Why Teams presenters need a different kind of prompter
Teams meetings are often a mix of talking to camera and presenting. You move between the meeting window, PowerPoint, maybe a spreadsheet or a dashboard, and your notes need to follow you. A prompter that grabs focus when you click it gets in the way: your next keypress lands in the wrong window and the slide doesn't advance.
Lenslines is built so that doesn't happen. Clicking the prompter doesn't take focus away from your Teams or PowerPoint window, and its shortcuts work from any app. You stay in control of the meeting while your notes sit in a black notch right under the camera, where reading looks like eye contact.
Presenting PowerPoint in Teams
When you share slides in Teams, your speaker notes usually end up in a separate window or on a separate screen, far from the camera. Lenslines gives your talk track a home right under the lens. Here is a simple way to set it up:
- Paste your talk track into a Lenslines script. Start each slide's section with a # line, such as # Slide 4: Pricing, so it becomes a cue.
- Press Ctrl+Alt+P to open the prompter under your webcam.
- Share your screen or your PowerPoint window in Teams.
- Advance slides in PowerPoint as usual. Clicking the prompter won't take focus away from it.
- Press Ctrl+Alt+PgDn to jump to the next cue as you move to the next slide, and Ctrl+Alt+Space to play or pause.
Cues are just lines that start with #, so your script still reads like a normal document. When someone asks you to go back a slide, Ctrl+Alt+PgUp takes you to the previous section, or you can pick it from the cue list in the notch.
Hidden when you share your screen in Teams
Lenslines uses the screen-capture exclusion built into Windows. You see the notch on your monitor, but it isn't part of what Teams shares or records when you share your screen. This works with apps that use Windows' standard screen capture, which is nearly all of them.
If you share your whole screen while editing a script, you can hide the library window from capture too. And if you do want the prompter visible, for example in an internal training video about your setup, switch off Hide the prompter from screen capture in settings. Read more on the invisible teleprompter page.
Tips for Teams meetings
- Keep status updates short. For a weekly update you rarely need full sentences. A few short lines with a cue for each topic are easier to glance at than paragraphs.
- Put reminders in brackets. Notes like [pause for questions] or [share the dashboard] go in square brackets and show dimmed on the prompter, so you don't read them out.
- Prompt from the clipboard. Copy an agenda from a Teams chat or an email, then choose Prompt from clipboard in the Lenslines tray menu. No need to save a script first.
- Emphasize what matters. Mark key numbers and names for emphasis with double asterisks in the editor, so they stand out while you read.
- Check which screen your camera is on. With an external webcam, Lenslines puts the notch on your main display. If your webcam sits on a different monitor, drag the notch over to it.
Getting ready before the meeting starts
A few minutes before a Teams call, open your script and press Ctrl+Alt+P to check that the notch is under your camera. Pick a comfortable speed between 0.2× and 4×. At 1× it runs at about 180 words per minute, and slower usually feels better when you're presenting to colleagues. A 3, 5 or 10 second countdown gives you a moment to settle before the text moves.
If you present in Teams most days, turn on launch at startup from the tray menu. Lenslines then starts quietly in the notification area, and the prompter is always one shortcut away.
All-hands, training and customer calls
Lenslines suits Teams meetings where the wording matters: an all-hands update, a training session for a new team, a customer demo, or a recruiting call introducing a role. Voice scrolling moves the text while you speak and pauses when you stop, so you can take a question and pick up where you left off. It follows your voice activity, not your words, so rephrasing on the fly is fine.
If you sit in a busy office or use laptop speakers, headphones help keep other voices from moving the text. You can also lower the microphone sensitivity in settings and watch the live level meter until only your voice crosses the trigger level.
For more on delivery, see how to read a script without sounding robotic and how to keep eye contact on video calls.