How to Format Notes in PowerPoint Presentations

By Filonia LeChat

Microsoft PowerPoint presentations may be an ideal way to get information out to a large audience or even one-on-one, but the electronic slideshows offer something else to help presenters with their work -- Notes. The Notes area in PowerPoint is a small section at the bottom of the main work pane where speakers can type notes to themselves they don't want to appear on the slide, such as rhetorical statements or questions to ask participants. To further the Notes' usability, you can format them with PowerPoint's formatting tools.

Step 1

Open Microsoft PowerPoint. Click the "File" tab, and select "Open." Navigate to the PowerPoint file with the notes you want to format and double-click the name of the presentation. The slideshow appears with the first/title slide showing and any notes associated with that slide in the Notes section.

Step 2

Press the "Page Down" key to get to the first slide with Notes to format. Highlight the entire Notes section or just certain words or sentences within the note.

Step 3

Click the "Home" tab if it is not already enabled. Use options in the "Font" section of the ribbon below the tab to format the notes, such as clicking the "B" to make them bold or "U" to make them underlined.

Step 4

Change the font by pulling down the Font menu and clicking a new one. The Notes font updates automatically.

Step 5

Highlight a certain word or phrase to emphasize and click the text color button, a letter "A" with a red underline. Choose a new font color.

Step 6

Press the "Page Down" key and continue to format notes as desired on the slideshow.

Step 7

Click the "File" menu. Click "Save As," change the name of the presentation to preserve the original. Click "Save."

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