Creating a PowerPoint presentation is just one step of the process; you need to think about how you can deliver that presentation to an audience. Adding notes in PowerPoint is something that you must master to make it engaging and informational. Otherwise, your audience could drift away once they start to find the presentation boring or lacking organization.
In this guide, you will learn the detailed steps on how to add notes in PowerPoint so you can deliver your commentary in a succinct manner.
Importance of Adding Notes in PowerPoint
The speaker notes in a PowerPoint template are important because they serve as your guide for the key talking points. The notes serve primarily as an outline of essential points that must be touched upon during your presentation, particularly for each slide. They also help to ensure that you do not forget important points. It is a great way to organize your thoughts and present the information in an organized manner as you move through each slide.
This leads to the next benefit of adding notes to PowerPoint – ensuring a smooth presentation. It allows you to transition from one point to another with ease. You can focus on delivering the presentation rather than trying to remember what information to include. A well-planned presentation with an in-depth discussion of the key points keeps your audience engaged.
Notes are a useful tool when making PowerPoint presentations. You can read them from your laptop while presenting the slides simultaneously. Another option is to print those notes out and distribute it to the audience so it is easier for them to follow the flow of discussion.
Step-By-Step Guide to Adding Notes
With an understanding of what notes are for in PowerPoint, the next step is to learn how to add them to your slides. This step can be done on any version of the PowerPoint. There are currently two ways to go about this step. Learn in detail about how to do each method.
First Method
Start by launching the PowerPoint program on your computer. The Notes feature and the instructions included here will work on any version of Microsoft PowerPoint.
Once you have PowerPoint program open, there are three notable parts on the screen: the list of slides on the left, the slides in the middle, and the list of buttons at the bottom of the slide. As you edit each slide, the buttons will be displayed at the bottom of the screen (menu bar) to give you options for editing.
In order to start adding notes, you have to press the Notes button on the menu bar. This will open up the speaker notes section wherein you can type in your notes for that particular slide you are working on.
Hover your mouse or track pad over that section so you can begin typing your comments or notes.
Second Method
Aside from the step above, there is another option for adding notes to PowerPoint slides.
Go to the task bar and click on View tab. Look for the Presentation Views section and click on the Notes Page.
This step will enable you to add a more detailed speaker note for the slide you are working on. As you can see, the Speaker Notes section is larger in size.
There is also an option to change the background color, if desired. Changing the background color is a matter of preference, especially if you want to highlight them or make the notes easily visible.
You may also edit the formatting of the text in the speaker notes section. You can adjust the font, font color, font size, or add other settings (bold, italicize, etc.) on the notes. When adding your notes using this method, you may add images, graphs, charts, and more.
This is beneficial when presenting each slide if you want to highlight certain points.
Get even more control of how you add your notes when you go to Notes Master under the Master Views section of the Views Tab.
You can choose to stick with the default settings here or customize them to make it easier to organize notes when presenting them with the slides.
Summary
Adding Notes to PowerPoint is simple when you know how to do it. It is a powerful tool available to Microsoft PowerPoint that you can use whether you are presenting to a small or large audience.
The use of Notes will provide you with a guide on how to make brief yet concise commentary on each slide. It also helps to avoid awkward silences and prevent you from veering off-topic.
