How to see your speaker notes while the audience sees only the slides
Type your notes under each slide, connect the second screen as an extended display rather than a duplicate, and start the show in Presenter View. PowerPoint, Google Slides, Keynote and LibreOffice Impress all have one, and each shows your notes, the next slide and a clock on your screen only.
30 October 2026 · 3 min read
Write the notes first
Every presentation program has a notes box under the slide in its normal editing view. Notes work best as prompts rather than a script: the point of the slide, a figure you must not get wrong, the question you expect. A slide crowded with text so the speaker can read it is the habit notes exist to break.
Extend the display, do not duplicate it
Presenter View needs two screens that show different things. On Windows press Windows key + P and choose Extend. On a Mac open System Settings, Displays, and make sure the projector is not set to mirror. With Duplicate or Mirror, both screens show the same picture, so either the audience sees your notes or you do not.
Presenter View in each program
- PowerPoint: Slide Show, tick Use Presenter View, then From Beginning. Alt+F5 opens Presenter View on a single screen, which is useful for rehearsing.
- Google Slides: the arrow beside Slideshow, then Presenter view. It opens your notes in a separate window that you keep on your own screen.
- Keynote: with a projector connected, the presenter display opens on your own screen when you play the show, and the Play menu lets you choose what it shows.
- LibreOffice Impress: with two screens connected, the Presenter Console opens when the show starts.
Keys worth knowing during the talk
- B blacks out the audience’s screen and W whitens it in most programs, so the room looks at you; press again to come back.
- A slide number and Enter jumps straight to that slide in PowerPoint and Impress.
- Esc ends the show.
Print the notes pages as a backup. Projectors fail, and a page of notes in your hand still works.
Our own product, disclosed
Where our own software comes into this
We make Rutba Office, a free desktop suite for Windows. Presentations keeps notes under each slide, and starting the show with Presenter View gives the speaker a window of their own: the slide on screen, the next one, the notes and a clock. Next and Previous move the show on, the clock can be paused and reset, Black blanks the audience’s screen, and Esc ends the show.
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