Presentation
The key to using Speaker Notes effectively is presenting your slideshow in Presenter View rather than the standard full-screen mode. Presenter View splits your display into two: your audience sees only the clean, full-screen slides, while you see a private dashboard with your notes, a preview of the upcoming slide, and a timer.
Step 1: Start the Presentation in Presenter View
Click the small dropdown arrow next to the Slideshow button in the top-right corner of the Google Slides editor. From the dropdown menu, select Presenter view.
Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+Shift+F5 (Windows/Linux) or navigate to the top menu and click Slideshow > Presenter view.
Step 2: Understand the Presenter View Layout
Once Presenter View launches, two windows will appear:
- The Audience Window: This is the full-screen slideshow that your audience sees (either on a projector or via a shared screen in a video call). It displays only the slide content with no notes, no controls, and no behind-the-scenes information.
- The Presenter Window: This is your private control panel. It displays the current slide, your Speaker Notes for that slide in a large, readable font, a small thumbnail preview of the next upcoming slide, and a running timer showing how long you have been presenting.
Step 3: Navigate Through Your Slides
Use the Previous and Next buttons within the Presenter View window, or simply press the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to advance through the slides. Both the audience window and your private presenter window will update simultaneously.
Presenter View in Video Calls
Presenter View works seamlessly during Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams calls. The critical step is to ensure you share the correct window.
When prompted to select what to share with your audience, choose to share only the Audience Window (the full-screen slideshow tab), not your entire screen. This ensures your meeting participants see the clean slides while you privately reference your Speaker Notes on your own display.
Printing Slides with Speaker Notes
If you want a physical backup of your slides and notes to bring to a podium, you can print them together.
Go to File > Print preview. In the toolbar at the top of the print preview screen, change the dropdown from 1 slide without notes to 1 slide with notes. This will render each page with the slide image at the top and the full Speaker Notes text below it.
Click the Download as PDF button or send it directly to your printer.