Speaker notes are an invaluable tool in PowerPoint. They allow presenters to add extra details, talking points, and reminders without overcrowding slides.

However, sometimes you need to remove notes before sharing a presentation. Manually deleting notes slide-by-slide is extremely tedious for long presentations. Thankfully, there’s a little-known PowerPoint feature that lets you instantly delete all notes.

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to:

Delete all notes at once with one click
Remove notes from PowerPoint completely before sending
Share slides privately without showing sensitive notes

Follow along to save hours of time removing presentation notes.

Why Delete Notes from a PowerPoint File?

Here are three common reasons to delete notes from a PowerPoint presentation:

1. Prepare Presentations for Distribution

Notes often contain private details not meant to be shared publicly. Before sending your slide deck to clients or posting online, it’s important to remove notes.

2. Reduce File Size for Email & Mobile Use

Notes can bloat file sizes. Removing them keeps files small for emailing and access on mobile devices.

3. Show Only Relevant Slide Content to Audiences

Notes are meant for the presenter. Deleting them focuses your audience only on key slide content.

How to Delete All Notes at Once in PowerPoint

Deleting individual notes slide-by-slide takes forever. Thankfully, Microsoft built an easy way to remove all presentation notes in one click.

Follow these simple steps:

Open your PowerPoint presentation
Select the File tab > Info from the top menu

Click Check for Issues > Inspect Document
Check the box for Presentation Notes
Click Inspect to scan the document

Once notes have been found, click Remove All
Click Close to finish

This instantly deletes every note across all slides. The clean presentation is now ready to distribute or share!

Permanently Removing Notes Before Sending Files

The Document Inspector tool is great for quick fixes. But notes aren’t fully erased from the file, only hidden from view temporarily.

Before emailing or sharing a presentation externally, take a critical extra step. Save a copy without recoverable notes using these steps:

Open your working PowerPoint file

Select File > Save As to create a copy
Give the duplicate file a new name
Under Save as type, pick PowerPoint Presentation

Uncheck the Save Notes Pages box
Click Save to finish

Now the copied version contains no notes whatsoever. The original still has notes if you need to access them later. Send around the duplicate for a presentation free of sensitive internal details.

Keeping Notes Private While Sharing Slides

Sometimes you want to present slides to a remote audience without showing your private notes. PowerPoint’s Presenter View is the perfect solution:

Open your deck and select Slide Show tab
Click From Beginning or From Current Slide

Notes appear privately on your screen. Audiences only see slides.
When finished, close Presenter View to hide notes

Presenter View displays your notes prominently in a side panel while audiences view slides full screen. It’s a great way to share content publicly but retain private notes.

Next Steps: Remove Notes for a Polished Presentation

Deleting PowerPoint notes ensures your deck looks professional before sending to key stakeholders. No more worrying about accidental oversharing or embarrassment.

With the steps above, you can instantly strip all notes or permanently remove them from copies. This saves hours of manual effort while producing clean, share-ready files.

For even more polish, check out these guides:

Now put these note deletion skills into practice! Spend your time crafting stellar slides rather than endlessly erasing. Your audiences will be impressed at the polished presentations you share.