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This guide explains how to read and edit speaker notes using the Google Slides API.
Notes pages and notes masters
A notes page is a kind of page used for generating handouts for slides in a
presentation. Each slide has one notes page. The first BODY placeholder shape
on a slide's notes page contains the text of a slide's speaker notes. Only the
text content of this notes shape is editable in Slides API. Its other
properties and the rest of the notes page contents are read-only.
The presentation's notes master is a page that defines the default elements and
text styles used on notes pages. A presentation only has one notes master. Notes
masters are read-only in the Slides API.
Read and write speaker notes
To find a slide's speaker note shape, find the slide's notes
presentations.pages
object in its
SlideProperties
message. The shape containing the speaker notes text is identified by the
speakerNotesObjectId field in the notes page's
NotesProperties
message.
To read a slide's speaker notes, find an object with this ID on the notes page
and read its text. In rare cases, this
object might not exist which means the slides have no speaker notes.
You can use batchUpdate text requests
to modify the text inside the speaker notes shape. In the rare case where the
speaker notes shape doesn't exist, the Slides API creates it
automatically when it receives a valid text operation using a
speakerNotesObjectId.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-28 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Work with speaker notes\n\nThis guide explains how to read and edit speaker notes using the Google Slides API.\n\nNotes pages and notes masters\n-----------------------------\n\nA notes page is a kind of page used for generating handouts for slides in a\npresentation. Each slide has one notes page. The first `BODY` placeholder shape\non a slide's notes page contains the text of a slide's speaker notes. Only the\ntext content of this notes shape is editable in Slides API. Its other\nproperties and the rest of the notes page contents are read-only.\n\nThe presentation's notes master is a page that defines the default elements and\ntext styles used on notes pages. A presentation only has one notes master. Notes\nmasters are read-only in the Slides API.\n\nRead and write speaker notes\n----------------------------\n\nTo find a slide's speaker note shape, find the slide's notes\n[`presentations.pages`](/workspace/slides/api/reference/rest/v1/presentations.pages)\nobject in its\n[`SlideProperties`](/workspace/slides/api/reference/rest/v1/presentations.pages#slideproperties)\nmessage. The shape containing the speaker notes text is identified by the\n`speakerNotesObjectId` field in the notes page's\n[`NotesProperties`](/workspace/slides/api/reference/rest/v1/presentations.pages#notesproperties)\nmessage.\n\nTo read a slide's speaker notes, find an object with this ID on the notes page\nand read its [text](/workspace/slides/api/concepts/text). In rare cases, this\nobject might not exist which means the slides have no speaker notes.\n\nYou can use [`batchUpdate`](/workspace/slides/api/guides/styling) text requests\nto modify the text inside the speaker notes shape. In the rare case where the\nspeaker notes shape doesn't exist, the Slides API creates it\nautomatically when it receives a valid text operation using a\n`speakerNotesObjectId`."]]
