How do I see the notes on my laptop while the audience sees the slide show?
How do I see formatted notes on my laptop while the audience sees the slide show?

Many times you would want to use your laptop as a prompter while the audience sees the slide show on the projector (beamer). You would want to display the speaker notes on the laptop when the slide show is running. The PowerShow add-in offers you to view the notes for the shows on a different monitor. The notes are kept synchronized with the slide that is being projected to the audience.

There are 2 methods to display notes on your monitor while displaying slide show through the projector.

Method 1

This method gets you full-screen formatted notes on your monitor and full-screen slide show on the projector. The following are the steps:

1. Open your presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint.
    
2. Select Slide Show | Power Show item.
    
3. On the Presentations tab, set up the configuration as follows:
   1. Select presentation <Notes> in the first row and 1 monitor.
   2. Select your presentation <Slide Show> in the second row and 1 monitor.
       
4. Click Start Show button.

You would now see PowerShow's formatted notes view on the primary monitor and the slide show on the second monitor. PowerShow's formatted notes view allows you to zoom in and zoom out the notes to allow you to comfortably look at the notes from a distance. This is helpful if you are standing at a distance from your podium/lecturn and want to look at your notes for reference.

Method 2

This method allows you to use PowerPoint's native notes page for displaying notes and keeping the notes page in-sync with the slide show. An advantage of this method is that it allows you to display shapes and images that you insert on the notes page. The notes page is shown on the primary monitor and the slide show is shown on the secondary monitor. The following are the steps:

1. Open your presentation in Microsoft PowerPoint.
    
2. Select View | Notes Page item to view the notes page. You will now see the slide and the notes corresponding to it. Normally, the notes page is in portrait mode. You might want to change it to landscape mode by following these steps:

   PowerPoint 2021, 2019, 2016, 2013	PowerPoint 2010, 2007	PowerPoint 2003, 2002, 2000
   Select Design tab | Slide Size drop down button | Custom Slide Size... button. Select Landscape option in the Notes, Handouts & Outline group. Click OK button. Select Slide Show tab, clear the Use Presenter View box.	Select Design tab | Page Setup button. Select Landscape option in the Notes, handouts & outline group. Click OK button. Select Slide Show tab, clear the Use Presenter View box.	Select File | Page Setup... menu item. Select Landscape option in the Notes, handouts & outline group. Click OK button. Select Slide Show | Set Up Show... menu item. Clear the Show Presenter View box. Click OK button.

   
   
3. Select Slide Show | Power Show item.
    
4. On the Presentations tab, set up the configuration as follows:
   1. Select <Skip Monitor> and 1 monitor.
   2. Select your presentation <Slide Show> in the second row and 1 monitor.
       
5. On the Session tab, do the following:
   1. Place a check against Slide design view follows slide show box.
   2. Clear Show Slide Thumbnail box.
   3. Clear Show Next Slide Thumbnail box.
   4. Clear Full Screen Session Controller box.
   5. Clear Slide show follows slide sorter view box. The dialog box should look like the following:
      
      
       
6. Click Start Show button.

This configuration will enable you to see notes on the primary monitor through the normal PowerPoint views and see the slide show on the secondary monitor.

The PowerShow SlideShow Navigator toolbar is created when PowerShow Session starts. If you don't see this toolbar, select View | Toolbars | PowerShow SlideShow Navigator menu item to show it. The PowerShow SlideShow Navigator toolbar allows you to control the slide show running through the projector.

The landscape setup for notes page also changes the configuration for handouts. If this is not desirable, then you can replace the step 2 above with the following step 2:

2. Select View | Normal menu item to view the notes page. Resize the notes pane at the bottom of the slide to ensure that the slide notes are seen completely and clearly. You might want to magnify the notes by following these steps:
   1. Click on the notes in the notes pane.
   2. Select View | Zoom... menu item.
   3. Select a higher value to magnify the notes.
   4. Click OK button.

The rest of the steps remain the same.

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