For teachers
Guided notes from PowerPoint
Upload your lesson slides and get a fill-in-the-blank handout with an answer key. About 30 seconds, free, no account.
Drop your slides here or click to choose
PowerPoint (.pptx) or PDF · up to 20 MB · 80 slides
or paste a link
Free · no account · 3 decks a day · files are never stored
Guided notes are the handout students complete while you present: the sentences from the lesson with the key term, number or phrase left blank, so students listen for it instead of copying everything or nothing. Writing them by hand takes an evening per unit. Nuutli makes them from your PowerPoint, PDF or Google Slides deck in the order you will present, with one or two blanks per line, a prompt every few lines asking students to put something in their own words, and an answer key at the end for you. The Word download is editable, so you can adjust blanks, add a diagram space, or remove a section before printing. It works for any subject and any grade where you teach from slides.
Quick facts
What you get, in one list
- Price
- Free. 3 decks a day, no account, no card.
- Sign-up
- None. Upload and read the notes.
- Works on
- Any browser: Mac, Windows, Chromebook, iPad, phone.
- Input
- PowerPoint (.pptx), PDF, or a Google Slides share link. Speaker notes are read too.
- Output
- Word (.docx), Markdown, PDF via print, or copy to clipboard.
- Limits
- Up to 80 slides and 20 MB per deck on the free tier.
- Time
- About 30 seconds for a typical lecture.
- Privacy
- Files are processed in memory and never stored. Nothing is used for training.
- Languages
- Notes come back in the language of the slides: English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic and more.
Real example
A middle-school science lesson as guided notes
Two slides on plate tectonics became this handout. The answer key is at the end of the full document.
Slides in
- Slide 3: Plate boundaries
- - Divergent: plates move apart; new crust forms; mid-ocean ridges
- - Convergent: plates collide; subduction; mountains and volcanoes
- - Transform: plates slide past each other; earthquakes; San Andreas Fault
- Slide 4: Evidence for plate tectonics
- - Fit of the continents (Wegener, 1912)
- - Matching fossils on different continents
- - Sea-floor spreading measured at mid-ocean ridges
Notes out
Plate boundaries
- At a ________ boundary, plates move apart and new crust forms, for example at mid-ocean ridges.
- At a ________ boundary, plates collide; one plate goes under the other in a process called ________, building mountains and volcanoes.
- At a ________ boundary, plates slide past each other, causing earthquakes. Example: the ________ Fault.
- Your words: Which boundary type do you think is most dangerous for people, and why? ________________________________
Evidence for plate tectonics
- The ________ of the continents was first noticed by Wegener in ________.
- Matching ________ have been found on different continents.
- Sea-floor spreading can be measured at ________.
- Your words: Explain one piece of evidence in a full sentence. ________________________________
Answer key
- divergent
- convergent; subduction
- transform; San Andreas
- fit; 1912
- fossils
- mid-ocean ridges
How it works
Make guided notes in three steps
- 1
Upload the lesson deck
PPTX, PDF or a Google Slides link, in the order you will present it.
- 2
Choose Guided notes
Preselected here. Blanks fall on the key terms and numbers; prompts ask for students' own words.
- 3
Edit and print
Open the Word file, adjust any blank, remove the answer key for the student copy, and print.
What makes guided notes work in class
Research on guided notes points at two things: students with a partially completed outline take better notes and remember more than students with a blank page, and the effect depends on the blanks landing on the ideas that matter. A blank on "the" teaches nothing; a blank on "subduction" makes every student listen for the word. Nuutli places one or two blanks per line on the term, number or phrase the slide was built around, and keeps the lines in the order of your slides so the handout tracks the lesson.
The own-words prompts every few lines are there because filling blanks is recognition and writing a sentence is recall. They also give you a quick check during the lesson: walk the room and read what students wrote. Keep the answer key on your copy; delete it from the student version before printing.
- For a long unit, run one lesson at a time so each handout fits on two pages.
- Add a box for a diagram in Word where a slide had a picture; the notes mark image-only slides.
- The same deck run as a Quiz gives you an exit ticket for the end of the lesson.
In short
To make guided notes from a PowerPoint, upload the lesson deck to Nuutli and choose Guided notes. It writes a fill-in-the-blank handout in the order of your slides, with one or two blanks per line, own-words prompts, and an answer key at the end, in about 30 seconds. Free, no sign-up, editable Word download.
Last reviewed November 3, 2026 by the Nuutli team.
Frequently asked questions
How do I create guided notes from a PowerPoint?+
Upload the lesson deck to Nuutli, choose Guided notes and click Make my guided notes. You get a fill-in-the-blank handout in slide order with an answer key at the end, in about 30 seconds, as an editable Word file.
Can I make guided notes from Google Slides?+
Yes. Paste the share link (Anyone with the link) instead of uploading a file. Private decks can be downloaded as .pptx from the File menu and uploaded.
Where do the blanks go?+
On the key term, number or phrase each line was built around, one or two per line. You can move or add blanks in the Word file before printing.
Is there an answer key?+
Yes, at the end of the document, numbered in the order the blanks appear. Delete that section from the copy you give students.
Can students fill it in digitally?+
Yes. The Word file opens in Google Docs and Word Online, and the blanks are plain underscores students can type over.
Is it free for teachers?+
Yes. Three decks a day, no account. For a whole unit, run one lesson per day or split the deck.
Turn your next lecture into notes
Upload the slides and read the notes in about 30 seconds. Free, no account, the file is never stored.