A talk read from start to finish sounds read, and a room hears it inside the first minute. A talk improvised from start to finish overruns and reaches its ending by accident. The version that works is neither: exact words where the words matter, cue lines everywhere you already know what you think.
FreeTeleprompter.io is a free browser-based teleprompter for presentations, talks and webinars. You paste your script or your cue lines, set the scroll to your speaking pace, and read from a laptop, tablet or phone placed where your eyes naturally rest. It runs in its own browser window, so it sits alongside PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides without touching them. It needs no account and nothing to install, and you can record a rehearsal to MP4 on your own device to watch back.
Script the first sixty seconds word for word
That is where the nerves are highest and where an audience decides whether to listen. Knowing the exact words buys you the confidence to be loose for the twenty minutes after it.
Reduce the middle to cue lines
One line per point, six words or fewer. A cue line prompts you to speak. A full sentence tempts you to read it, and the difference is audible from the back of the room.
Script the close as tightly as the opening
The last three sentences are what people repeat afterwards, and they are the part most often improvised badly by a presenter who is relieved to be nearly finished.
Set the scroll to your real pace, measured out loud
Most people present at roughly 120 to 150 words a minute. Run the whole thing once against a timer and adjust, rather than trusting the number.
Write your slide changes in as bracketed cues
On their own line, in the script, exactly where they happen. Missing a slide change is the most common presenting error and the easiest one to design out beforehand.
Place the screen where your eyes already go
A laptop flat on the lectern for a room. A tablet at the front edge of the stage, which is far less conspicuous than a phone in your hand. Directly under the webcam for a webinar, where a full script is entirely fair game because nobody can see your desk.
Frequently asked questions
Both, in different places. Script the opening, the close, and any figure or claim that has to be exact. Reduce everything between them to a cue line per point. A fully scripted talk sounds recited, and a fully improvised one overruns and loses its ending.
Roughly 1,200 to 1,500 words at a presenting pace of 120 to 150 words a minute. Time your own delivery out loud rather than relying on that, because nerves push most people faster on the day and proper pauses pull them slower.
Yes. It is a separate browser window on your own device, so it does not interact with your slide software at all. If you are presenting from a single screen, use the presenter view for slide notes and run the teleprompter on a second device such as a tablet or a phone.
In a room, far less than you fear, because glancing down at a lectern is normal presenting behaviour. What people do notice is a presenter who never looks up, so keep the text large enough to take in a line at a glance and give the room your eyes between lines.
Yes, and it is one of the best uses for it. The audience cannot see your desk, your hands are free, and there is nothing stopping you having the full script in a narrow strip directly below your webcam.
Yes. You can record yourself to MP4 in the browser and download the file, so you can watch a run-through back before the real thing. The recording is made on your own device and is not uploaded.
Next
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