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Overview

Notes slides contain speaker notes that accompany each slide in a presentation. They’re displayed in presenter view and can be printed as handouts.

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Key concepts

  • Notes slide: Contains notes content for a specific slide
  • Notes master: Template that defines the layout and formatting for all notes slides
  • Notes placeholder: The text area where notes content is stored

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Adding notes to a slide

The simplest way to add notes is through the notes text frame.

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Add basic notes text

from pptx import Presentation

prs = Presentation()
slide = prs.slides.add_slide(prs.slide_layouts[0])

# Add notes to the slide
notes_slide = slide.notes_slide
text_frame = notes_slide.notes_text_frame
text_frame.text = "This is my speaker note for this slide."

prs.save('presentation_with_notes.pptx')

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Add formatted notes

from pptx import Presentation

prs = Presentation()
slide = prs.slides.add_slide(prs.slide_layouts[1])

# Access the notes text frame
notes_slide = slide.notes_slide
text_frame = notes_slide.notes_text_frame

# Clear existing content
text_frame.clear()

# Add formatted paragraphs
p = text_frame.paragraphs[0]
p.text = "Key points to remember:"
p.level = 0

p = text_frame.add_paragraph()
p.text = "First main point"
p.level = 1

p = text_frame.add_paragraph()
p.text = "Second main point"
p.level = 1

prs.save('formatted_notes.pptx')

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Accessing notes slides

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Check if a slide has notes

from pptx import Presentation

prs = Presentation('presentation.pptx')
slide = prs.slides[0]

# Check without creating notes slide
if slide.has_notes_slide:
    print("Slide has notes")
    notes_slide = slide.notes_slide
    text_frame = notes_slide.notes_text_frame
    print(f"Notes: {text_frame.text}")
else:
    print("Slide has no notes")
Use .has_notes_slide to check for notes without creating a notes slide. Accessing .notes_slide directly will create a notes slide if one doesn’t exist.

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Read notes from existing slides

from pptx import Presentation

prs = Presentation('presentation.pptx')

# Extract all notes from the presentation
for slide_num, slide in enumerate(prs.slides, start=1):
    if slide.has_notes_slide:
        notes_slide = slide.notes_slide
        text_frame = notes_slide.notes_text_frame
        print(f"Slide {slide_num} notes:")
        print(text_frame.text)
        print("-" * 40)

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Working with the notes placeholder

The notes placeholder is the primary text area on a notes slide.

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Access the notes placeholder directly

from pptx import Presentation
from pptx.enum.shapes import PP_PLACEHOLDER

prs = Presentation()
slide = prs.slides.add_slide(prs.slide_layouts[0])
notes_slide = slide.notes_slide

# Get the notes placeholder
notes_placeholder = notes_slide.notes_placeholder

if notes_placeholder:
    text_frame = notes_placeholder.text_frame
    text_frame.text = "Notes content"
else:
    print("No notes placeholder found")
The notes placeholder may be None if the notes master doesn’t have a body placeholder or if it has been deleted from the notes slide.

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Access all placeholders on notes slide

from pptx import Presentation
from pptx.enum.shapes import PP_PLACEHOLDER

prs = Presentation()
slide = prs.slides.add_slide(prs.slide_layouts[0])
notes_slide = slide.notes_slide

# Iterate through all placeholders
for placeholder in notes_slide.placeholders:
    ph_type = placeholder.placeholder_format.type
    
    if ph_type == PP_PLACEHOLDER.BODY:
        print("Found notes text placeholder")
    elif ph_type == PP_PLACEHOLDER.SLIDE_IMAGE:
        print("Found slide image placeholder")
    elif ph_type == PP_PLACEHOLDER.SLIDE_NUMBER:
        print("Found slide number placeholder")

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Working with the notes master

The notes master defines the template for all notes slides in a presentation.

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Access the notes master

from pptx import Presentation

prs = Presentation()

# Access the notes master
notes_master = prs.notes_master

print(f"Notes master name: {notes_master.name}")
If a presentation doesn’t have a notes master, accessing .notes_master creates one from a default template.

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Customize the notes master

from pptx import Presentation

prs = Presentation()
notes_master = prs.notes_master

# Access shapes on the notes master
for shape in notes_master.shapes:
    print(f"Shape: {shape.name}")

# Access placeholders
for placeholder in notes_master.placeholders:
    ph_format = placeholder.placeholder_format
    print(f"Placeholder type={ph_format.type}, idx={ph_format.idx}")

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Working with notes slide shapes

Notes slides can contain shapes in addition to the notes text.

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Access all shapes on a notes slide

from pptx import Presentation

prs = Presentation('presentation.pptx')
slide = prs.slides[0]

if slide.has_notes_slide:
    notes_slide = slide.notes_slide
    
    # Iterate through all shapes
    for shape in notes_slide.shapes:
        print(f"Shape: {shape.name}")
        
        # Check if it's a placeholder
        if shape.is_placeholder:
            ph_type = shape.placeholder_format.type
            print(f"  Placeholder type: {ph_type}")

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Add shapes to notes slides

from pptx import Presentation
from pptx.util import Inches

prs = Presentation()
slide = prs.slides.add_slide(prs.slide_layouts[0])
notes_slide = slide.notes_slide

# Add a text box to the notes slide
left = Inches(1)
top = Inches(5)
width = Inches(4)
height = Inches(1)

textbox = notes_slide.shapes.add_textbox(left, top, width, height)
text_frame = textbox.text_frame
text_frame.text = "Additional note information"

prs.save('notes_with_textbox.pptx')

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Practical examples

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Bulk add notes from a list

from pptx import Presentation

prs = Presentation('template.pptx')

# Speaker notes for each slide
notes_list = [
    "Welcome the audience and introduce the topic",
    "Explain the main problem we're solving",
    "Walk through the solution architecture",
    "Discuss implementation timeline",
    "Thank the audience and open for Q&A"
]

# Add notes to each slide
for slide, note_text in zip(prs.slides, notes_list):
    notes_slide = slide.notes_slide
    text_frame = notes_slide.notes_text_frame
    text_frame.text = note_text

prs.save('presentation_with_notes.pptx')

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Export notes to text file

from pptx import Presentation

prs = Presentation('presentation.pptx')

# Export all notes to a text file
with open('speaker_notes.txt', 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    for slide_num, slide in enumerate(prs.slides, start=1):
        f.write(f"Slide {slide_num}\n")
        f.write("=" * 50 + "\n")
        
        if slide.has_notes_slide:
            notes_slide = slide.notes_slide
            text_frame = notes_slide.notes_text_frame
            f.write(text_frame.text + "\n")
        else:
            f.write("(No notes)\n")
        
        f.write("\n")

print("Notes exported to speaker_notes.txt")

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Copy notes from one presentation to another

from pptx import Presentation

# Open source and destination presentations
source = Presentation('source.pptx')
dest = Presentation('destination.pptx')

# Copy notes from source to destination
for src_slide, dest_slide in zip(source.slides, dest.slides):
    if src_slide.has_notes_slide:
        src_notes = src_slide.notes_slide.notes_text_frame.text
        
        dest_notes_slide = dest_slide.notes_slide
        dest_text_frame = dest_notes_slide.notes_text_frame
        dest_text_frame.text = src_notes

dest.save('destination_with_notes.pptx')

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Understanding notes slide creation

Notes slides are created lazily when accessed. 
from pptx import Presentation

prs = Presentation()
slide = prs.slides.add_slide(prs.slide_layouts[0])

# No notes slide exists yet
print(f"Has notes: {slide.has_notes_slide}")  # False

# Accessing notes_slide creates it
notes_slide = slide.notes_slide

# Now it exists
print(f"Has notes: {slide.has_notes_slide}")  # True
A notes slide is created automatically when you access .notes_slide. The notes slide clones placeholders from the notes master.

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Best practices

Use .has_notes_slide before accessing .notes_slide if you want to avoid creating empty notes slides.
Always check if .notes_placeholder returns None before accessing its text frame, especially when working with custom templates.
For simple text operations, use .notes_text_frame instead of accessing the placeholder directly. It returns None if there’s no notes placeholder.
When copying notes between presentations, consider copying at the paragraph level if you need to preserve formatting.

Working with text

Learn about text formatting and paragraphs

Slide masters

Understand masters and template structure

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