Note: This post has been updated to reflect the new publishing flow in Haiku Deck 2.0, which affects how you view your deck online to create Notes. If you haven’t updated your app, please be sure to do that here.

As a Haiku Deck user, you’re already on the leading edge of awesomeness. But we all know there’s always a way to be thatmuchmore awesome, so we want to be sure you know about a quick way to take your Haiku Decks to the next level of awesome: add Notes to the web view of your deck.

If you’ve ever felt like you can’t quite fit what you want to say on a Haiku Deck slide, or if you’d like to try a ridiculously easy way to incorporate best practices into your presentations, trust us–you will love this.

3 Reasons to Add Notes to Your Haiku Deck

1. Add Helpful Detail: Haiku Deck focuses your message by limiting the text on each slide, but if more detail or supplemental resources would add value, Notes gives you a place to do it. Here’s an example of a great Haiku Deck made exponentially more awesome with Notes (props to Bill Risser of Phoenix):

Click to view the full Haiku Deck with Notes (and pick up some great Facebook tips, too)

2. Create a Handout: Nearly all presentation design experts recommend avoiding the dreaded “slideument” (Garr Reynolds‘ brilliant term for a messy mashup of presentation and document) by creating a separate handout that complements your slides. Haiku Deck makes this simple and painless. You can easily wow your audience after your talk with a slick printable or downloadable PDF, complete with your Notes. See an example on our blog here.

3. Give Your Deck “Legs”: You can use Notes to capture the substance of your narrative so your deck tells your story, even if you’re not in the room. This turns your Haiku Deck into a valuable content asset that can be shared and circulated across your networks.

Here’s a Haiku Deck we made for a talk at a Seattle PR firm that–if you hadn’t been in the audience–would be a little tough to understand without the Notes:

Click to view the full Haiku Deck with Notes (and learn some of our top presentation tips, too)

How To Add Notes: 5 Simple Steps

1. Create your Haiku Deck on your iPad, tap SHARE, and then PUBLISH. You’ll be prompted to confirm the title, privacy settings, and category for your deck. (Tip: You can read more about publishing and sharing here.)

2. Sign in to the Haiku Deck website the same way you sign in from the app. Click Gallery, then My Gallery. The deck you just published should appear at the top of the page. (Tip: If your deck is not showing up, try this.)

3. Click your deck to open it in Web Edit View.

4. The Notes interface will display automatically. Just click and type to add headers and/or notes to any slides in your deck. Click Save as you go, and click Preview at any time to see how your finished deck will look.

5. To generate a PDF, click the Download button that appears below your deck, then PDF.

Need a little inspiration? You can see some great examples of Haiku Decks with Notes here.

As always, if you have questions or need any help with creating or publishing your Haiku Deck, please visit our support community, we’re always here to help you set your story free!