Annotate in Teams: Draw on a Shared Screen (Free, Windows)

This guide covers the presenter steps, how participants request annotation, drawing on PowerPoint Live slides, and the limits Microsoft documents. Every Teams fact was checked on November 1, 2026 against Microsoft’s own pages.

How to annotate in Teams as the presenter

Teams annotation runs on Microsoft Whiteboard, so there is nothing to install. On Windows it works on a shared screen and, since the March to April 2026 rollout, on a single shared window too (Message Center MC1234561).

1. In the meeting controls, select Share and choose a screen or a window.
2. Move your cursor to the top of the shared screen to show the presenter toolbar.
3. Select Annotate. The Whiteboard toolset opens over your share.
4. Open the toolset’s Settings menu and choose Everyone can annotate or Only I can annotate. The change applies straight away.
5. Draw on the screen. To scroll or change slides, select Start interacting with the background, then Stop interacting with the background to draw again.
6. Select Annotate on the presenter toolbar again to turn annotation off for everyone.

Save or clear your annotations

• To keep the marks, select Save a snapshot (the camera icon). Teams saves them as a Whiteboard file under View more apps › Whiteboard › Annotations.
• To wipe your own marks, select View clear options › Clear my annotations.

Note: earlier marks come back when you restart annotation, unless someone cleared them. Each person’s cursor shows their name by default, and anyone can hide the names in the Whiteboard Settings menu. Source: Use annotation while sharing your screen in Microsoft Teams.

How to annotate in Teams when someone else is presenting

1. Select Annotate in your meeting controls.
2. Select Request. The presenter sees a notice at the top of their screen.
3. Wait for the presenter to select Allow, then draw. Everyone in the meeting sees your marks.

Requests work from the Teams desktop apps for Windows and macOS. On the web you can draw once annotation is running but you can’t start it, and anonymous users can’t send a request. On a phone you can draw on a share that someone presents from a desktop. Sources: Message Center MC1019312 (updated May 13, 2026) and Microsoft Support.

Organizers: choose who can start annotations

1. Open the meeting’s Meeting options.
2. Under Participation, find Who can start annotations?
3. Choose Everyone (the default), or Active Sharer so only the person sharing sees the button.

How to draw on PowerPoint slides in Teams

If you present a deck with PowerPoint Live instead of sharing your screen, Teams gives you a separate, presenter-only set of tools rather than Annotate.

1. Share your deck with PowerPoint Live. The pointer and drawing tools appear beneath the current slide.
2. Select the pointer icon and a colour to use the laser. Quick marks fade away together.
3. Select the pen for an opaque line or the highlighter for a translucent one, then pick a thickness and colour. These marks last for the rest of the meeting.
4. Select the eraser and click a mark to remove it, or select Erase all ink on slide.
5. Select the cursor tool or press Esc to stop drawing.

Only the presenter can draw this way, and everyone in the meeting sees the ink. Source: Laser point or draw on PowerPoint slides in a Teams meeting.

Teams annotation limits at a glance

When Teams’ own tool can’t: draw with SHARA

Teams annotation is the right first try. These are the cases it doesn’t cover, and where a free overlay does:

• Other meeting apps. The same pen works in Zoom, Google Meet and Teams, so you learn one tool.
• A laser that cleans up after itself. SHARA’s Laser trail fades after 2.6 seconds.
• No request and no approval. You draw as the presenter, the moment you need to.
• Arrows, text and a cursor people can follow. Pen, Laser, Arrow, Text and Eraser are free, with a halo around the cursor and a flash on every click.
• Meetings where annotation is limited. If the organizer set it to Active Sharer, or it isn’t available to you, your own overlay still works when you share.

Set up SHARA for a Teams meeting

1. Install SHARA free from the Microsoft Store. There is no account, and it waits in the background for a hotkey.
2. In Teams, select Share and choose your entire screen, not a window. A window share sends only that window, so SHARA’s ink on top of it isn’t included.
3. Hold Ctrl+Space to open the Wheel at your cursor, then choose Draw and pick Laser or Pen.
4. Draw. Press Ctrl+Z to undo a stroke and Ctrl+Win+B to clear all ink.

Check what viewers get once with the screen share test card, and see the SHARA with Teams setup page for every key.

Teams Annotate, PowerPoint Live or SHARA: which to use?

When SHARA isn’t the right fit

Pick Teams Annotate when several people need to mark the same screen, when you want the marks saved as a Whiteboard, or when you present from a Mac or a managed PC that blocks Store apps. Pick PowerPoint Live when the whole talk is one deck. Viewers also cannot draw on your screen with SHARA: the ink is yours.

Annotating in Teams: FAQ