SMART Notebook

Build interactive lessons for the SMART Board

SMART Notebook for Windows is a classroom-focused lesson creation tool designed for teachers, trainers, and schools that use SMART Board interactive displays. Its main purpose is simple: help you prepare more engaging lessons on a PC, then present them in a way students can touch, move, annotate, and interact with during class.

The software works like a mix of presentation builder, whiteboard, and classroom activity editor. You can add text, images, multimedia files, embedded videos, HTML5 widgets, web pages, PDFs, and PowerPoint files. It also includes drawing tools, shapes, tables, image galleries, and activity templates for individual or team-based learning. Teachers can adjust lessons while presenting, which is useful when a class needs extra explanation or a different example on the spot.

SMART Notebook also includes practical teaching aids. Annotation tools, measurement tools, Magnifier, and Spotlight can help direct attention to key parts of a lesson. Screen capture and session recording are useful for saving material that students may want to review later. Lessons can be opened from a connected PC, a USB drive, Google Drive, or OneDrive, while subscribers get file syncing with compatible displays.

The biggest limitation is hardware dependency. SMART Notebook can be opened on a regular computer or shown through standard displays such as projectors or LED screens, but the interactive experience depends on having a SMART Board. Without that, many lessons behave more like standard presentation files than hands-on classroom activities.

There are two main versions. The basic version is free and includes many core lesson tools plus access to free classroom resources. However, some ready-made resources are not editable, and creating new activities is more limited. The paid SMART Learning Suite subscription expands customization, activity creation, and integration with Lumio for connecting classroom devices.

Overall, SMART Notebook is best suited to schools already using SMART Board hardware and teachers who want to build active, visual lessons for face-to-face instruction. It is less compelling as a general presentation tool, but in the right classroom setup, it offers a well-rounded set of features for planning and delivering interactive lessons.