This guide explains how to use Meeting Notes in Programa. It shows you how to record, upload, and manage all of your project meetings in one central place.
What is Meeting Notes
Meeting Notes brings every project meeting into one place. You can record live in Programa from your desktop browser or your phone, or upload a transcript you’ve already captured in another tool. Programa produces a structured summary, decisions, action items, and open questions which attach directly to the project.
Every project has a Meetings tab in the project sidebar. This is where all recordings, transcript uploads, and manual meeting records for that project are listed.
How to start a Quick meeting
The fastest way to start recording from anywhere in Programa is the Quick meeting button in the left sidebar. Use this when you want to start capturing a meeting before you’ve navigated into the project.
Click Quick meeting in the left sidebar.
A side menu opens listing your recently visited projects. Search or scroll to find the project.
Select the project. Programa creates a new meeting on that project and opens the recording view.
Update the meeting title and confirm the date and time if needed.
Select Start Recording to begin.
Click End to stop recording when the meeting ends.
Programa will transcribe and summarise the meeting within a few minutes.
Important: If you navigate away from the meeting page while recording, your recording will pause. A prompt will appear to let you know. To use the rest of Programa during a meeting open a new browser tab instead.
How to start a meeting from inside a project
Every project has a Meetings tab in the project sidebar. This is where all recordings, transcript uploads, and manual meeting records for that project are listed.
Open the project.
Click Meetings in the project sidebar.
Click Create Meeting.
Update the meeting title and confirm the date and time if needed.
Select Start Recording to begin.
Click End to stop recording when the meeting ends.
Programa will transcribe and summarise the meeting within a few minutes. Processing status is visible in the Meetings list.
Tip: For best results in an in-person meeting, place your laptop on the table close to where people are speaking.
How to record a meeting on mobile
Meeting Notes works in your phone’s browser, ideal for site walks, client meetings, or any in-person setting where your phone is more practical than a laptop.
On your phone, open and log in to Programa in your browser.
Tap Quick Meeting in the sidebar, or navigate to the project and select Meetings.
Select or create the meeting, then tap Start Recording
Place your phone on the table, or carry it if you’re moving around the space.
Tap Stop Recording when the meeting ends.
Important: Keep your phone screen on during recording. If your phone locks, you switch to another app, or you receive a call, the recording may stop. Disable auto-lock before starting if needed.
Tip: Recording an online meeting? Place your phone next to your computer. The phone microphone picks up speaker audio from your laptop far better than the laptop microphone picking up its own output.
How to pause and resume a recording
You can pause a recording mid-meeting without ending it - useful for breaks, sensitive side conversations, or interruptions you don’t want captured.
While recording, click Pause.
The sidebar widget will show the meeting as paused.
Click Resume to continue recording in the same meeting.
How to attach files to a meeting
Attach reference files to a meeting record, such as floor plans, images, or PDFs discussed during the meeting. Files can be attached before, during, or after a recording.
Open the meeting.
Click Attach File.
Select the files to attach.
Supported file types (each file must be under 50 MB):
Images: PNG, JPG/JPEG, GIF, BMP, WebP, HEIC, AVIF, TIFF
Documents: PDF, Word (.doc, .docx), Excel (.xls, .xlsx), PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx)
Other: Plain text (.txt), CSV, ZIP archives
How to add attendees to a meeting
Attach attendees from your Address Book or team members to the meeting record.
Attendees appear on the meeting record and help associate decisions and action items with the right people.
Open the meeting.
Click the Contacts icon to add a contact from your address book.
Search for and select a contact. You can also create a new contact directly from this field.
Select Save.
Note: Currently, meetings are only visible to the person who recorded or uploaded them. Adding attendees is for your own reference - other team members will not be able to view the meeting in Programa at this stage.
How to upload an existing transcript
If you’ve already captured a meeting in another tool, you can upload the transcript to Programa and receive the same structured summary as a live recording.
Open the project and click Meetings.
Click Create Meeting.
Click Upload Transcript using the actions bar and select your file.
Wait for Programa to process and summarise.
Supported transcript formats: TXT, Markdown (.md), VTT, PDF, DOCX, and RTF — up to 20 MB per file.
You can export a transcript from Zoom, Google Meet, Otter, Granola, or any other tool that produces one of these file types, then upload it here.
Note: Audio file uploads are not supported. If you have a recording from another tool, export the transcript from that tool and upload the transcript file instead.
Understanding your meeting summary
Once a meeting has been processed, open it from the Meetings list to see:
Summary - a written overview of the meeting
Decisions - key decisions made during the meeting
Open questions - unresolved items that need follow-up
Action items - tasks and follow-ups identified
Transcript - the full text of the meeting
How to find and manage your meetings
All meetings for a project are listed in the Meetings tab, grouped by date:
From the Meetings list, you can:
• Open any meeting to view its summary, transcript, and attached files
• Edit the meeting title and notes
• Delete a meeting by clicking the three-dot menu to the right of the meeting and selecting Delete Meeting
Important: Deleting a meeting permanently removes the recording, transcript, summary, and all attachments from Programa. This action cannot be undone.
How to format your meeting notes
The Notes tab includes built-in formatting tools to help you create clear, well-structured meeting notes as you write.
To access the formatting toolbar, highlight the text you want to format. The toolbar will appear above your selection, allowing you to apply formatting with a single click.
[Screenshot of formatting toolbar]
Use these formatting options to organise your notes:
Headings to organise sections
Bulleted lists for key points
Numbered lists for step-by-step items
Checkboxes for action items and tasks
Bold, italic, underlined, and strikethrough text for emphasis
Keyboard Shortcuts:
Formatting | Mac | Windows |
Bold | ⌘ Cmd + B | Ctrl + B |
Italic | ⌘ Cmd + I | Ctrl + I |
Underline | ⌘ Cmd + U | Ctrl + U |
Strikethrough | ⌘ Cmd + Shift + S | Ctrl + Shift + S |
Type as you go — formatting happens as you type:
Type | Creates |
# + space | Heading |
[] + space | Checkbox |
- + space | Bulleted list |
1. + space | Numbered list |
Note: Formatting works on both desktop and mobile. Your notes are saved automatically as you type.
Need more help with Meeting Notes? Contact our Support team via live chat for personalised assistance.