How to Make the Most of Speaker Notes in Google Slides
Google Slides is a powerful tool for creating presentations. It's free, accessible, and offers a range of templates and add-ons to help you create stunning slideshows quickly. One of its standout features is Speaker Notes, which allows you to add talking points to each slide and use them as references during your presentation. In this article, we'll show you how to make the most of Speaker Notes in Google Slides.
Why Speaker Notes are Useful
Speaker Notes are exactly what they sound like – notes that help you deliver a flawless presentation to your audience. When you're dealing with multiple slides, it's easy to overlook a point or two. That's where Speaker Notes come in handy. You can add questions you want to ask the audience, or include interesting trivia to mention during your presentation. The great thing is, you can keep these notes to yourself during the presentation, while showing the slides on a separate screen or projector.
How to Add Speaker Notes in Google Slides on Web
Adding Speaker Notes in Google Slides on the web is straightforward. Here's how to do it:
- Visit Google Slides on the web and sign in using your Google account.
- Open the presentation you want to edit or add speaker notes to.
- Choose a slide and click the bottom space labeled “Click to add speaker notes” to add your notes.
- Add your talking points to the speaker notes and move on to the next slide.
Repeat these steps for each relevant slide in your presentation to ensure you don't forget any important points. If you need more space while creating your presentation, you can disable the speaker notes section by clicking on “View” in the menu bar and disabling the “Show speaker notes” option. You can enable it again when you want to add notes to your slides.
How to Add Speaker Notes in Google Slides on Mobile
The process of adding Speaker Notes in Google Slides on mobile is similar on both iPhone and Android. Here's how to do it:
- Open the Google Slides app on your phone.
- Select the presentation you want to edit.
- Google Slides will display all the slides in vertical order.
- Select a slide and tap on “Edit Slide” from the pop-up menu.
- Tap on the three-dot menu at the upper right corner and enable the “Speaker notes” toggle.
- A dedicated menu will appear below the slide for you to add your speaker notes.
Add your talking points and you're good to go.
How to Use Speaker Notes During Presentations
Adding speaker notes is one thing, but using them effectively during your presentation is another. You want to refer to your notes without your audience seeing them. Here's how you can do that:
- Open Google Slides on the web and select the presentation you want to deliver.
- Click on the down arrow beside the Present button.
- Choose “Presenter view.”
- This will launch the presentation in a present mode and open another window with a timer and speaker notes.
- Keep this window on your second screen or personal device, away from the audience's view.
- You can then navigate to the Speaker Notes section for each slide to refer to your talking points.
The presenter view also includes a built-in timer, allowing you to set a time limit for your presentation.
Wrapping Up: Make the Most of Speaker Notes in Google Slides
Speaker Notes in Google Slides are a valuable tool for delivering a flawless presentation. Whether you're using the web or mobile version, you can easily add and access your notes to ensure you don't miss any important points. So, make the most of this feature and captivate your audience with a well-prepared and engaging presentation.

Jim's passion for Apple products ignited in 2007 when Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone. This was a canon event in his life. Noticing a lack of iPad-focused content that is easy to understand even for “tech-noob”, he decided to create Tabletmonkeys in 2011.
Jim continues to share his expertise and passion for tablets, helping his audience as much as he can with his motto “One Swipe at a Time!”