Put your talking points in a floating note
Write your notes in Lucid Notes and float the transparent window where you can glance at it — ideally near the camera if you are also on video.
Screen-share privacy
How to hide your notes when sharing your screen on a Mac
The moment you press "Share screen," everything visible on that screen belongs to your audience — talking points, reminders, the works. There are two reliable ways to keep notes to yourself on a Mac, and which one you need depends on whether you can avoid sharing the entire screen.
Free on the Mac App Store · macOS 14+
How do you keep notes private while screen sharing?
Option one: don’t share the whole screen. Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Webex all let you share a single app window instead. Everything outside that window — including a floating notes window like Lucid Notes — is simply never transmitted. This works with any notes app and costs you nothing.
Option two: when you genuinely have to share the entire screen, you need a window the capture pipeline ignores. Lucid Notes’ notch teleprompter mode is excluded from macOS screen capture at the system level (the same mechanism that keeps some system UI out of screenshots), so your notes stay visible to you and absent from the share, the recording, and any screenshots — even on a full-screen share.
Keep your notes off the share
Prefer window sharing
In your meeting app, choose the specific window — your slides, browser, or document — instead of "Entire screen." Your notes stay outside the shared region.
Going full-screen? Switch to notch mode
When the demo needs the whole screen, move your script into the notch teleprompter. macOS excludes it from the capture, so viewers never see it.
Verify before the real call
Start a screen recording with QuickTime or share into an empty test meeting. If the notes are absent from the preview, they are absent for your audience.
Window share vs full-screen share
Sharing a single window is the underrated privacy tool: notifications, other apps, your dock, and every floating note simply do not exist for your viewers. It should be your default for slide decks and document walkthroughs. Its weakness is workflows that hop between apps — every hop means re-sharing, which is clumsy in front of an audience.
Full-screen sharing fixes the hopping problem and creates the privacy one: now the screen is the source of truth and anything on it is public. That includes ordinary always-on-top windows from any notes app. If your work regularly demands full-screen shares — teaching, demos, walkthrough recordings — that is exactly the case the capture-excluded notch prompter was built for.
A second monitor is a third option
If you have two displays, you can share one and keep notes on the other. It works, and it needs no special software. The trade-off is your eyes: glancing at a side monitor pulls your gaze visibly away from the camera, which reads as distraction on a call. Notes floating transparently near the webcam — or pinned beside it in the notch — keep your eyeline where your audience expects it.
Test it the way your audience sees it
Don’t take capture behavior on faith — yours or anyone’s. Before a call that matters, record your screen for ten seconds with QuickTime while your notes are up, then watch the clip. Window share hiding what you expect? Notch prompter absent from the recording? Then you are set. This also catches the classic mistake: accidentally clicking "Entire screen" when you meant to share one window.
Screen-capture exclusion applies to notch teleprompter mode only, and covers on-device capture: screen shares, screen recordings, and screenshots made on your Mac. The regular floating notes window and the full-size teleprompter are ordinary windows and will appear on a full-screen share — keep them private by sharing a single window. A physical camera pointed at your display can still see everything.
Free on the Mac App Store
Your notes, your screen share — separate at last.
Download Lucid Notes free and keep your talking points out of the meeting.
Frequently asked questions
Can people see my sticky notes when I share my screen?
If you share your entire screen, yes — anything visible on that screen is transmitted, including sticky notes and floating windows. Share a single app window instead, or put your notes in Lucid Notes’ notch teleprompter, which macOS excludes from screen capture.
Does this work in Google Meet running in a browser?
Yes. Meet’s share picker offers a tab, a window, or the entire screen — the first two keep floating notes private. The notch prompter’s exclusion happens at the macOS capture level, so it applies to browser-based sharing too.
Are screenshots also excluded in notch mode?
Yes. Notch teleprompter mode is excluded from on-device screenshots and screen recordings as well as screen shares. The exclusion does not extend to the regular Lucid Notes window or the full-size teleprompter.
What if I need the audience to see my notes sometimes?
Keep two notes: one in an ordinary window you can drag into the shared area when you want it seen, and your private prompts in the notch teleprompter. What is shared and what is private stays unambiguous.
Is the floating notes window free?
Yes — the transparent always-on-top window and up to 5 notes are included in the free tier of Lucid Notes on the Mac App Store. macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later.