Teleprompter for laptop

Get started in a minute

1. Open the web teleprompter. On your first visit the editor holds some sample text: select all of it and paste your script in its place, or import a .txt, .docx or .pdf file, which replaces it.
2. Press Play. A short Countdown gives you time to look up, then the text starts scrolling.
3. Change the Speed as you go, or press Space to pause whenever you want to say something off script.

It works in any modern browser on Windows, macOS, ChromeOS or Linux, with nothing to install. Your script, where you stopped reading and your settings are saved in the browser, so the next time you open it on the same laptop it's ready to play from where you left off. Choose Edit to change the script, or New Session to start again with an empty one.

Put the text right under your webcam

On a laptop the webcam sits in the middle of the top edge of the screen. The closer the words you're reading are to it, the more it looks like you're looking at the people on the call. Make the teleprompter's browser window a short, narrow strip and move it to the top of the screen, just below the camera.

Then move the reading line up to meet it. The reading line is where the Cue Indicator, the small triangle at the side, points: the line you read as the text scrolls past. It starts in the middle of the window. In Display Settings, choose Adjust margins and drag the Top handle up, so the line you're reading is only a little way under the camera. While you're there, the Start and End handles narrow the column of text, and with a large font size that keeps your eyes from moving from side to side.

Read your script on Zoom, Teams and Google Meet

The teleprompter is an ordinary browser tab, so it works alongside any call app. Join the call in the Zoom or Teams app, or in another browser window for Google Meet, then put the teleprompter window under your webcam and the call window below it or beside it. You can still see the other people while you read.

Nobody on the call sees your script. It's on your screen, not in your camera's picture, and the call apps only share your screen if you ask them to. If you do share your screen during the call, share the window with your slides rather than the whole screen, so the teleprompter stays private.

A smaller window beside the call, or Browser Fullscreen

On a single laptop screen, a smaller window is usually best: the teleprompter fits under the camera and the call stays in view. The layout fits whatever size the window is: the Display Settings open beside the text in a wide window, and as a sheet along the bottom in a narrow one.

Browser Fullscreen hides the browser's tabs and toolbars so nothing but your script is on screen. Press F, or use the Browser Fullscreen button. It's the better choice when you don't need to watch a call: when you're giving a talk or presenting to a camera that isn't your laptop's, or when the teleprompter is on a second monitor placed by the camera. Press F or Esc to leave it.

Set the pace: Speed or Duration Mode

The Speed sets how fast the text scrolls. Start slowly, then nudge it up or down with the slider or the arrow keys until it matches the way you speak. You can type an exact Speed too.

If you have a time slot, such as a two-minute update in a team meeting, switch on Duration Mode and set a Target Duration instead. The teleprompter works out the Speed, so if you read straight through you reach the end of the script on time; pauses add to it, and Remaining Time shows how long is left. While Duration Mode is on, the Speed is set for you, so the slider and the Speed keys don't change it until you switch Duration Mode off again.

Control it from the keyboard or a clicker

You don't need to reach for the mouse in the middle of a sentence. While your script is playing or paused in Play Mode, these are the keys the teleprompter uses until you change them:

Most presentation clickers and Bluetooth remotes send Page Down and Page Up, which nudge the text by default. Open Key Assignments in Display Settings to give almost any key or button the action you want, such as Play/Pause; only Tab and Esc are kept for the browser. Keep the teleprompter window active when you press a key: if you click into the call app, click back on the teleprompter first.

Tips for sounding natural

• Write the way you talk, in short sentences, and leave line breaks where you want to pause.
• Read it through once before the call, with the same Speed you'll use.
• Pause with Space to answer a question, then press it again to carry on from the same line. The Countdown runs again first; if you'd rather the text moved straight away, switch the Countdown off in Display Settings.
• Mute notifications so nothing pops up over your script.