How to Read Notes on a Video Call Without Looking Away

Why does reading notes look so obvious on camera?

Across a table, glancing down at a notepad looks normal. People expect it. On a call, the lens stands in for the other person's eyes, so every drop of your gaze reads as you looking away from them. The camera also exaggerates small movements, since your face fills the frame.

The numbers are simple trigonometry. At 60 cm from a laptop, a line of text 3 cm under the webcam puts your gaze about 3 degrees off the lens. A document at the bottom of a 15.6-inch screen is around 20 cm down, or about 18 degrees. Paper notes flat on the desk are worse: if they're 40 cm below your eyes and 50 cm in front of you, that's close to 40 degrees, plus a head tilt. Teleprompter vendors work to a rule of thumb of about 15 degrees as the edge of what still passes for eye contact. Our laptop teleprompter guide has the full table.

The second giveaway is sideways movement. Long lines make your eyes sweep left to right and snap back, and that pattern is unmistakably reading.

What are the best ways to read notes on a video call?

Six methods, roughly in order of how often we'd reach for them.

1. A narrow notes window under the webcam

Open Notepad, Sticky Notes or a browser window, make it about a third of the screen wide and a few lines tall, and park it at the top center under the camera. That's it. It's free, it works with every meeting app, and it handles most calls. The problem is that clicking into Zoom or Teams drops your notes behind the meeting window. Microsoft PowerToys fixes that with Always On Top: select the notes window and press Win+Ctrl+T.

2. A scrolling teleprompter

For a scripted opening or a webinar intro, use a teleprompter instead of a static window, so the line you're reading stays at the top. Our free online teleprompter runs in the browser with adjustable speed and a reading guide, and the teleprompter for Zoom guide shows where to put it.

3. A sticky note beside the lens

Old school, and it works. A paper note stuck to the bezel right next to the webcam is the closest anything can get to the lens, and it never shows up in a screen share. Write three to five cue words in thick marker. Any more and you'll squint.

4. A second monitor with the webcam on it

Mount the webcam on the monitor that holds your notes, not the one you share. If the camera stays on the laptop while your notes sit on a monitor to the side, you'll be talking to the camera in profile.

5. PowerPoint speaker notes

Presenter View keeps notes on your screen while the audience sees slides, but only with a second display. In Microsoft Teams, sharing the deck through PowerPoint Live keeps your notes visible only to you, even on one screen. The notes sit lower on the screen than the camera, so expect weaker eye contact. Our presentations page covers speaker notes for full-screen shares.

6. A capture-excluded overlay

For demos where you share your entire screen from a single laptop, none of the above help much. AuraCloak is an always-on-top window that Windows leaves out of screen capture, so Zoom, Teams, Google Meet in a browser, OBS and Loom all show what's behind it. Paste your notes into it, set the opacity, and drag it under the webcam. It doesn't auto-scroll, so it suits cue lists better than long scripts. The Windows teleprompter setup walks through it.

How do you write notes you can read at a glance?

Short enough that one glance gets the whole line. Here's the same point written two ways:

The sentence takes three or four glances, and you'll end up reading it aloud. The cues take one each, and you say the rest in your own words, which sounds like you because it is you.

• Keep each cue to three to six words, one cue per line.
• Lead with the number or the verb. "4.2 million, up 12%" beats "Revenue for the period was".
• Write numbers the way you'll say them, so you don't convert digits mid-sentence.
• Put the one thing you must not forget at the top. If the call goes sideways, that's the line you'll still get to.

How do you glance at notes without it looking like reading?

Look, then talk. Read the cue silently, lift your eyes to the lens, then say it. The half-second pause while you look down reads as thinking, and people do it in person all the time. What looks like reading is talking while your eyes stay on the page.

Two settings help. Hide your self view in Zoom or Teams so you aren't watching your own face instead of the camera. And turn on Do not disturb in Windows, so a notification doesn't land on top of your notes halfway through a sentence.

What if you have to share your screen?

Then the question is what you share. Share a single window in Zoom, choose Share then Window in Microsoft Teams, or present A window or A tab in Google Meet, and notes outside that window stay on your side (Zoom, Microsoft, Google). Zoom's Portion of Screen option under Advanced works too, if you keep the notes outside the frame.

Sharing your entire screen is where normal notes leak. On Windows 10 version 2004 and later, an app can ask Windows to leave its window out of every capture, and AuraCloak does exactly that. A phone pointed at your monitor still sees it, so it's private from the share, not from the room.

Is it okay to read notes on a video call?

In meetings, presentations, webinars and sales calls, yes. Nobody expects you to memorize quarterly numbers, and getting them right is more polite than guessing. In interviews, a few notes (your key examples, the questions you want to ask) are widely accepted, but reading answers word for word sounds rehearsed. If an interview, exam or assessment sets rules about notes or outside help, those rules win, whatever tool you use. Hiding a window from a screen share doesn't change what you've agreed to.

Comparing apps for longer scripts? Our best teleprompter apps for Windows roundup lists free and paid options with prices checked October 2026.

FAQ

How do I read notes on Zoom without people noticing?

Put the notes in a narrow window directly under your webcam, write them as short cue words instead of sentences, and glance before you speak rather than while you speak. Text a few centimeters below the lens keeps your gaze within a few degrees of the camera, which reads as eye contact.

Can people see my notes when I share my screen?

If you share your entire screen, yes, unless the notes are on another monitor or in an app excluded from capture. If you share a single window, a single tab or a portion of the screen, notes outside it stay private. Paper notes are never in a screen share.

Is it okay to have notes during a video interview?

Usually, for a short list such as your key examples and the questions you want to ask. Keep them brief and glance rather than read, since reading answers word for word sounds rehearsed. If the interviewer or a test sets rules about notes or other help, follow them.

Do sticky notes next to the webcam work?

Yes, for three to five cue words. A sticky note on the bezel beside the lens is the closest you can put notes to the camera, and it never appears in a screen share. It fails for anything longer, because small handwriting forces you to lean in.

What is the difference between notes and a teleprompter on a call?

Notes are cue words you glance at and then speak around in your own words. A teleprompter scrolls a full script that you read word for word. Use notes for meetings and Q and A, and a teleprompter for openings, closings and anything that must be exact.