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20 Google Slides Tips to spice up your Presentations

Google Slides tips, 20 great tips to push your presentation slide show to the top of the list, make people listen and get your message across clearly, professionally and with style.

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By Lyudmil Enchev

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4 years ago

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If you need to make a presentation, you want to give yourself the best chance of success. To sell the product or yourself, to inform, to get your message across – the better the presentation the better the chances. Slide show presentations are a common way of doing this, but they are no less useful for that. They have many advantages, it’s why they are so popular, they can get the information across clearly, concisely, and memorably if done well. One of the most important decisions is which software to use. One option is Google Slides, but the software alone will not a great presentation make. In this article, we’ll give you some tips on how to really spice up that Google Slides presentation to create something you are proud of and more importantly will get the job done.

What is Google Slides?

Google Slides is a specialized presentation program that is part of the Google Drive service and it is free or there is a paid-for business option – G suite.  It is available as a desktop application and also as a web app or mobile app, so it can be used in pretty much any situation by anybody with computer access.

Put simply Google Slides enables anyone to create a presentation and edit it , and significantly can allow you to collaborate with other users in real-time . It is designed for online use and is regularly updated with new, fresh features. Crucially, it is also incredibly easy to use .

You’ve got the resource, you’ve got the concept, so the only question that remains is how do you make it something special? Here are the top 20 design tips to consider when using Google Slides:

Tip 1: Use templates Tip 2: Use plenty of  images Tip 3: Experiment with typography Tip 4: Add diagrams and infographics Tip 5: Get creative with your images Tip 6: Be careful with color Tip 7: Add animated transitions Tip 8: Collaborate with your team Tip 9: Add videos Tip 10: Hold back on the text

Tip 11: Make it a story Tip 12: Make reference Tip 13: Add links Tip 14: Take questions Tip 15: Make notes Tip 16: Add bullet points Tip 17: Make it device friendly Tip 18: Use numbers Tip 19: Finish with C.T.A Tip 20: Don’t extend too much

Tip #1: Use templates

The theme of your presentation should be represented by the theme of your slideshow. It will hold everything together.

Unless you are a designer yourself, it can be tricky and time-consuming to design a presentation from scratch that looks the part. The professional designers know what they are doing and give you plenty of options. It isn’t lazy, it doesn’t reflect on your design skills (you aren’t a designer anyway), and nobody questions your creativity.

In actual fact, using the numerous professionally designed templates available on Google Slides does two really useful jobs, if, in fact, they notice at all. Firstly it shows the audience that you know your limits and more importantly, it gives you time to focus on the content of the presentation. It is after all the content that is your principal goal. Plus it gives you extra time to concentrate on your all-important presentation skills.

The templates are all exceptionally designed, and completely and easily editable including the addition of images, layout, color, and background color. Really what more could you need?

Tip #2: Use plenty of  images

Presentations need to be visual. We remember images, we understand images, we recognize and associate with images, and we are brief visual creatures. You need to use images, but we wish it was that simple. don’t just throw them in for the sake of it!

The images you use have a huge effect. The key is to use powerful and appropriate images such as photos and illustrations that help you get your message through. Images that emphasize and enhance your words, stoke up emotion and clarify a complex issue, all these images are useful and powerful. They help you deliver what you want, they help you get your message across and you need to get them into the presentation as thoughtfully as possible.

So you know, you want images so then you need to decide on the right ones. Either use your own images previously downloaded or created and saved and insert them or use Google image search. If you use Google’s image search which has a tremendous number of options, we’re talking in the millions here, it isn’t even necessary to download them first, just add them via your browser tab, insert, image, type in keywords and search away then click on your choice and it’s done.

The type of images you add is important and well worth thinking about. Illustrations can show creativity, originality, and imagination. They are great for illustrating more abstract or complex ideas. You can choose between artistic, hand-drawn, graphic, geometric, simple outlines, etc, all will generate a different tone and feel. Photographic images can present reality, credibility, and honesty. With either choice, you can get really creative, grab the attention, hold the attention, and be remembered.

Be aware that heavy files can result in lagging, which is the last thing you need. Run the presentation through, to check it’s smooth.

Tip #3: Experiment with typography

If you’ve got great content, and we’re sure you have, why go with a bog-standard font. Let’s get creative and choose the font that will suit your theme, your content, and your style, a font that will catch the eye and set you apart. In Google Slides when you click on a text box you get a font option, including size, color, etc. There is a great range but selecting “more fonts” at the top will direct you to the free Google Fonts service. Here you can get really funky. Don’t be afraid an unusual font can have a wow effect but remember it needs to be readable too. You can add your own custom fonts too.

And that’s not all, clicking on the More option on the menu bar (far right) gives you room to play with the text you have, from the usual rotation, size, text fitting, and positioning to the more interesting drop shadow and reflection options. (including opacity, and translucency slide bars.) These add interest and an extra dimension and look like you’ve really made an effort.

Tip #4: Add diagrams and infographics

As with the images above, infographics and diagrams are ideal for presentations. They convey masses amount of information in accessible chunks in a visual way. If you’ve got stats and data or even a complex idea to explain there is little as confusing and frankly dull as long lists of figures or long-winded explanations. This is where the latest craze for infographics really comes into its own.

You can create infographics independently of Google Slides and simply insert it, in the correct spot. Alternatively, you can create a chart or graph, a flowchart, or a diagram straight in Slides, using google sheets or one of the standard menu options. Again these are flexible and editable.

Tip #5: Get creative with your images

We’ve already established that you need images, right? If you’ve selected the appropriate powerful ones, now is the time to put in a tiny bit of effort to add a little extra style. Google Slides contains an option for masking images, meaning you can play with the edges, round off the corners, change image shape and add other stylistic elements. These little things make a huge difference so get creative and experiment, you can always undo, the many options by simply clicking on the image, then the Mask image icon (the little triangle).

Tip #6: Be careful with color

We all know colors can improve a presentation but it is equally true that they can ruin it too. A tendency to throw colors around willy-nilly can look childish and distract from your main aim, so think carefully.

Colors carry associations and are emotive(be aware that they are also culture-sensitive) and can be a great psychological tool when presenting. But you have to make some decisions about what, where, and how much.

• Brand Colors – if you’re presenting your brand, colors are a fantastic way of creating a strong flow of identity throughout. You can stick to the exact colors or use tonal variations and still keep the consistency.
• Bright Colors – catch the attention, but don’t overdo it. Combinations work well, especially regarding images and texts.
• One dominant color – A theme that eases from slide to slide, when used cleverly focuses the eye and highlights key points.
• Black and White – a classic for a reason, dramatic yet clear, elegant yet simple, and you can add grey or occasional pops of color that really stand out.
• Trends of 2022 – colors go in fashions too, check out the most trendy colors and combinations in 2022 .
• Gradients – Gradients and color transitions are very popular.
• Backgrounds – full or part, transparent or semi-transparent, plain, pattern or texture – background really help draw the eye to a particular section. You can also add your own.

Google Slides makes it easy to edit colors into your work, the difficult bit is making the decision in the first place.

Tip #7: Add animated transitions

The visual effect given when moving from one slide to the next, transitions is one of the simplest methods of adding a professional feel to the overall presentation. In Google Slides, just click on the “Transitions” button on the menu and choose from the many options available. The rule of thumb is to find one you like and stick to it during the whole presentation, there are lots of options but don’t be tempted to mix them up. A great transition will keep the interest and create a dynamic flow, a cacophony will distract.

It’s worth noting you should try to keep the number of slides and therefore transitions as low as possible, too many slides is too much movement and not enough focus.

Tip #8: Collaborate with your team

A great advantage of Google Slides is that as it’s online, anyone with permission can see where you are at with the design and even edit it. If you are working with a design team or content writers this is ideal, if you want another opinion it’s a great option too. Another set of eyes can offer insights, and advice, and often see mistakes that you haven’t even noticed. And always get your presentation proofread to avoid potential embarrassment, the last thing you need is to be talking over a glaring typo, hours spent putting together a great presentation can be lost in an instant.

All edits are tracked by the user and indicated by color coding and you can give various levels of permissions. With a revision history that tracks changes to the presentation.

Tip #9: Add videos

It may be appropriate to do something a little different and add a video, it will cause a stir. If you think this is an option that will add to your presentation and isn’t just there because you can do it, then it’s easy to do in Google Slides.

By clicking on “Insert” then “video”, you can add either form your own saved video to your Google Drive account or search YouTube videos. Be sure to watch the video before embedding it, you don’t want an embarrassing surprise. Then edit or format your video as you wish, you can change position or size and playback options, it’s easy but a great way of impressing the audience.

Tip #10: Hold back on the text

Your presentation is an aid to your speech, a guide, and in addition, it is not a document to be read. A text overload will do one of two things either people will focus on the writing and you’ll lose their attention, or worse you’ll lose them altogether and they’ll focus on neither.

The rule is to be brief, the shorter the better. Strong impacting, emotive, emphasizing, provocative – these are the words you are looking for, nobody wants long explanatory texts (that’s what your images are for).

Experts recommend up to six words per slide is enough to gain the attention and get the audience to listen to what you have to say.

Tip #11: Make it a story

We are surrounded by stories from the earliest fairy tales of childhood to the binge-watched Netflix dramas of present times. If you want your presentation to really strike a chord, storytelling is the way to go. Stories, anecdotes, and personal snippets all will allow your key communicative aim to be understood. They also give you a chance to show your personality, humor, humility, experience, and knowledge, and liven things ups.

The slide show is used as a guide through your story, a background that will hold the key concepts and arguments, keep them clear, and hold the focus. But essentially they supplement and add whilst you do the work.

Tip #12: Make reference

By referring to current events, and culture you kill two birds with one stone. Firstly, the audience can relate to your message and can link your ideas to what they are familiar with. Secondly, it keeps things topical, relevant, and up-to-date and that includes the images of you. It forms a vital link with the audience, you are part of them and not apart from them.

But beware you need to know your stuff, what you may think is topical could fall on deaf ears. Research and know your audience, think of age and cultural differences – you don’t want your witty observation to fall on stony ground. And everything should be focused back on your main point, link it to the presentation.

Tip #13: Add links

Links will enable people to lookup more detailed information, links will also show you’ve done your background, links look academic, and links can add a level of professionalism.

With Google Slides there is a research tool, which makes it simple to add links to websites but also to images or additional files in your Drive account. A very useful way of allowing you to be brief and focused but supplying all information that is needed. You can even type into the Google Slides to search for relevant images and sites.

Tip #14: Take questions (often)

Don’t wait until the end to invite questions, people often forget what they were going to ask or are just desperate to get to the free buffet! Questions should be invited throughout, interaction is good, and it makes the audience feel part of the process. In a physical presence in a meeting room or conference hall, this should be scheduled into your time, it is easy to forget and move on.

Google Slides has a Presenters notes section that only you can during the presentation, this is an excellent place to remind yourself to ask for questions.

If your presentation is virtual then Google Slides can create a link for you to send to your audience. Through this link, the viewers can post questions which then appear in the box. An excellent way of increasing active viewing.

Tip #15: Make notes

As we’ve established your slide show is not a complete presentation, your skills are absolutely vital. You need to be prepared for the pressure and the performance. Google Slides provides a “Presenter Notes” option where you can create a guide for each slide, or a script if you wish. There is a good chance you will forget something or get lost at some point unless you really know your stuff – and even then it’s more than possible.

When you start your slide show select “Present” and scroll to the bottom of the screen. Click on the gear icon and open your written notes. The notes open in a separate window, so you need to arrange your setup so you have different screens meaning the audience doesn’t see the notes. The notes follow the slide you are on, forwards or backward, and at whatever speed you are working.

Tip #16: Add bullet points

In an article, proposal, or report, bullet points are great, they break up texts, highlight key points, and make scanning easier but these are text for reading. A presentation is not for reading. You need to explain the slides, the bullets don’t. If it’s worth a bullet point it’s worth a slide of its own. Don’t patronize your audience with obvious point breakdowns when a few words will do the trick. If they need a breakdown, or explanation add a link.

Tip #17: Make it device friendly

You may well be using your presentation slide show in a very standard, typical way, perhaps projecting it onto a screen behind you from your laptop. Remember Google Slides is online so you can access it from a mobile device or tablet. This means that it is possible to cast from your device to a screen. You don’t necessarily have to carry around your laptop for your presentation.

It is also great for working on your presentation remotely, where ever you may be. You get a great idea on the train, take out your phone and access your presentation.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that others can access your presentation from their device too, so remember when doing the design that your presentation needs to look at the part on the small screen.

Tip #18: Use numbers

Numbers add clarity, help the listeners know where you are, act as a guide through the process, and make it feel like you are progressing. If you number each slide there is a sense of drawing to a goal, it’s a simple rule but one of the best. They take seconds to add on Google Slides and are proven to help.

Tip #19: Finish with C.T.A

A call to action is a great way to finish. It has the dual function of closing the presentation and opening the next dialogue. Devote a whole slide to it, make it provocative, you want this part to be remembered.

Thank your audience, of course, it pays to be polite… but please don’t waste a slide on this. Your ending needs to be dramatic and memorable. The questions you need to pose at the end of your presentation, and the questions the audience needs to be asking themselves is… what now? Tell them what you want them to do – directly.

Tip#20: Don’t extend too much

We’ve left it to the end, it’s so important but be brief. Nobody will thank you for needlessly extending, you sat in presentations yourself and you know exactly what everybody is thinking. Let’s get this over and done, yes? This is what the experts say and who are we to argue.

• Ten key slides  – Seems harsh and obviously, it’s only a guide but it’s a good guide. This is the optimal number of slides in a Slide Show presentation, as most people don’t cope well with more than ten key ideas in one session.
• Twenty minutes – If your presentation talk is planned for 20 solid informative minutes it’s plenty. You can have a brief intro (but keep it brief) and clearly, it’s flexible for additional questions and discussions but your actual presentation time should be around 20 minutes.

Presentation construction and the presentations themselves are not necessarily dull. These key tips are both general and Google Slide specific. The idea is to create something that will wow your audience, look professional, create a buzz, and most importantly of all – achieve your main goal. Substance and style rather than one over the other.

You and your design are a team, working together to get the information and message across. The design should, of course, look the part and these tips will help you there – but it shouldn’t dominate.

You are a focal point too, and here are some things to remember:

• Have energy – if you are not enjoying it, no one will.
• Practice – eye contact, voice, and gestures, they all go a long way to selling the message and keeping people with you. Practice in front of a mirror, in front of friends and family, even a pet -it makes a difference when you do it in front of an audience – you’ll get the feel.
• Prepare – double-check the equipment, and proofread the presentation (better get it to proofread).
• Feel Comfortable – get there in good time, check the room and facilities, wear clothes you feel good in, it all helps your confidence.
• You can’t please all the people all the time – remember some people will always be bored, and won’t react, hit the majority and you’ll be fine.

These Google Slides tips are exactly that tips, you use what you want, what you think will work for you, and you will work for your audience. The Slides will help, they are the magic wand but you are the one waving it and speaking the magic words.

You may also be interested in these related articles:

• 35 Free Google Slides Infographic Templates to Grab Now
• 39 Free Google Slides Templates For Your Next Presentation
• 70 Inspiring Presentation Slides with Cartoon Designs

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Lyudmil Enchev

Lyudmil is an avid movie fan which influences his passion for video editing. You will often see him making animations and video tutorials for GraphicMama. Lyudmil is also passionate for photography, video making, and writing scripts.

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Google Slides: The ULTIMATE guide

• Written by: Joey Dudley
• Categories: Google Slides , Presentation technology
• Comments: 55

Whether you’re a student, a professional, or a presentation aficionado, you’ve probably heard of Google Slides, the browser-based presentation tool from Google Workspace. Google Slides has been steadily gaining in popularity over the past few years, with more and more users keen to make use of its easy-to-use interface and collaboration features.

As presentation enthusiasts (which is, let’s be honest, a polite way of saying nerds), we at BrightCarbon know Google Slides inside out. We’ve created this extensive guide to cover absolutely everything you need to know about Google Slides — from the basics through to more advanced features — so you can take your presentation projects to the next level.

How to use this guide

Whether you’re an experienced presentation creator or a total beginner, this is the ultimate guide for you! If you’re new to Slides, you can work your way through the sections from start to finish. If there’s something in particular you need help with, navigate to the section that interests you most by clicking one of the topic links below. This is a really in-depth guide, so bookmark the link and add it to your favourites to come back to. If you want more hands-on help, we also offer paid-for Google Slides training with an expert trainer.

How Google Slides works

Is google slides free.

• Getting started

Adding, removing, and hiding slides

Understanding the menu bar, understanding the toolbar, using the theme builder, using and creating themes, using the explore tool.

• Using Extensions

Creating content in Google Slides: Text and fonts

Inserting and editing text boxes, advanced: text formatting, inserting tables, adding fonts to slides, creating content in google slides: shapes and images, inserting and editing shapes, inserting and editing images.

• Advanced: Making attractive slides

Creating charts

Inserting media, creating content in google slides: animation and interactivity, making movement, advanced: linking and hyperlinking, getting the most out of cloud and collaboration features, cloud working, offline working, saving your work, advanced: converting to and from google slides, presenting and printing.

• Presenting your work

Printing your work

Getting even more out of google slides, more google slides resources, resources for making better presentations, get involved with our google slides masterclasses.

Here we cover the basics of using Google Slides, from creating a brand-new presentation to setting up a slide theme.

Google Slides is free to use across web, mobile and desktop apps, as long as you have a free Google account. Businesses can upgrade to a paid-for version of Google Workspace, but within that, Google Slides is exactly the same product as in the free version of Google Workspace and offers all the tools individual users are likely to need.  In fact, at the time of writing there are no differences between the paid version and the free version!

Getting Started

Creating a new Slides presentation

To use Google Slides you need to sign up for a free Google account. You can create one here .

From Google Drive , click New at the top of the left-hand dashboard, then choose Google Slides > Blank presentation . There’s also an option to build your Slides deck from a template – we’ll cover that later .

If you’re working from the Slides homepage , simply click the blank template with the plus sign which sits beneath the Start a new presentation header in the top left of the main page.

Once open, you can rename your new Slides deck any time by clicking the Untitled Presentation box in the top left. So can your collaborators – we’ll introduce them properly later .

Changes are saved automatically when working online. This is why there’s no Save button in Google Slides. We talk more about saving your work later on .

To add a new blank slide, right click one of the slide thumbnails in the left-hand panel and select New slide . This new slide will use the same layout as the one you right clicked on ( more on layouts later ). To create a slide that is identical to an existing slide (including content), right click the thumbnail and select Duplicate slide .

To remove a slide, click on the slide thumbnail that you wish to delete and hit the Delete key on your keyboard, or right click and select Delete .

If there’s a slide you want to keep in your deck but don’t want to show when presenting, you can hide it. Right click the slide thumbnail and select Skip slide . The slide thumbnail will fade back. When you are in slideshow mode this slide will no longer show. To unskip a slide, right click the thumbnail and click Unskip slide .

The menu bar covers all the key functionality you’ll need to get started building your presentation. You’re likely to have come across many of these options before in other software, so we’ll focus on some of the more Google Slides-specific functionality below.

The File tab has all the basics for sharing, editing, and toggling settings.

The Share button lets you share your presentation with others. To learn more about sharing and privacy settings, see Cloud working below .

Make a copy lets you create a copy of either your entire presentation or of a single slide. This is great if you want to play around with edits on a deck or slide without editing the original document.

Version history allows you to see past iterations of a document, which can be incredibly useful. We talk more about Version history in the Viewing and saving your work section below .

Publish to the web lets you publish a non-editable version of your presentation that can be viewed via a link or embedded on a web page. This is a great feature if you want a larger audience to see your final, finished piece of work. Click Share , then Publish to the web , select either Link or Embed , adjust any relevant settings, and hit Publish .

Language lets you change the language of the document so that spelling is checked correctly. Tip: If you change from US to UK English, your measurements will change from imperial to metric — useful to know!

Page setup lets you format your slides to suit your needs. You can find more info about setting up pages here and in our blog post, How to change slide size in Google Slides .

This handy feature allows you to send an approval request to anyone who needs to give your presentation the final once-over — for example, your manager. To use this feature, simply click Approvals and the Approvals pane will appear. Click Make a request to send the deck to your chosen reviewers. You can toggle editing privileges or add a message before clicking Send request. You can also add a due date. Your chosen approver will see a message that says Pending approval at the top of the presentation when they open it. They can click to open a sidebar that allows them to see other reviewers, read your message, and see the due date if one has been assigned. Once they’ve approved the deck, you’ll get a notification to let you know.

The Edit tab houses some of the simplest — but most useful — tools you’ll use in Slides. Here you can find the expected Undo and Redo buttons for taking edits a step forward or back and options for Cut , Copy , and Paste . A particularly handy tool is Find and replace . If you have a word or phrase running throughout your presentation that needs changing, type it into the Find dialogue box and type your alternative into the Replace box. Then hit Replace to go through each instance individually, or Replace all for a blanket change across slides.

Tip: A lot of these actions can also be controlled using keyboard shortcuts . We’ve compiled a list of the most useful keyboard shortcuts for Slides in a handy PDF. Click here to download it for free and check out our favourite Google Slides shortcuts for increased productivity.

The View tab is used to change screen setup, open side panels, and toggle grids and guides on and off. You can also toggle guides by right clicking your slide and selecting Guides from the drop down menu.

To edit animation and transitions in your presentation, click Motion. Here you can view all animated objects in your presentation. To animate an object, select it and click Select an object to animate in the Motion pane. Click here for more about using animations and transitions .

Click Theme builder to view the theme for your document. We’ve got a whole section about using theme builder  later on.

Grid view shows your slides in grid formation so you can see an overview of your whole deck rather than looking at things one slide at a time. In Grid view , you can reorder slides by dragging and dropping them — a handy way of rearranging things in your deck. To toggle Grid view off, go back to the View tab and untick it. Alternatively, you can toggle between Grid view and Film strip view (default view) by clicking the icons at the bottom of the sidebar on the left.

Guides lets you add guide lines to your presentation by right clicking on the slide or by clicking the Add vertical/horizontal guide buttons. Once you’ve added guides you can click and drag to rearrange them. By selecting Show guides or Clear guides you can toggle them on and off.

Top tip: It’s best to add the guides through the theme builder  to ensure that they’re locked on the slides and you can’t accidentally click and edit them.

The Insert tab is where you add text, shapes, videos, images, and more to your slides. We go into more detail about inserting and editing images later .

Click on the following links to get more information about how to use features including text boxes , audio , shapes , tables , and charts .

You can add Word art to your presentation by clicking Word art from the Insert tab and then entering your chosen text into the box that appears at the top of the screen. You can then edit the font or colour of text in the toolbar. Learn more about the toolbar here.

Tip: Word art can also be really useful for quickly resizing large numbers and statistics. If you have a break slide and want to have a large number on there, it’s quite difficult to adjust it to the correct position. Word art treats the number as an individual object, not text. That way you can resize it in the same way you would resize any other object.

Here you will find tools to help you customise your slide. You can  format tables, images and other objects here, along with text. There are also some text formatting options that can ONLY be found through this menu, such as size, colour, and capitalization.

Go to Text to see a range of ways you can adapt the look and feel of text. Here you can change the Size , Colour , Capitalisation , and more. If you need to add numbered footnotes to your presentation, you can use the Superscript and Subscript options.

Below Text is Align and indent . Here you can choose whether your text aligns to the left , right , or centre margins of the text box it sits in. You can also choose Justified for text paragraphs, spacing the text out evenly to fall flush with both margins.

Tip: The easiest way to align your text is to select it and then use the Align button in the toolbar to make the alignments.

Under Borders & lines you can create and edit a border for your object, change its colour, style or increase/decrease its line thickness. To remove all formatting changes to your object, click Clear formatting . Under Borders & lines you can create and edit a border for your text box, change its colour or increase/decrease its line thickness. To remove all formatting changes to your text, click Clear formatting .

Slides has some more advanced tools for formatting text, we talk about these later on .

The Slide tab has more ways to add and remove slides from your deck. You can use it to apply a layout from your theme builder by clicking Apply Layout , or open the Motion pane to select a new transition by clicking Transition . Change background opens up a new window where you can choose a colour fill or image fill for your slide. Once selected, you can choose whether to apply it to a single slide, or click Add to theme and apply it to your overall theme.

The Arrange tab includes the alignment tools. You can use these to easily arrange and position objects in an ordered way. Tip: It’s worth noting that right clicking on objects and then using the alignment options on that menu is a lot more practical!

There’s a lot of easy-to-miss functionality hidden in the Tools tab.

The Spelling menu houses standard tools such as Spell check . Personal dictionary lets you add words and phrases that wouldn’t show up in a normal dictionary. This way, these words don’t get flagged as misspelt. This would be useful for a company name, for example.

You can also find the standard Dictionary feature in the Tools tab.

Unlike the Tools tab in Google Docs, Google Slides unfortunately doesn’t have an option for viewing word count. A way to see the word count for your presentation is to click File > Download as > Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx) or Plain Text (.txt) , or copy and paste the text from your presentation into a Google Docs file.

From the Tools tab you can also open up the Preferences window. There are lots of features in this window, so it’s well worth exploring! Here you can toggle some standard Slides features on or off, such as Automatically detect links or Automatically capitalise words . This could be useful if you have a particular style you need to adhere to, such as all lowercase. You can also toggle Smart Compose and Smart Reply on and off to help you write sentences and comments using predictive text. Clicking on the Substitutions tab in the Preferences window, which allows you to set up autocorrect actions where you type one thing and it automatically replaces it with something else. This is great for copyright symbols, trademarks, superscript and subscript.

If you’ve previously presented your deck and allowed your audience to ask questions using the Q&A feature, you can view the history of this by clicking Q&A history – handy if you need to remind yourself of common questions asked!

The Tools tab is also home to the Voice type speaker notes feature, which we cover here .

You can click Linked objects to open up the Linked objects pane, which allows you to find and update charts, tables, or slides that are linked to other files, such as Google Sheets. This makes it easy to keep your data up to date across different Google Workspace documents.

The Tools tab also houses Accessibility options. Click on Accessibility to toggle useful accessibility features that help make Slides easy for everyone to use, such as screen reader, braille support and screen magnifiers.

Finally, the Tools tab is where you can find the Activity dashboard (as long as you’re part of the same organisation as the file owner).This useful feature allows you to track viewers, comments, and sharing history for your presentation. It also gives you the option to adjust privacy settings, helping you keep total control of your work while enabling easy collaboration.

There’s a lot to cover here, so see below for more on using Extensions in Google Slides.

The toolbar is home to all the helpful tools you need to create a dazzling presentation. We’ll guide you through some of Slides’ more unique tools so you’re ready to get stuck in with confidence. Note that the toolbar changes depending on what you click on — for example, if you click on an image, it will display options for formatting and replacing that image. These will be hidden when you click off the image.

Paint format:  This handy tool allows you to copy and paste the formatting of one object and apply it to another. Select a shape and click the Paint format tool. Then select another shape and watch the formatting of the first shape (fill colour, line colour, line width) be applied. You can also double-click the paint format tool to continue applying the formatting across multiple objects! To turn the paint format tool off, simply press Esc .

Zoom:  Google Slides’ zoom functionality is somewhat limited. Selecting the Zoom button in the toolbar only allows you to zoom to 50, 100 or 200 percent. One way to more accurately adjust your zoom increments is to use the keyboard shortcuts CTRL+ALT++ and CTRL+ALT+-. Tip: After clicking the Zoom button in the toolbar, you can select a particular area on your slide to zoom in on by drawing a box over it.

Image: You can use the Image button to insert images from Drive, the web, Google Slides, your webcam, from your computer, and more. However, Slides has a lot of functionality for inserting and editing images that isn’t confined to the toolbar.  Learn more about inserting and editing images in Slides here .

Bullet points:  While we don’t recommend presenting lots of bullet points and text-heavy content , the bullet tool is quite easy to miss in Slides, so we thought we’d call it out here for those of you wondering how to add bullet points to your presentations! The Bulleted list drop down sits towards the end of the toolbar . Simply highlight your text, select the drop down, and choose the type of bullet you wish to use. Next to the Bulleted list is the Numbered list , which you can use if you want to use numbers and letters to organise your text points instead. You can also use CTRL + SHIFT + 8 to transform your text into a bulleted list, while CTRL + SHIFT + 7 will give you a numbered list.

Align:  The best way to align text is to select it and then click on the Align button in the toolbar . Click to show a drop down menu which will allow you to justify selected text , centre it, or align it left or right.

The Theme builder (known as the Slide Master in PowerPoint) controls the look and feel of your deck. Use it to set custom layouts, backgrounds, colour schemes and fonts for all your slides. It’s best to set up the theme builder at the very start of your project to create a consistent set of slides. Be mindful if you edit the theme slide; any changes to the theme will retroactively affect the slides you’ve already built, so be sure to check through the whole presentation afterwards!

Theme builder: To launch the theme builder go to the Slide tab in the menu ba r and click Edit theme . You can also access this by clicking View in the toolbar and selecting Theme builder . Down the left hand side you will see a number of different slides. At the top is the theme slide. This is like the control centre for the rest of your deck. Any changes you make to this slide will be applied to all other slides in the theme builder, and all slides within your presentation, too.

Slide layouts:  If you want to make a specific type of slide, like a title slide or agenda slide, you’ll want to edit the different slide layouts which sit below the theme slide. You can make small tweaks, like adjusting background colours or adding images, or larger adjustments, like repositioning text boxes. Unlike with the theme slide, these changes will not be applied to all slides; only slides which use that specific layout will be affected.

To edit a layout, first locate it down the left hand side of the theme builder view. You can also create a new one by right clicking on any layout and choosing New layout . Once you have the right layout selected, you can begin editing it like any other slide. Add, move, alter, or delete objects to achieve your desired layout style. Right click on the layout in the left hand panel and select Rename layout . A new window will appear where you can give the layout a new name, like ‘Agenda slide’.

Applying layouts to slides:  When you are done editing your layouts, have a thorough check over your presentation. Once checked, you can exit the theme builder by clicking X in the right hand corner. All changes will be automatically saved.

To apply a particular layout to a slide, right click the slide thumbnail in the left hand panel and click Apply layout . This will bring up all the layout options from the theme builder for you to choose from. Need a bit more info? Check out our article on editing the Google Slides theme builder and layouts .

Themes are a collection of slide layouts that you can apply to your presentation. Google Slides comes with a number of pre-made themes that you can use straight out of the box, or customise via the theme builder for a more personalised look and feel.

You can also create your own, personalised theme. To do this, open up a blank presentation and make the necessary edits to the theme slide and layouts, as explained above . Then go to the Slides home screen , select Template gallery in the top right. When the new window opens up you can submit a new template in the top right corner. In the next window you can choose a presentation to use as a template. You can also submit a copy of this file by checking the box at the bottom. Checking this box will duplicate your selected presentation and move it to your personal Drive. This means that nobody but you can edit it. This is very useful, as when you edit a deck that is saved in the template gallery, it automatically updates it in the gallery. It’s best practice to make sure nobody but you has access to the original file to help preserve it. Once you’ve set all that up you can create a new deck using that template by selecting New > From a template and navigating to it in the template gallery.

Choosing a theme:  When you create a new Slides deck (by clicking + New and then Google Slides from your Google Drive homepage) you will be presented with a range of themes when your new deck first opens. You can also go to the Slide tab in the menu bar and select Change theme . You can click on any theme in the panel to preview it. Once chosen, simply close the panel by clicking the X in the right hand corner. To edit this theme, simply open the theme builder and follow the steps as explained above.

Changing the theme:  If you are working from an existing Slides document and want to change the theme to one of Google’s preset options, go to the Slide tab in the menu bar and select Change theme to preview Google Slides’ pre-set options. If you choose a new theme, it will be applied to all of your existing slides, so check through all your slides once the change has been applied to ensure it looks how you want it to.

Tip: Once your content has been moved onto the correct template you can clean up other themes in the deck. First, navigate to View > Theme builder . By clicking the name of your theme, you can see the other themes in the deck in a drop down menu that appears. To delete them from the deck, simply click the name of the theme, then select the top panel labelled Theme and press delete . As long as no slides in the deck are using that theme, it will delete the theme (and all layouts connected to it) from your document.

Importing a theme from PowerPoint:  Although you can import themes from one deck to another, it’s important to be careful when using the built-in Import theme function because it can merge with the existing one, causing irregularities. Also, your Theme builder can get cluttered with templates when slides are incorrectly copied and pasted from other sources. If you want to try this function out anyway, go to the Slide tab in the menu bar and select Change theme. At the bottom of the theme panel you can select Import theme . In the new window, navigate to the upload tab and click Select a file from your computer . Choose another Google Slides deck or PowerPoint file, and Google Slides will then extract the theme from it.

Because importing themes using the native function is so temperamental, we’ve discovered a workaround which works like a charm, and is especially useful if you have a PowerPoint theme that you’d like to import into your Slides deck. Find a deck on Drive that uses the theme you want to import into your Google Slides deck. Copy a slide that uses the correct template. Open up the deck that you’d like to import your theme into and paste your slide into it. Select Keep original styles . This will ensure that the entire theme is brought over (including fonts, colours, and guides) whilst keeping it separate from other themes in the deck. Now that your theme has been imported, you can create new slides within it by right clicking on the slide that has the correct theme and clicking New slide .

Changing and customising theme colours:  To create a set of custom colours that appear in the colour palette for your theme, go to the theme builder , select colours just below the menu bar which opens up the colours tab on the right-hand side. You can change the colours for each theme from there.

Changing slide size:  Google Slides defaults to 25.4 x 14.29cm, which is a 16:9 aspect ratio. Note that this is smaller than PPT, so if you’re copying objects or text from a PPT deck opened with Google Slides, they will paste into Google Slides much larger than the original.

There’s an easy way to toggle between set slide dimensions or create a custom size. Go to Page setup in the File tab. Use the drop down to choose a standard size (Standard 4:3 , Widescreen 16:9 , Widescreen 16:10 ) or choose Custom to input your own dimensions. Once chosen, click Apply .

If you do choose to use a custom size for your deck, make sure you do so with good reason. The standard 16:9 ratio is widely used because it fits perfectly on most widescreen screens and projectors. A custom size may not work so well, and may make inserting slides from other decks quite tricky! Learn more about how to change slide size in Google Slides .

Tip: It’s best to set a custom slide size before adding your content. Adjusting your slide size afterwards will stretch everything on the slide to fit!

The Explore tool has two key functionalities that we’ve found useful. Firstly, it generates suggestions for appropriate layouts based on what’s on your slide. Secondly, it allows you to search Google within your Slides document.

Opening the Explore panel

Accessing the Explore tool is simple. All you need to do is go to Tools in the menu bar and then click Explore in the drop down menu. After you’ve located, simply click — this will open the Explore panel sidebar.

Suggested layouts don’t only change when you update text. If you insert an image, graph, chart, or GIF, the layouts will also update to offer you more appropriate layout options for the specific type of visual you have included. For example, to insert an image, select Insert , choose Image , and choose one of the options provided to either upload an image from your computer, the web, drive, or another location.

Once you’ve selected a layout, any new slides you add from that slide will follow that same layout, helping you keep your presentation consistent. You can also use Explore to create different layouts for different slides depending on the content. However, be aware that your slide might need to follow a different layout to one you’ve used previously, and Explore won’t create any more layouts that are consistent with the first one. The individual layouts it suggests will be inconsistent with one another and so the more you use the Explore function, the more inconsistent the whole deck will be when it comes to things like title alignment and image positioning, etc.

Ultimately, this feature is good for giving you ideas for new layouts, but it’s important to be aware of potential inconsistencies across different slides.

Adding information from other documents or web sources

The Explore tool can do more than just create layouts — it also lets you quickly and easily locate something online or on Drive without opening a new tab on your web browser or exiting your presentation. All you need to do is navigate to Explore , type in a search term in the search bar, and your results will appear.

After searching for something, your search results will show in categories. There are three categories which will appear, Cloud search, Web, and Images.

Cloud search allows you to search through Google Drive, Gmail, and more. To filter by type, click the filter icon. It’s possible your administrator may have turned off this option, in which case it may not appear and you’ll need to search manually through Google Drive in another browser tab instead.

Web uses Google Search to help locate information from the web related to your presentation.

Images uses Google Image Search to aid in finding images from the web related to your presentation.

Let’s look at the Explore tool in action.

Let’s say you are giving a presentation on marine mammals, and you need to locate pictures of seals. Simply navigate to Explore , type ‘seal’ in the search bar, and press enter. Now, click Images from the three options just below the search bar.

To preview any images at a larger size, just click on them. If you decide you are happy with the image, simply click the blue I nsert button at the top of the preview window. If you’ve located an image you want to add to your presentation from the Explore panel and don’t need to preview it, all you need to do is click the + that appears on the top right corner of the image when you hover over it. The image will be added to the slide you have selected, with a link to the original source page attached.

Reminder: Consider usage rights when selecting an image. Be sure to consult guidelines on fair use and licensing when searching for images online. Site owners often use licences to indicate if and how others can reuse content on their sites. The licence details should provide guidance on whether or not an image can be used for your intended context, and whether to include appropriate attribution for the image if necessary.

Once you’ve selected your images, you can use Explore to place them in layouts by clicking the back arrow in the Explore panel until you get back to the layout options.

You’re not just limited to searching for images. Type a keyword into the search bar, click the Web tab, and you’ll be given Google search results related to your keyword. If you want to find out more, simply click on one of the links and a new tab opens in your browser taking you to that webpage. If you need to see more results, simply scroll down to the bottom of the Explore tab and select See all results on Google .

To locate files in Drive, simply search in the Explore tab using the process we’ve outlined above and click Cloud search in the three options below the search bar.

Using extensions

How to add an extension to Slides:  Extensions (also known as add-ons) are independent apps you can add to Google Slides to increase its capabilities. You can find the full range of add-ons by clicking the Extensions tab in the menu bar and choosing Add-ons and then Get add-ons . This opens a new window with some featured add-ons, as well as a search bar that allows you to look for something specific. Once you’ve found one to try, click on it and then click Install . You may then be asked to verify your login details and allow permission settings. Once you’ve clicked Install , the add-on will be added to Slides. You can find all of your downloaded add-ons in Add-ons under the Extensions tab.

Our favourite add-ons and extensions: We’ve compiled a list of the handiest Google Slides add-ons that help us do our jobs better, so you can get some inspiration!

Back to top

Creating content: text and fonts

To insert a text box, click the Text box button in the toolbar , or Insert > text box from the menu bar . Then, drop the text box onto your slide by clicking with your cursor. You can now begin typing. The majority of text editing tools can be found in the toolbar . Here you can change the font, colour, and size of your text, add bullet points, or change its alignment. We’ve put together a list of the 10 best fonts to use in Google Slides .  It’s worth noting that not all text needs to sit inside a textbox. You can also type directly into a shape by simply double clicking it and starting to type.

Slides has a handful of more advanced tools for text formatting. Access them by selecting the object or text box you want to format, and clicking Format options to the far right of the toolbar or by right clicking on the object. This opens up a number of different options. Here we will focus on Size & rotation and Position .

The Size & rotation options allow you to resize objects more precisely. You can adjust the Width and Height of objects,, by typing directly into the provided input fields. If you want to resize your object without it being warped or stretched, check the Lock aspect ratios box.

The alignment tools will suffice for most users, but if you need more precision the Position option provides a more accurate way of positioning an object or text box on the slide. The Rotate tool allows pinpoint accuracy when rotating an object by enabling you to enter a specific degree. Size & rotation and Position format options can be applied to all objects on slides, not just text boxes!

Text fitting:  Text fitting tools give you more control over how your text sits within a shape or text box. The Indentation tool lets you fine-tune paragraphs of text without having to alter the shape they sit within. You can play around with this by typing in the size of your desired indentation, in inches or centimetres (depending on your document’s language settings), into the provided input fields. Within the Indentation menu there are some further options for controlling indentations. Click the drop down labelled Special and select one of the following:

• None: Select for text to follow the default indentation parameters
• First line: Select to adjust the indentations on the first line of a paragraph only
• Hanging: Select to adjust the indentation for all lines of text except the first one

You can use indentations to control the spaces between bullet points and the text that connects them, too.

To automatically adjust how a text box interacts with the text within it, use the Autfo-fit function. This is found directly below the Indentation tool. You can choose from Do not auto-fit , (makes the text box height fully adjustable regardless of how much text used), Shrink text on overflow (to make the text smaller if you make the text box smaller), or Resize shape to fit text (to make the text box get larger or smaller to fit your text as you add or remove content). If you choose Shrink text on overflow, be aware that Google Slides adjusts your line spacing, font size and gaps between letters to ensure it all fits. Using this setting across the deck will make your text boxes largely inconsistent!

While Indentation allows you to fine tune specific paragraphs of text, Padding is used to adjust the spaces between the edge of the shape and the text. By adjusting the four Padding values (top, bottom, left and right) you can control the margins of your text box. For example, if you wanted to perfectly left-align an object with some text, you can adjust the left-hand margin to 0.

At the time of publishing, there is no way to fully wrap text around an image or shape in Google Slides — these tools are your best options! Read more text formatting tips.

To insert a table onto your slide, go to the Insert tab in the menu bar and hover over Table . In the drop down menu you are given the option to select how many columns and rows you want (for example, 2 x 5 ). Once selected, your table will appear on your slide.

You can now move it around your slide or make it bigger or smaller. Each cell can have its individual indentations and margins adjusted in the same way as a normal text box. You can add or remove columns and rows by right clicking on a cell and selecting the appropriate command. You can format the lines in a table by highlighting the cells and selecting the small arrow in the top right corner of the selection. This allows you to select the appropriate line in that selection, which will allow you to quickly edit all the lines at once.

At the time of publishing, Google Slides does not support custom fonts. You cannot import them, and there are currently no add-ons for custom fonts in the add-ons store. However, there is a way to add a few new fonts to your existing Slides font library. In the toolbar , click the font drop down and select More fonts . This opens up a new dialogue box with a selection of Google fonts that you can add to the default list. Click on a font to install it. Installed fonts will turn blue, with a blue tick next to them. To remove a font, simply click on it again and the blue tick will disappear. Once you are happy with the fonts you have added, click OK .

Creating content: shapes and images

To insert a shape, click the Shape button in the toolbar, or Insert > Shape from the menu bar . Select the shape you want to use, then either:

• Click your slide to drop a perfectly proportioned shape at a default size
• Click and drag (whilst holding down the SHIFT key if you want to retain proportions) and drag your shape to an appropriate size

Adjusting the size of Slide objects:  Whether you’re working with an image, shape or text box, there are some simple but effective ways you can edit them to achieve a more customised look and feel.

To adjust the dimensions of an object, click it to make the blue adjustment nodes appear. Click and drag any one of these nodes to alter the size of your object. If you want to make your object bigger or smaller whilst maintaining its proportions, hold down the SHIFT key whilst dragging the corner nodes. You can also rotate your shape by clicking and dragging the small circular node above the object. Holding the SHIFT key will lock those rotations in 15-degree increments.

Grouping and ungrouping objects:  If you have objects on your slide that intersect with one another — like a text box layered on top of a shape, or a complex bar chart — you may wish to group them so that they stay together in a particular order when moved or resized. Grouping is also very useful for applying edits to multiple objects at the same time.

First, select the objects you want to group together (it can be as many as you like). Then right click the objects and select Group , or use keyboard shortcut CTRL + ALT + G .

Now, when you select one object, all other grouped objects will be selected as well. This makes them easier to move around your slide and edit.

To ungroup your objects, select the group and right click on Ungroup , or press keyboard shortcut CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + G .

Note: you can only group elements that are on the same slide as one another, though it is possible to group shapes even if they are outside the bounds of your slide template.

Grouping objects can be helpful if you want to format multiple shapes or text in the same way at once. For example, if you need to change the font style, colour and size of all of your slide text, you can group the textboxes together and edit them using the ribbon as normal. These changes will apply to all elements within your group.

Using the alignment tools:  To ensure that your slides are slick and professional, you need to use Google Slides’ handy alignment tools. To show you how to make the most of these tools, we’ll demonstrate how you could use them to format an agenda slide.

Select all four agenda points and right click on your selected object (or click the Align drop down in the Arrange tab). Here you will see a range of alignment options. Click Left so that all points line up along the left hand side.

Next, with all four points still selected, right click again (or click the Arrange tab again), but this time choose Distribute and then Vertically . This spaces all of your points evenly between the top and bottom point.

Now you have a perfectly aligned and distributed agenda slide!

Another handy tool here is Center on page , again found by right clicking on the object (or in the Arrange tab). Choosing either Horizontally or Vertically positions your selected object in the centre of the slide on the horizontal or vertical axis.

To insert an image, click the Insert image button in the toolbar, or go to Insert > Image from the menu bar to upload from your computer, Drive, Google photos, or even directly from your camera. If you have a web link for a specific image, select By URL and paste the link into the dialogue box.

Slides even has an in-built Google Image Search feature. Simply select Image > Search the web.

Note: Images sourced through this method claim to be copyright-free, but to be safe, it might be best to use images that you are sure are free or that you have permission to use.

Images need to be under 50MB, less than 25 megapixels and in JPEG, GIF, or PNG format to upload correctly.

You don’t have to stop at simply uploading your image. There are lots of ways you can edit an image to achieve a more polished, on-brand look and feel. Click here to learn how to make your slides more visual with clever image editing .

Cropping images:  If you only want to show a specific part of an image, you can simply double click the image to start cropping. You can also click on the image and then choose Mask image (next to crop image ) in the toolbar. This will allow you to crop the image into different shapes such as a circle or a triangle.

Once the cropping interface appears, pull the black handles to adjust the mask that will hide the it parts of the image that you don’t want to see. This tool can be a little fiddly, and if you accidentally select one of the blue image nodes instead of a black handle, you could end up distorting your image instead of cropping it. If this does happen, just hit CTRL + Z to undo or hit the Undo button in the toolbar and try again!

More image formatting:  There are some other formatting options available when editing images. Simply right click on your image and then choose Format options . Recolour allows you to recolour an image with a colour filter that’s based on your theme colours. Adjustments lets you adjust your image further by changing the opacity, brightness, and contrast.

Adding and editing GIFs:  Google Slides is very GIF-friendly, and you can insert and edit animated GIFs in the same way as static images. If you edit a GIF (by cropping or resizing, for example) it will still work, playing in both Slideshow mode and on your slide as you edit! See more cool stuff on Google Slides and GIFs .

Advanced: making attractive slides

It’s all well and good knowing how to add images and shapes to Google Slides, but we want to show you how to use them more effectively to help tell your story better, too. At BrightCarbon, we strongly believe that text-heavy slides won’t help you achieve much besides sending your audience straight to sleep. When audiences are forced to read slides like this, they naturally tune out everything that the presenter is saying because it’s impossible to read and listen at the same time! So instead of presenting distracting slides like this, try toning down the text and introducing more visuals. People respond much better to interesting visuals, and what’s more, are much more likely to listen to what you, the presenter, is trying to say.

So, here are our four simple tips for using more visuals to not only make your slides look more attractive, but to increase audience engagement and help get your message across!

Use charts, processes, and timelines to relay information: Charts and timelines are an excellent way to show information visually, and help audiences see results or trends straight away. What’s more, they are an easy visual for anyone to create. We talk a bit about  how to use linked charts elsewhere , so here’s an example of a simple but effective timeline, using nothing but Google Slides shapes. Looks better than a list of bullet points, right?

Use visual metaphors to help tell stories:  Combining simple but striking visuals with a little bit of text can be a great way to get your audience thinking. This kind of simple imagery is great for segue slides or section headers (to change the tone before heading into a new section).

Replace bullet points with simple iconography:  Consider removing large chunks of text and replacing them with simple icons that speak to the larger themes of your slide. Icons are much more visually interesting — and less daunting — than long blocks of text! Here’s a great tutorial that shows you how to make a lovely two-toned icon directly in Google Slides in less than four minutes!

Use high quality photography- not stock photo clichés:  Before we move on to choosing the right images, it’s important to source images that you have permission to use. Aim to use high quality imagery from free websites like unsplash.com , rather than pulling straight from Google Images, where the majority of content is copyright-protected. Don’t underestimate the power of photography. The image choice you make will have an impact on how your brand is perceived. The right photography can create a positive atmosphere and sense of finesse around you and your presentation; cheesy stock images will have the opposite effect!

This image uses unrealistic and cheesy imagery that the audience may struggle to relate to. They may, as a result, not take you or your brand seriously. There’s also a lot of text on the slide, which the audience will read instead of listening to what you are saying.

This image, on the other hand, shows a more realistic depiction of events that audiences may be able to better relate to. Using high quality, modern-looking stock-photography also helps to paint your brand and your presentation in a better light. Reduced text means your audience can focus instead on the imagery and on listening to what you are saying.

When it comes to graphs and charts, Google Slides doesn’t have the largest library to choose from, but it does cover the basics and is incredibly easy to use, customise, and update. There are four different types of built-in charts you can create; Bar , Column , Line and Pie . Each chart works in a similar way, so here we’ll show you how to add a simple pie chart.

Adding data to your chart:

Go to the Insert tab in the menu bar , click Chart and then Pie . A basic pie chart will appear on your slide. To edit the data in your pie chart, select the chart and click the small drop down arrow in the top right-hand corner that looks like a ‘v’, then click Open source .

This opens a new Sheets doc where you can start to edit the data for your pie chart. Once you have inputted all of your data, close the Sheets doc and click the UPDATE button that will appear next to the pie chart on your slide. The pie chart will now adjust to reflect your new data.

Be aware that when you create a new chart that’s linked to a Google Sheets doc, the source file will be added to your personal Drive. You may wish to store this in another folder on your Drive so that you don’t delete it by mistake!

Customising the look and feel of your chart:

You can recolour the individual segments of your pie chart by clicking the small drop down arrow in the right hand corner that looks like a ‘v’, then clicking Open source to open up the data in Google Sheets.

In Sheets, double click any segment of your chart to open up the Chart editor . Here, beneath Series , click the Colour drop down to choose a colour for the segment. Repeat on each segment until your pie chart is the desired colours. Once done, close the Sheets doc and click the UPDATE button. The new colour scheme will now be applied.

If you’re looking to totally recolour your chart, you can also use the recolour method discussed earlier in the images section .

Inserting a GIF:  Adding an animated GIF to a slide works in exactly the same way as adding an image. In the menu bar go to Insert > Image > Upload from computer , then select the GIF from your computer. The GIF will appear on your slide and begin looping. You can edit it in the same way you would edit a static image such as a JPEG.

Inserting a video:

Go to the Insert tab in the menu bar and select Video to open up the Insert video window. At the top of the window you will see two tabs; YouTube and Google Drive . These are the two places you can get videos from.

The YouTube tab shows a search bar and the YouTube logo. Type into the search bar to search for any video on YouTube. As with any media you use in your presentations — make sure you have the rights to use the video you choose. Click on the video you want to use and then hit Select . The video will now appear on your slide. You can move it around or resize it like any other Slides object. To watch the video, click the play button in the centre of the video. This works in both normal and Slideshow mode. If you already have a link to a YouTube video you wish to use, paste it into the box labelled Paste YouTube URL here . Once entered, hit Select and the video will appear on your slide.

If you have a local copy of the video you want to show (in MP4 format, for example), you can upload it to Drive and then use the Google Drive tab to search and locate it. Once you have found your video, hit Select and it will be added to your slide.

If you need to set a specific start and end time for your video (so that it only plays a chosen section of the content) here’s how to do it. Once your video has been added to your slide, right click it and select Format options . In the new window that appears to the right, click the Video playback drop down. From there you can input the desired start and end times by typing into the boxes. Once completed, the video will start and end at the chosen times whenever it is played, in both Slideshow mode and normal view.

You can also choose when your video plays. On click will play when you click anywhere on the slide, Automatically will just start the video without any action from you, and Manually means that you’ll need to hover over the video and click Play to get it to start.

Inserting audio:

To add audio to your presentation, go to Insert in the menu bar and then click Audio . A pop-up window will appear allowing you to choose to upload audio from Drive or paste in a URL. An audio icon will appear on the slide. Be mindful that this icon will be visible — if you don’t want it to be visible when presenting, just move it off the slide. To adjust your playback options, right click on the audio icon mentioned above and go to Format options . The top drop down is Audio playback . From here you can choose when your audio starts playing, the volume, and whether you want it to loop. You can also choose whether or not you’d like your audio to stop when moving onto the next slide.

Creating content: animation and interactivity

Just like images, using animation can bring your presentation to life and make it much more engaging for your audience. Everyone prefers a fun animation to a boring block of text! Well-chosen animations can help your audience absorb more information and remember your key messages — and adding movement doesn’t have to be a chore. Read on to find out more about the power of motion in your Google Slides presentations.

Transitions:  Google Slides has a number of transitions to help you segue from one slide to the next. Go to Transition in the toolbar to open up the motion pane. In this panel click the None drop down to see the different options.

Whilst it’s tempting to use a number of different transitions to jazz up your deck, we advise keeping things simple, so as not to distract from your story. Typically, we like to use Dissolve (fades between slides) for most slides in the deck, as this is the most subtle way to transition between slides without distracting the audience. At the end of each section, we like to use Fade (fade to black) to accentuate the break between sections in a more obvious way.

If you want to apply one transition to all slides, click Apply to all slides below the transition drop down.

The motion pane is nice and easy to access. Either click Transition in the toolbar, or select an object, go to the Insert drop down in the menu bar and select Animation . Here you can view all the animated objects in your presentation, and access the range of animation options that Google Slides has to offer. You’ll see that there aren’t as many options as some other presentation software, but the essentials are there.

To animate an object begin by selecting it, then click Add animation in the Motion pane. Using the animation drop down (which defaults to Appear before an animation has been selected) you can choose from a variety of animation options. Options such as Fly in and Fade in make your objects appear on the slide. Conversely, Fly out and Fade out make objects that are already on your slide disappear.

You can also choose when your animation will begin with the Start condition drop down. Your animations will happen in order from top to bottom as they appear in the Motion pane. Choose between On click ( animation starts when you click with mouse or keyboard), After previous (animation starts after the previous animation) or With previous (animation starts with the previous animation, or directly after the previous slide has ended).

Slides makes it easy to animate paragraphs of text individually by checking the By paragraph checkbox when creating your animation.

Adjust the Duration slider to set the time it takes for your animation to complete.

As a web-based program, Slides makes great use of hyperlinks, so you can easily navigate between Slides, web pages, and other documents whilst you present.

Hyperlinking text and objects

Long, complicated URLs can make slides look messy. If you want to provide a link to an external website in your presentation whilst keeping your slide looking slick and professional, you need to know how to hyperlink text!

Highlight the text that you want to turn into a hyperlink — one or two words is best. Right click the text and scroll down to Link. This will bring up a new dialog box, in which you can paste the link of your chosen website. Click Apply , and you’re done!

Now, whenever you click that link (even in Slideshow mode) a new browser tab will launch, directing you to the web page. You don’t have to link to just web pages; you can link to other Google Docs and Sheets too. This same method of linking works on shapes, images and any other kind of Slides object.

Linking to a slide within your presentation

You may need to link between different sections of a presentation, or easily navigate back to an agenda slide. To do this, highlight the text or select the object that you want to act as the hyperlink, right click it and scroll down to Link. Be aware not all objects have this option when right clicking! You can add a link to these objects by using the keyboard shortcut: CTRL + K. In the dialog box, you should see a drop down at the bottom with a button that says Slides in this presentation . Click this to reveal a choice of Slides in your deck. Select the one you wish to hyperlink to and hit Apply .

Linking to a slide in a different presentation

It may also be necessary to link to a particular slide in a different presentation. To do this, first open the deck that you want to link to , and click on the slide you want it to open on. Whilst on that particular slide, copy the hyperlink from the browser bar.

Now, in the deck you want to link from , right click the text or object that will act as the hyperlink, scroll down to Link , and in the dialogue box, paste the hyperlink next to where it says Link . Click Apply . Now when you click your hyperlinked text or object, a new browser window will launch your presentation, starting on the exact slide you want!

Google Slides has a wide range of collaboration features. It’s purpose-built for collaborating in real time, offering a number of different ways for interacting with colleagues or friends. No more version control problems, emailing files back and forth, or being pushed to download anything. Here’s how you can make the most of these features:

Sharing a presentation:  Sharing means granting someone access to view, edit, or comment on your presentation. This is handy if you are collaborating on a project, would like a second opinion on your own work, or need multiple team members to work on the same document at the same time. Google’s sharing settings allow you to set restrictions, so you are always fully in control of the document you share.

To share a Slides presentation, click the blue Share button in the top right of your screen. Alternatively, head to the File tab and select the Share button. This will open a new window where you can input the email addresses of the people you want to share with. To the right of the email addresses you will see a drop down that lets you toggle whether recipients will be able to edit , comment , or simply view your presentation. You can adjust an individual’s access later by navigating to the share window and clicking the drop down next to their individual email addresses. Another really useful feature here is the Notify checkbox, which lets you share a presentation with someone without them getting an email about it — great if you want to avoid bombarding someone with emails or if you want to share something for later use without immediately drawing the recipient’s attention to it (perhaps while you finish working on it!)

Advanced sharing settings:  Advanced sharing settings are found in the sharing window mentioned above, under General access . Below People with access you can see the sharing status of your presentation.

This may be set to Restricted , meaning only you have access, Shared with your organisation , or set so that Anyone with a link can view . Please note that setting your presentation so that Anyone with a link can view means that it is no longer private. Anybody with that link can access your presentation. To learn more about sharing your Google Slides deck, head here .

Working with multiple users:  So, you’ve shared your presentation with a few people and given them editing privileges. But how does this kind of collaboration work in practice? Here are a few handy pointers to get your collaborative efforts off to a flying start.

There’s only one document

Sharing your presentation with somebody else does not mean you’ve shared a separate version of it. There is only one master version, and any edits you make will be made in your collaborators’ document, too. This is great for real-time collaboration, especially if you have a deadline or need something to be reviewed as you work on it. You can revert your document back to Private at any time in the Sharing settings , or make a private copy by going to File > Make a copy .

Working together is easy

Google have tried to make working with multiple collaborators as simple as possible. You can see which collaborators are in the presentation in the top right panel. Collaborators will appear as colourful circles with initials, or profile pictures if the user has one. You can hover over the circles to reveal the full details of the collaborator.

You can even see what your co-workers are editing. Whether they are typing, drawing a shape or adding an image, you can see them do this in real-time, and they can see you in turn. This visibility over other people’s work means you can ensure everybody is on the same page and complete work faster. You can also follow collaborators around by clicking their headshot, which can be useful if you’re on a call with somebody in the deck and need to keep up with what they’re looking at. Whilst these collaboration features can be a total game changer, they’re best used in moderation. We’d advise against lurking on slides your co-workers are editing for too long, as it could be a little off-putting for them to know that you’re watching their every move!

Using Comments:  If you and your co-workers aren’t editing a presentation at exactly the same time, you may want to leave notes for them to pick up on later. To leave a comment, click the Add comment button in the toolbar , or go to the Insert tab in the menu bar and choose Comment . You can also just right click on a slide to add a comment, or press CTRL + ALT + M . A box will appear next to your slide where you can begin typing. To assign an action to a specific person, type the @ symbol and then type their email address. An option will appear for you to Assign to that person. When you @somebody in a comment, they will receive an email notification, so you can be sure they won’t accidentally miss it.

Using the chat feature:  If you need to chat with collaborators in real-time, Slides has a built in chat feature, too. To use it, at least one other collaborator must be in the presentation at the same time as you. To Show chat , click the blue person with the speech bubble icon in the top right, next to the profile icons. This will open up a separate window where you can type to chat. Close the chat window by clicking the same button used to open it.

Email multiple collaborators

One final collaboration feature worth mentioning here is emailing collaborators from Slides. This is handy if you want to send a message to all collaborators. In the File tab click Email and then choose Email collaborators . Here you can write a message to be emailed to as many or as few collaborators as you want. Simply check the names of the people you want to send the message to in the right hand column and click Send.

Read more about getting the most out of online collaboration .

Using Google Slides doesn’t necessarily require an internet connection. If you use Chrome or Edge as your browser, you can use Slides offline. This is particularly handy if you want to make changes to a Slides deck on the go, or if you are due to present to an audience in a location without an internet connection. If you’re running low on storage, you can prioritise saving individual files by going to File and clicking Make available offline or by right clicking on the file in Drive and selecting it from there.

Setting up Google Slides for offline use:  Firstly, make sure you’re connected to the internet and using Chrome or Edge as your browser. If you haven’t already done so, you’ll need to download the Google Docs Offline Chrome extension, which can be found here . In Google Drive , click the icon shaped like a gear in the top right, and select Settings . Under General, make sure that the Offline checkbox is ticked and click DONE . You may see a notification box appear in the bottom left of your screen that says Setting up offline .

Next, navigate to the Slides homepage and click the main menu button (represented by an icon with three horizontal lines) in the top left hand corner. Go to Settings and make sure that the Offline button is toggled on (to the right). You can now disconnect from the internet and begin working offline!

Google Drive should still load as normal via Chrome browser. You can open up a presentation as normal and begin making changes. Next to the title of your presentation you should see a small lightning bolt icon. This indicates that you are now working offline. You can make changes and even present your deck as you normally would when working online. When you’re done making changes, close your presentation as normal.

Syncing offline work when you reconnect to the internet: Changes made to an offline presentation will automatically sync when you go back online and open up that file in Google Drive. It’s worth noting that if a collaborator made changes to the online document whilst you were working on it offline, both sets of changes will sync up in the same file. If this happens and you are unhappy with conflicting changes, use the Version history functionality to revert back to an earlier version.

If you are using the online version of Slides, your presentation is constantly being updated and saved as you work. This is why the Slides browser version doesn’t have a save button — it’s done automatically, meaning you don’t have to worry about losing unsaved work if your computer crashes or you accidentally close your browser window.

Saving your work to desktop: If you really want to save a copy of your Slides file to your desktop or a flash drive, you will first have to convert it to a different file type, such as Microsoft PowerPoint.   We talk you through how to do this step by step later on.

Duplicating your work: There are two easy ways to make a copy of a presentation. From Google Drive , you can simply right click on any presentation, and choose Make copy from the drop down menu. Alternatively, with a presentation open, go to File > Make a copy… .

Version control:  If you’re used to working with desktop presentation software, you may be in the habit of emailing different versions of a presentation back and forth. This can get confusing, especially when it comes to consolidating changes across versions.

With Google Slides this isn’t an issue, because everybody is working from one single document. This means that if you make a change it will be visible to all collaborators who have access to the document. This is very handy, but what happens when you want to revert to an earlier version?

Version history:  Slides makes it easy for you to see all previous iterations of your deck and revert back to an earlier version if necessary. Here you can view all past editing rounds, going right back to when the presentation document was first created.

Go to File and choose Version history , then click on See version history . Click on the different dates to see a preview of how the document looked at the time. If you are just looking for a particular slide, line of text, or image that was deleted, you can simply copy and paste it from the earlier version, close the Version History window, and paste it into the latest version.

If you want to completely revert your document back to an earlier state, click the Restore this version button at the top left. If you choose to do this, bear in mind that your current version will be completely overwritten by the version you are restoring.

Naming versions:  If there are multiple collaborators working in your deck, the Version History window can sometimes be difficult to keep track of, especially if there are multiple iterations in the same day. To better track the different iterations that you work on, you can easily name different versions. To do this, in the Version History window, double click the date of the version you want to name. This opens up a dialog box in which you can type a new name.

For more help on using this feature, check out this YouTube tutorial on getting the most out of version control in Google Slides .

Google Slides has tried to make it easy to convert to and from other presentation software. Here we’ll cover the basics of how to convert using some popular programs. Keep in mind that different presentation software have different features, so certain slide elements like animations or colour palettes may not convert exactly. When converting any file type, always have a thorough check through your slides for any errors before presenting!

Converting Google Slides to and from Microsoft PowerPoint:

Converting to and from PowerPoint is, in theory, very straightforward with Slides – however, complications are very common. It’s worth noting that the animation functionality in particular is very different in each program, so it’s likely that some animations may be lost in the conversion process. This is definitely something worth checking before presenting!

To download your Slides document to your desktop as a PowerPoint file, simply click File in the menu bar and hover over Download . In the drop down menu, select Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx) .

Converting from PowerPoint to Slides isn’t much trickier – though again, glitches are common. From your Google Drive homepage, click the + New button and select File upload , then choose the PowerPoint file to upload from your computer. Once your file has been uploaded, locate it in Drive and right click. Select Open with and choose Google Slides .

If you want to insert PowerPoint Slides into an existing Google Slides deck, click File > Import Slides and then choose a file you have already uploaded to Drive, or alternatively upload a new one from your desktop. Once uploaded, you will then be given the option to choose which specific PowerPoint slides you want to import into your Google Slides deck.

Learn more about the dos and don’ts of PowerPoint to Google Slides conversion .

Converting Google Slides to and from Apple Keynote: Converting Slides to Keynote and vice versa is slightly trickier as it involves the additional step of converting to PowerPoint. There’s currently no way to convert directly between Slides and Keynote.

To convert from Slides to Keynote, click on the File tab in the menu bar and select Download, then choose Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx) , and save your presentation. In Keynote, click on File in the menu bar , click Open , then select your converted PowerPoint file in the new window. Your presentation should now import to Keynote. To save it as a Keynote file, click File in the menu bar , then Save .

To convert from Keynote to Slides, open your Keynote, go to File in the menu bar and select Export to > PowerPoint (.pptx) . In the new window, select Next > Export . From Google Drive, create a new Slides presentation, then select the File tab in the menu bar and Import Slides . You should then see a new window where you can upload your converted PowerPoint file. From here, you can select specific slides to import, or choose all of them by clicking All in the top right corner. When you are happy with your slide selection, select Import Slides .

Converting Google Slides to and from Prezi:  At the time of publishing, there is no way to directly convert to and from Prezi and Google Slides. You could use PowerPoint as a vehicle to import your Prezi into Slides. A way to convert Prezi to PowerPoint is exporting it as a PDF, then copy and pasting each individual slide into PowerPoint. This is not a very efficient technique, though, and means that some of your colours or slide objects may be corrupted, and all animations would be lost in the PDF conversion process.

Presenting and printing in Google Slides

When creating and sharing your Google Slides presentation, you should keep in mind the accessibility needs of your audience. There are lots of tools available to increase the accessibility of your deck — check out this blog post for details .

Presenting your work in Google Slides

Using Slideshow mode:  At some point you are likely to want to practise running through your deck and will want to see what it looks like from the audience’s perspective. At BrightCarbon, we recommend always clicking through your deck in Slideshow mode at least once before presenting!  For a deep dive into Slideshow mode, head over to this article.

To see your presentation in Slideshow mode – whether working online or offline – click Slideshow in the top right corner to go straight into standard view. Alternatively, you can click the drop down to the side of the Slideshow button for a few different options.

• Presenter view: In this view you can see a separate window from which you can do things like time your presentation, see thumbnails of the previous and next slides, begin Audience Q&A and also read your speaker notes. For more information, see our guide on Presenter view in Google Slides . For more on audience Q&A and speaker notes, see below.
• Start from beginning: This opens up the standard presenting view, the same as what you would see if you simply clicked Slideshow. This view is what your audience will see when you present to them, so it’s great for practising.
• Present on another screen: This option is exclusively for people who have access to Chromecast. If you have a Chromecast device connected to a TV screen that you want to present from, you can click this button to cast your presentation to that screen. If you want to show your presentation on a large screen but don’t have Chromecast, you can always do things the old-fashioned way and connect a HDMI cable from your laptop to the TV screen, using normal Presenter view .

Present to a meeting:  If you want to present your deck directly in Google Meet, you can do this without leaving Google Slides. Navigate to the top right-hand corner of your screen and click on the video camera icon next to the Slideshow button. You can then join an existing meeting or start your own using the options in the drop down menu. Once you’re in a meeting, click on the video camera icon again and click Present this tab to share. It’s worth noting that we’ve found it’s generally easier to just share your screen from whatever video calling software you’re using — but if you work exclusively in Google Workspace and use Google Meet a lot, this feature may be worth checking out.

Speaker notes:  Speaker notes can be accessed by dragging up from the bottom of your Slides window. Hover your cursor over the horizontal line in the bar at the very bottom of your window, and it should turn into a hand icon. Click down and drag up to reveal the Speaker notes bar. Here you can type anything from the script of your presentation to additional notes about the content of your slides. Speaker notes won’t be visible when you present unless you use Presenter view .

Slides also has a nifty built-in tool for voice typing speaker notes. Access the Speaker notes bar, then go to Tools in the menu bar and select Voice type speaker notes . This will launch a new window to the left of your slide with a microphone icon. When you are ready, click this icon and begin speaking. You should see your words appear as text in the Speaker notes bar. We have tested this out and found that it works pretty well if speaking clearly into a good microphone, like the kind found on a headset.

Audience Q&A:  Audience Q&A is a fantastic feature that makes your presentation more interactive and engaging for participants. Encouraging users to ask questions virtually can inspire confidence and, if timed correctly, can give you more time to think about the best answers, rather than being caught off guard with on-the-spot questions.

In Slideshow mode , hover your cursor towards the bottom left of the screen to reveal the Presenter bar. From here, click the three dots to reveal a pop-up menu, then click More > Q&A to launch a new window. Clicking Start new begins the Q&A and generates a link that participants can follow to ask their questions. Participants do not need a Google account to sign in, and can check a box to remain anonymous should they so wish. When a question is asked, it will appear in the window, ready for you to answer! This is particularly useful if you don’t like answering questions on the spot and would value the opportunity to review and prepare answers, perhaps in a short break during your presentation. Reviewing the questions before bringing them up in front of your audience is a good idea — there is no built-in moderation filter, meaning participants could ask almost anything and remain completely anonymous.

Pointer:  In Slideshow mode , hover your cursor over the Presenter bar and select Turn on the laser pointer . Clicking this button turns your cursor into a red laser pointer with a tail, so that the audience can easily see any areas that you wish to highlight.

To view Slides’ basic print settings, go to File > Print (you may need to scroll down to find it). This opens up a new window with a print preview of your Slides, and a few options for customising your printout. Next to Pages you can choose whether to print All pages, or type in a Custom range. You can also toggle Colour options, Paper size and the Image quality that is printed.

Printing slides with speaker notes:  To print slides with their speaker notes, go to File > Print preview . This opens a new window where you can preview what your slides will look like when new print options are applied. To the top right of the modified toolbar , click the button that says 1 slide without notes . In the drop down, choose 1 slide with notes instead. This doesn’t mean that only one slide will be printed —  you can choose which slides are printed in the normal Print settings. Once selected, the speaker notes will appear in a box to the side of each slide. You can now click Close preview in the far left, and navigate to the Print settings in the File tab to print your document. Or, with the preview still open, click the Print tab in the modified toolbar .

Printing slides without skipped slides:  If you have a number of skipped slides throughout your presentation that you don’t want to print, you can easily toggle this off. Go to File > Print preview . To the top right of the modified toolbar , click the Include skipped slides button to toggle it on and off. When the button is completely white it is toggled off; when it is yellow it is toggled on. You can now click Close preview in the far left.

Learn about other methods for sharing your Google Slides presentation .

Google Slides top keyboard shortcuts : We’ve compiled a list of the most used – and most useful – Google Slides keyboard shortcuts, so you can create amazing presentations that are quicker, smarter, and slicker than ever before!

Our pick of the best add-ons for Google Slides : Level up with improved productivity, performance and added functionality- all by using a few simple add-ons! We’ve rounded up our favourite Google Slides add-ons here.

Editing images in Google Slides : Make your presentation more compelling with these few short and simple image editing tips for Google Slides. Guaranteed to make your slides look slicker and your audience feel more engaged!

• How to create visual presentations and eLearning
• 50 presentation quotes to enhance your slides
• No place for bullet points in a presentation
• How to avoid stock photo cliches in your corporate presentations
• Using typography in your sales presentations: 10 tips and tricks

We’ve got some great Google Slides masterclasses that run regularly on our events page . We also offer live in-person or online Google Slides training for small groups — why not invite us to train your team?

Joey Dudley

Senior design consultant; google slides training lead, related articles, google slides’ new features: guides, text fitting, and more.

• Google Slides / Presentation technology
• Comments: 11

Google has recently introduced some long-anticipated upgrades to basic features, and some entirely new tools too. We’ve taken a look and written up a general overview of what’s new, so you can make the most of these new features and get the best out of Google Slides.

Productivity tips and tricks for Google Drive

• Google Slides

Your friendly neighborhood presentation nerds are back with an all-new article on Productivity tips and tricks for Google Drive to help you optimize your Google Drive experience and get the most out of Google Workspace.

The best free Google Slides templates

• Comments: 1

Google Slides templates are a great starting point to improve the look and feel of your presentation. They’re fab as they’re accessible and low cost, but it’s important to remember that even well-designed presentations can be ineffective if the content is text heavy.

Fantastic! Thank you!

it is the best thing ever thank you

Great explanation, I’m actually quite familiar with Google Slides, and I was looking for a specific question that wasn’t covered, may not even be possible within Slides…..

I was recently at a presentation where along the right side of EACH SLIDE, the presenter had a running list of the topics in the presentation. As she switched slides, the heading that that topic fell under was then highlighted…..sort of a running account of the index.

Is this possible wtihin Google Slides? If so, how? Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi Susie, it’d definitely be possible to do this manually in Slides.

1. Create a list of section titles along the side of one slide, using the Insert Text Box feature. You could make the list look visually separate from the rest of the content by putting a shape behind it. 2. Copy and paste this list onto every slide in your presentation, keeping it in the same position. 3. Adjust the formatting of the appropriate section title on each slide, for example by changing the colour of the text – or the text box – to highlight it.

This way, as you click through the slides, each section will be highlighted in turn.

We’re not aware of any automatic way to do this, but if you find one do let us know!

me to and i found this and it ansewrd all of my questions

no more than the same actully

How do I edit (by using suggest editing mode) the work that has been shared with me as a Google Slide? I know how to do this in Google Docs but I do not see this feature with Slides.

To our knowledge, Google Slides doesn’t currently have a suggest edits feature. One work around we like to use (though not the most seamless solution) is to leave your suggested edits as comments (right click highlighted text > add comment). This way your suggestions are saved for the content owner to read through, without actually having made any direct changes to the content itself.

Hope this helps!

I got all excited when I saw the same menu bar when working on speaker notes. WOW, I thought, I can finally put graphics in my speaker notes! But no, when you try that it just puts it in the presentation, and NOT in the speaker notes. Except for being free, Google slides is no better than Powerpoint in this area.

I am a teacher, and I often create powerpoint “jeopardy-style” games with a home screen and multiple point value buttons that lead to question slides. Students have the option to choose questions in any order, and I can easily hyperlink each button / shape / text option to a different question slide. However, once the students come back to the home screen, I must have a way to show a difference between the buttons that have already been chosen (and should not be chosen again) and the buttons that still go to new questions. In powerpoint, I use a trigger to make the shape disappear once the shape has been clicked. I cannot find a similar option in slides. When I’m imported the power point file, the animations show as a “disappear once clicked” option, but they don’t actually seem to work and now there’s no way to see which options in the game have been chosen already. Any ideas??

There’s no simple fix for this I’m afraid! The animation options in Google Slides aren’t as sophisticated as in PowerPoint, and there are currently no Google Slides equivalent animations for PowerPoint’s ‘disappear once clicked’ (until Google Slides introduces triggers, at least!)

You are likely to run into issues with animations when converting PPT files to Google Slides, as complex animation sequences may break. Slides just doesn’t have the same functionality as PowerPoint quite yet!

Thanks, Natty

Guys how do I make google slides so they can buy an item on it cause I’ve been needing to do it for six months now!

Great Job Guys. Amazing Creation.

I love this! You are my favorite source ever! Its very helpfl and organized so I won’t have to read the whole thing like I do to other articles!

How can I apply this blog post to becoming a world heritage site?

IN ALL SERIOUSNESS THOUGH, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!!! ♥

Is it possible to autoplay a Google slide presentation when offline? Is so how? Or what other options are there??

The only way to create a looping Slides deck is to use the ‘Publish to Web’ feature. There are instructions on how to do this in the article above. Unfortunately, I don’t think you can view Google Slides decks that have been published to web offline!

There is a way of using Google Slides offline, it’s also mentioned in the article above, though I know this doesn’t solve your problem of wanting to create a looping deck!

If you find a solution I’d love to hear about it!

Hello my teacher wants me to present a power point presentation and she said to save it on a usb stick. Do I download the slide drag that into the Usb stick? Also how would i be able to get it up on the screen after i have plugged into her computer? Please help this is due tomorrow!

Sorry for the slow reply. For PowerPoint files, you can just drag the file from your desktop into the USB folder. For Google Slides presentations, these are saved online in your Drive. You can save them to your desktop, but only be converting them to a different file type (File > download > choose file type). I hope this helps!

Great article!

Does anyone know of a way to link text boxes from slide to slide in Google slides.

Lets say for example I’ve got a text box on slide 1 that has overrun text content…is there a way to link that overrun tex content onto a text box on slide2? This way, any extra content I add to slide 1 will just push over to slide 2?

This feature is super basic but I cant see it and cant find any info about how to do this.

Thanks Damien

Fantastic post…but Im not able to add animation to my master template…I ‘ve tests so many things but I can animate my presentation…but not include them in my master

This turn me crazy ! Any idea

Hi Roger – thanks for your comment! I think Google Slides has removed this functionality from the master unfortunately. I’m pretty sure it was possible to animate objects within the master at one point, but it doesn’t seem to be there any more, which is a real shame!

What a great resource. Thank you. Is there a way to name individual slides, instead of the assigned numbering? So when you are building hyperlinks the names of the slides appear in the selection pane vs. Slide 1, Slide 2…

Hi Daren – glad you found the article useful. There’s no way to directly name each slide, though if you’re using a master layout, the title that you type into the master title box for each slide will appear as the slide name when linking. Not as useful as being able to name each slide individually, but should make it easier to locate the slide you need.

Is there a way of inserting animation in the master slide so that the animation on all the slides is similar. I am not referring to transitions. For eg. I have a presentation with 10 slides. Each side has four or five bullet points. I would like each bullet point to appear one at a time. It seems the only way to do this is to select each point in each slide and apply an animation to it. It is quite cumbersome and time-consuming. Is there a smarter way of doing this? Thanks

Hi, Very interesting tutorial. Could you please guide me how can i run on a TV and remotely control to update the any slides on different location from my home?

Hi Prashant,

Happy to help. Most laptops and TVs have HDMI ports, so you can use a HDMI cable to connect your laptop to a TV monitor to view your laptop screen on the TV screen. Is this what you mean?

If you’re talking about accessing your Slides on a TV screen without the help of a laptop, the only solution I can think of is using something like Google Chrome cast to cast the Slides from your mobile phone to a larger TV screen.

Hey , I’m unable to present it on my device …. Whenever I do this my screen is splitting into two , where one shows the slide and the other shows the timer and no. Of slides… How can I present on my own device in full view …

It sounds like you’re presenting in ‘Presenter View’. Try clicking the drop down button next to the ‘Present’ button and clicking ‘Present from beginning’. This should work!

I love this resource, very informative. In particular, I was looking for a design feature within Google Slides. I teach 7th grade World Civ and I utilize PowerPoint (Onedrive) to create all of my visual presentations for kids. On Microsoft 365 it is super slick to choose images and it displays various design possibilities for the current slide. Does ‘Slides’ have a function like this?

There’s no similar feature in Google Slides unfortunately! The closest equivalent that Google Slides has is the option to choose a deck theme. You can see all the theme options by clicking ‘Theme’ in the tool bar.

Hope this help!

Do you know if it’s possible to create a centralised google slides theme that I can edit and see the changes rolled out to every presentation already using that theme?

Hi Peta, I don’t think there’s a way of applying a theme automatically to other decks, but you can save a theme and import in into other decks manually. When you create your theme, make sure to save your template. Then, when you want to apply that theme to other presentations, open up the theme bar and click ‘Import theme’ you will then be able to locate your saved template deck and apply it to your current presentation. Hope this helps!

Can I change th eposition of presenter box, it blocks my view?

Hi Nitin, unfortunately there’s no way to move the presentation bar once in present mode, it’s very frustrating! If you move your mouse away from the bar, it will disappear from view eventually. Another solution is to move any buttons / slide objects so that they aren’t on the bottom left of the slide. Hope this helps!

Hey Natty, Great info here. But I’m trying to edit the header in “Print Settings and Preview” when I include notes with the slide. I imported the presentation from PowerPoint and the header is incorrect. But I can’t figure out how to change it. Any advice?

Hi Ashley, we find that there are a lot of issues and glitches when importing a PowerPoint presentation into Google Slides. That said, have you tried editing the header via the master? Click View > Master. It may be possible to edit the master heading there. Hope this helps!

Great resource! I was wondering if there is a way to adjust the size of just ONE slide in the presentation. Thanks!

Hi Angela, this isn’t possible as far as I know. The functionality for changing Slide size will apply to all slides in the deck. Hope this helps!

this isn’t possible as far as I know. The functionality for changing Slide size will apply to all slides in the deck. Hope this helps!

Great article! What I am however wondering, is how to deal with shape overlap at the edge of a slide. Realistically, in our company, we don’t use the presentation mode all that often. Usually, we just open a presentation and go through it in group in the default modus. So in that case you can see the overlapping shapes that normally get cropped out in the presentation modus. Let me give an example: I used a shape with a rounded top and a straight bottom. I angle this, let’s say 45 degrees and place this in the bottom left, with part of the shape overlapping the edge of the slides (the straight bottom). In the presentation modus you can’t see this overlap, but the way we use Google Slide, you can. I have tried multiple things, but no luck yet. Anyone have an idea how to crop the overlap with the edges of the slides? That would really be the solution here.

Hi Anneleen,

As far as I know, there’s no way to crop the parts of the shape that are coming off the slide. But, there is a work around. If you view your presentation in ‘Print settings and preview’ mode (File > Print settings and preview) this opens up a version of your slides deck that you can still scroll through like you would in normal view, but anything that overlaps the edges of the slide are cropped. It’s not a perfect solution, but might work for your needs!

How do you title an existing Google slide deck? I don’t want to start over but I do want to add some navigation.

Hi there, I’m afraid I don’t fully understand your question. Are you looking for help changing the title of your deck, or adding some hyperlinked navigation to it? We have a post about creating a navigable, interactive deck at the link below. Thanks!

https://www.brightcarbon.com/blog/how-to-make-an-interactive-presentation-in-google-slides/

I love it. Ty!😁😁😁😁

I’m trying to create links in one slide to other slides in the same deck. When I do so, I can’t scroll down far enough in the drop-down window that comes up. It comes up at the bottom of the screen and I con only scroll down about 20 slides. I can’t seem to move the drop down box or find another avenue to create such links. Any help will be appreciated.

Does the drop down box appear close to the bottom of your screen because the object you are trying to turn into a hyperlink is close to the bottom of your slide? If this is the case, you could always move the object up to the top of your slide whilst you create the hyperlink (so more of the drop down box is visible) then move it back in to place. I hope this is helpful!

Is it possible to add an image to the speaker notes section of a Google Slide?

Hi Jacqueline, as far as I’m aware, this is not yet possible in Google Slides!

I’m wondering if anyone has figured out a way to set a default font and size for speaker notes. I’ve been digging for ages and haven’t found anything yet!

Hi Keith, as far as I’m aware, it’s not possible to set a default font and size across speaker notes in Google Slides!

Hi there, I’m just wondering if the following is possible: – a company has a ‘set of slides’ that can be used in different presentations – but there is only one central repository for the slides, if a slide get updated it updates automatically within all the presentations that it is used in (like a master-slide so to speak)

For example: a company sells different products and has for each product an individual presentation. Part of each presentation are some standard slides about the company, the information on those slides may vary from month to month but rather than updating those slides in every single presentation, the information gets updated only within the master-slide(s).

Hope the above makes sense, any feedback would be gratefully appreciated. Many thanks!

There is a way to ‘link’ slides across different presentations. First you need to create a master deck – this is the deck you will update if the slides need updating in the future. At any point you can copy slides from the master deck into another deck. When you paste the slides into the other deck, a pop up will appear in the right hand corner of the slides, giving you the option to ‘link’ slides. Once the slides are linked, when you update the master deck, the content will copy over to the other decks where the slides are linked. Just be sure to click ‘update’ on the link slides.

You can also toggle guides by right clicking your slide and selecting Guides from the drop down menu. To open the animation and transitions pane, click Animations. Here, you can view all animated objects in your presentation.

Join the BrightCarbon mailing list for monthly invites and resources

It is, quite simply, the best deck we have. I did a nice presentation with it yesterday and would like to do the same next week... I am sure it will get a lot of use. The visual impact and flow are compelling! Peter Francis Janssen

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Google Slides cheat sheet: How to get started

How to use google slides to create, collaborate on, and lead business presentations..

Need to build a slide presentation for a meeting, training, or other event? Google Slides is an easy-to-use web app that comes with the essential tools and more. It stores your presentations in the cloud with Google Drive. Anyone with a Google account can use Slides and Drive for free, and they’re also included with a Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) subscription for business and enterprise customers. There are Google Sheets mobile apps for Android and iOS, too.

This guide will help you become familiar with the Google Slides web interface and show you how to start a new presentation, upload a Microsoft PowerPoint file to edit in Google Slides, collaborate with others on your presentation, and finally, present it to others.

Create or open a presentation

Log in to your Google or Workspace account. Then:

From Google Slides : At the top of the home page, you’ll see a “Start a new presentation” header, with a row of thumbnails underneath. To start a new, blank presentation, click the Blank thumbnail. To start a new presentation in a template, select one of the thumbnails to the right or click Template gallery toward the upper-right corner, then click any thumbnail on the page that appears.

The Google Slides home page. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Below the “Start a new presentation” area you’ll see a list of presentations that are stored in your Google Drive or shared with you. To open a presentation, click it in this list.

The list of your presentations appears in reverse chronological order starting with the presentation you most recently opened. Clicking the “AZ” icon at the upper right of this list changes the sort order to Last modified by me , Last modified , or in alphabetical order by presentation title. You can also browse to a specific folder by clicking the folder icon next to the “AZ” icon.

From Google Drive : Presentations stored in your Google Drive are listed in the main window of the Drive home page. To see a listing of presentations that others are sharing with you, click Shared with me in the left column. From either list, double-click a presentation to open it in Google Slides.

To start a new, blank presentation, click the New button at the upper-left of the screen and then click Google Slides .

If you want to use a template to start a new presentation, click the New button, then move the cursor over the right arrow next to Google Slides and select From a template . The template gallery for Google Slides will open; click a thumbnail to start a new presentation in that template.

Creating a new presentation from Google Drive.

From Google Slides or Drive: You also can use the search box at the top to find presentations in your Google Drive or shared with you. Enter words or numbers that may be in the presentation you’re looking for.

Upload a PowerPoint presentation to Slides

You can edit a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation in Google Slides, but first you must upload it to Google Drive.

From Google Slides: Click the folder icon ( Open file picker ) that’s above and toward the right corner of your presentations list. On the panel that opens, click the Upload tab. Drag-and-drop your PowerPoint file (.ppt or .pptx) onto this panel, or browse your PC’s drive to select it.

From Google Drive: Click the New button, then File upload , and select the PowerPoint file from your PC’s drive and click Open .

Traditionally, when you uploaded PowerPoint files to Google Drive, they were automatically converted to Slides format. That’s still the case when you upload PowerPoint files via the Google Slides home page .

However, Google now supports the ability to edit Microsoft Office files in their native format. By default, any .pptx files that you upload via Google Drive will remain formatted as PowerPoint documents. You can edit and collaborate on a PowerPoint file right in Slides, with all changes made by you or your collaborators saved directly to the PowerPoint file.

On the Google Slides and Drive home pages, native PowerPoint files will be denoted with an orange “P” icon, and when you open a native PowerPoint file in Sheets, you’ll see a “.PPTX” flag to the right of the document title.

Native PowerPoint files show the PowerPoint icon (top) instead of the Google Slides icon (bottom).

If you’d rather have Google convert PowerPoint files to Slides format automatically when you upload them via Google Drive, click the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the Drive home screen and select Settings from the drop-down menu. In the Settings box next to “Convert uploads,” check the checkbox marked Convert uploaded files to Google Docs editor format .

Work in a presentation

When you open a new or existing presentation, its first slide appears in the main window of Google Slides. Here’s a breakdown of the toolbars, menus, panes, and sidebars that appear around your presentation.

The left pane shows thumbnails of all the slides in your presentation. Click a thumbnail, and the slide it represents will appear in the main window, where you can edit it.

The Google Slides editing interface. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Your presentation’s title appears along the top of the screen. To change it, click anywhere inside the title and start typing.

The menu bar below your presentation’s title has a complete set of tools for working with presentations. These are the main submenus to know:

• File has commands for taking action on the whole presentation, including Print, Rename, and Share.
• Edit lists the standard editing commands such as copy, cut, paste, delete, duplicate, and find and replace.
• View lists several ways that you can view your slides as you design and edit them. This includes arranging them into a grid, previewing them as a slideshow, or zooming in on them. You can also watch the transition effect that takes place between slides when they’re played in a slideshow.
• Insert lets you add several objects to your slides, including charts, diagrams, pictures, tables, and text. You can also add links to YouTube videos or sound or video files that are stored in your Google Drive.
• Format lets you change the look of your slides. Certain functions on this submenu become clickable depending on whether you’ve selected an image or text on a slide, or selected the slide itself.
• Slide is where you can add, delete, or duplicate a slide that you’ve selected. You can also add a preset layout to a slide, change its background or theme color, or add and edit a transition effect that takes place between slides when your presentation is played as a slideshow.
• Arrange lists tools that let you group or reorder objects on a slide in relation to another. For example, you can place an image behind another image or group an image and a block of text together to make them easier to move at once.
• Tools leads to several miscellaneous functions. These include letting you record a voice clip to go with a slide, running a spell checker, and showing you a list of objects in your presentation that are linked to other files.

The toolbar directly above your presentation puts commonly used commands in easy reach. From this toolbar, you can click buttons to add to a slide or change its background, comments, layout, objects (images, lines, shapes, text), text style, theme colors for the whole presentation, transition effects during a slideshow, and more. The buttons on the toolbar change depending on whether you’ve selected image or text on a slide or the slide itself.

Notice that there’s no Save button in the toolbar — or anywhere in Google Slides. That’s because Slides automatically saves any changes you make to your presentation.

Speaker notes: Along the bottom of each slide you’ll see an area marked Click to add speaker notes . Here you can type in brief notes to remind yourself what to do or say when the slide is being shown. Only you will see these notes when you show your presentation to an audience.

Themes sidebar: When you start a new blank presentation, the Themes sidebar opens on the right side of the screen. (You can also open this sidebar at any time by clicking Theme on the toolbar above your presentation.) Themes apply the same fonts, colors, and other design elements to all the slides in a presentation, giving it a consistent look and feel. Click a thumbnail in this sidebar to change your presentation to that theme.

Create and manage slides

Here are the basic things to know about working with slides in a presentation.

Add a new, blank slide to your presentation: Click the + button at the left end of the toolbar above your presentation. Alternatively, if you click the down arrow next to the +, you can choose a layout to use as the basis for a new slide.

Click the down arrow next to the + button in the toolbar to choose a layout for a new slide.

Apply or change a slide’s background: Select the slide’s thumbnail in the left sidebar and click Background on the toolbar above your presentation. On the panel that opens, you can change the slide’s background color or use an image file from your Google Drive, Google Photos account, or PC as the background.

Apply or change a slide’s layout: Select the slide’s thumbnail in the left pane, then click Layout on the toolbar above your presentation. On the panel that opens, select the layout you want to apply to this slide.

Apply or change a slide’s transition: Select the slide’s thumbnail in the left sidebar and click Transition on the toolbar above your presentation. In the Motion sidebar that opens along the right side of the screen, you can apply or change the animated transition effect that is played before this slide.

Choosing a transition style in the Motion pane.

Move a slide to a different spot in the slideshow sequence: Click and hold its thumbnail in the left sidebar, drag it up or down to another place in the sequence, and release it.

Delete a slide: Right-click its thumbnail in the left sidebar and select Delete from the pop-up menu. Alternatively, select its thumbnail and select Edit > Delete from the menu bar or just press the Delete key.

Share and collaborate on a presentation

Presentations are often a group effort, with several team members contributing to and polishing a presentation. In Slides, it’s easy for multiple collaborators to work on a presentation together.

First, you need to share the presentation. When you’re viewing your presentation in Google Slides, click the Share button at the upper-right. Or, from your Google Drive homepage, click to highlight the presentation that you want to share. Then, in the toolbar toward the upper right, click the Share icon (a head-and-shoulders silhouette with a +).

Either way, the “Share” panel will open.

Setting permissions for a file being shared privately.

Share a presentation privately

In the entry box, enter the email addresses (or names of your Google Contacts) of the people with whom you want to share. By default, the people you invite to your presentation can edit it and reshare it with others.

To change access permissions for invitees: Click Editor to the right of the entry box and choose another option from the drop-down menu. Commenter means they can view your spreadsheet and add comments but can’t change it. Viewer means they can view your presentation but can’t edit it or add comments.

To prevent your presentation from being reshared, downloaded, or printed: Click the gear icon at the upper-right of this panel. On the smaller panel that opens, uncheck the boxes by Editors can change permissions and share and Viewers and commenters can see the option to download, print, and copy .

When you’re done setting permissions (and, optionally, typing in a message to your invitees), click Send , and everyone you’ve added will receive an email with a link they can click to access the document.

The shared presentation icon.

A presentation you’ve shared (or that others have shared with you) will have an icon of two silhouetted heads next to it in the presentations list on your Google Sheets and Google Drive home pages.

To limit or change a person’s access to your presentation: With the presentation open in Google Slides, click the Share button at the upper-right. Or, from Google Drive, highlight the presentation and click the Share icon.

The Share panel reopens showing a list of all the people you’ve invited, along with their permission status. Click the down arrow to the right of a person’s name, change their permission level or remove their access entirely, and click Save .

You can change permissions for people you’ve shared a presentation with on an individual basis.

If you have a Google Workspace subscription, another option is to select Give temporary access and, next to Access expires , select a date within one year of the current date. If you set an expiration date for a person that you’ve assigned as Editor, their access will be downgraded to Commenter on the expiration date.

Share a presentation publicly

Most business users will want to share presentations privately with select colleagues or clients, but you do have the option to share a presentation publicly. At the bottom of the Share panel is a “General access” area where you can copy a link to the document. By default, this link is restricted to those you invite to the document. To change it to a public link, click Restricted and select Anyone with the link from the menu that appears.

Click Copy link and the link to your presentation will be copied to your PC’s clipboard. You can share this link by pasting it into a chat message, document, email, forum post, or most other means of online written communication. Anyone who clicks this link will be able to view your presentation online. (Be aware that anyone can copy and reshare this link.)

To allow anyone in the public to comment on or edit your presentation: At the bottom right of the Share panel, click Viewer and select Commenter or Editor from the drop-down menu. Then click the Done button. Now the web link to your presentation will let anyone who clicks it add a comment or edit it.

Sharing a spreadsheet publicly.

To turn off public sharing for your presentation: Bring up the Share panel again. Near the bottom, click Anyone with the link and select Restricted from the menu, then click the Done button.

Note: You can apply both public and private sharing methods to your presentation. For example, you could allow the public to only view your presentation, but allow specific people that you’ve invited to comment on or edit it.

Collaborate on a presentation

The people you’ve shared a spreadsheet with can view or work on it at the same time as you or at other times. Remember that people who have Editor privileges to your presentation can change all aspects of it. Having multiple people making changes to a presentation can get confusing. In most cases, setting everyone to Commenter is the best way to collaborate in Slides: People can attach comments to a slide or to objects in a slide, but their comments won’t alter your presentation’s information or design.

To add a comment to a slide: Right-click its thumbnail in the left sidebar and select Comment from the menu that opens. Alternatively, you can select its thumbnail and select Insert > Comment from the menu bar or click the Add comment button (a speech balloon with a + sign).

A blank comment card with your name on it opens to the right of the slide in the main window. On this card’s entry line, type a brief comment, and when you’re finished, click the Comment button.

Typing in a new comment.

To add a comment to an object on a slide: Right-click the object (a block of text, chart, image, picture, etc.) and select Comment from the menu that opens. Alternatively, you can select the object and select Insert > Comment from the menu bar.

To draw someone’s attention to a comment: As you’re composing the comment, type the @ symbol and begin typing their name, then select the person from the list of suggested Google contacts that appears. They’ll receive an email notifying them of the comment and linking to it.

To read, reply to, or remove a comment: A slide that contains a comment is denoted in the left sidebar with a speech balloon by its thumbnail. Click the slide’s thumbnail to make the slide appear in the main window, and you’ll see all its comment cards on the right.

To reply to a comment, click its card. The card will expand to reveal an entry line where you can add a comment in response.

Replying to a comment.

Clicking the checkmark at the upper right marks the comment card as “resolved” and removes the card from the presentation. Clicking the card’s three-dot icon opens a menu that lets you edit or delete your comment.

To see a list of all comments: Click the Open comment history icon (the speech balloon) to the left of the Slideshow button. A sidebar will open along the right side of the screen; it lists all the comment cards in your presentation. When you click a comment on this list, the view of your presentation in the main window will jump to the cell where the comment is located and open its comment card.

The Comments pane lets you quickly review all comments and jump to specific ones.

For more details about collaborating on your presentation, including what it’s like to collaborate in real time, see “ How to collaborate on a document ” in our Google Drive guide. You can also collaborate on a presentation in Google Chat; that’s covered later in this story.

Recover older versions of a presentation

It’s easy to go too far when making tweaks to a presentation. Fortunately, it’s also easy to roll back to an earlier version of the presentation. Click File > Version history > See version history . This opens a panel on the right that shows a list of older versions of your presentation.

Using Version history to view an earlier version of a presentation. (Click image to enlarge it.)

To view an earlier version of your presentation: Click the date for it in the list. That version of the presentation will then appear in the main window.

To restore an earlier version so it replaces your current presentation: With the version you want to restore showing in the main window, click the yellow Restore this version button at the top of the screen. The restored version will then appear at the top of the version history list.

To give an older version a unique name: Click on its date. You’ll be prompted to type in words to replace the date. (The date and time will then appear in smaller size underneath the new name.)

Give a presentation

When it’s time to play your presentation to an audience, Google Slides has two modes: Slideshow and Presenter view. Slideshow mode essentially shows what your audience will see. Presenter view mode provides additional tools for your eyes only that run alongside Slideshow mode.

Slideshow mode: Click the Slideshow button at the upper-right corner of the screen. Google Slides will expand to full-screen view and show the slide that’s currently in the main window. (If you want to start the slideshow from the first slide in your presentation, click the down arrow to the right of the Slideshow button and select Start from beginning .)

The control bar in Slideshow mode lets you click through the slides, turn on auto-play, use a laser pointer effect, and more. (Click image to enlarge it.)

When you move the on-screen pointer to the lower-left corner of your presentation, a control bar appears. You use this to click forward and back through the slides. Clicking the three-dot icon on the control bar opens a menu with other controls, such as starting auto-play and adjusting how quickly it moves from slide to slide.

On this menu, Turn on the laser pointer turns the mouse pointer into a simulated red laser dot. Captions preferences — available only if you’re using a Chrome browser or Chromebook — lets you turn on real-time, automatic transcribing of your words as you say them (English only) and shows them to your audience as on-screen captions. Open speaker notes takes your presentation out of full screen and opens a separate “Presenter view” window, as described below.

Presenter view mode: Click the down arrow to the right of the Slideshow button and select Presenter view . This shows the presentation in your browser window and launches a separate window that assists you while you’re giving your presentation.

Presenter view lets you (but not your audience) see your speaker notes while presenting. (Click image to enlarge it.)

From the Presenter view window, you can jump to any slide in your presentation, read the speaker notes you wrote for a slide, and control the Q&A feature. There’s also a timer that you can set to remind yourself how much time you’re spending showing a slide — or the entire presentation — to your audience.

Click the AUDIENCE TOOLS tab to use the Q&A feature, which lets you take questions from your audience. To open questions for a slideshow, click the Start new button. A web link appears at the top of your presentation. An audience member watching your presentation on their computer, phone, or tablet can click/tap that link, which will take them to a page where they can type a question for you. You’ll see the question  in your Presenter view window, and you can choose whether to show their question to the rest of your audience during the presentation. To close questions for a presentation, turn the switch from ON to OFF .

Audience members can submit questions from their devices, and the presenter can decide whether to display them as part of the slideshow. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Present in Google Meet

Need to give a presentation during a Google Meet video meeting? As long as you’re using a Chromium-based browser (Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, etc.), it’s easy: Toward the upper right of the Google Slides page, click the Google Meet icon. From the panel that opens, select a meeting that’s scheduled on your Google calendar today, start a new meeting, or type/paste in the web link or code that you have for another meeting.

Click the Meet icon to get started presenting to a video meeting.

If you start a new meeting, a sidebar for the meeting will open on the right. At the bottom of the sidebar, click the Present now icon (a box with an up arrow). On the panel that appears, select your presentation and click the Share button, and you’ll be presenting to the meeting.

Choose which tab or window you want to share and click the Share button. (Click image to enlarge it.)

If you join a scheduled meeting, you have two choices: “Join the call” and “Just present this tab.” If you click Join the call , a sidebar for the meeting will open on the right. Follow the same steps as above to present to the meeting. If you click Just present this tab , you’ll go directly to the panel where you select your presentation and click Share , but you won’t have a sidebar where you can follow the main meeting.

To stop sharing your presentation to the meeting, click the Stop sharing button at the top left of your browser window.

For more details about using Google Meet, see our Google Meet cheat sheet .

Download and export a presentation

Google Slides lets you download presentations for use offline. On the top menu, select File > Download and choose a file format. You can save your presentation to your PC as a PowerPoint (.pptx) file or in other formats such as PDF, or as JPG or PNG for an individual slide.

5 tips for working with Google Slides

Now that you’re comfortable working in Google Slides, try these intermediate tips.

Use the Google Slides mobile app

With the exception of the “Version history” tool, the Google Slides app for Android , iPhone , and iPad has many of the same features described in this guide.

When you have a slideshow open, the toolbar at the top of the screen lets you take a variety of actions:

• To present your slides on your phone or tablet, on a Chromecast device, or in a Google Meet meeting, tap the triangle icon.
• To share your presentation with other people, the headshot silhouette. (See “How to share from the Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides mobile apps” in our Google Drive cheat sheet .)
• To view all the comments in the presentation, tap the Comments icon (a chat balloon) if you see it in the toolbar, or tap the three-dot icon and select View comments from the menu that appears.
• The three-dot menu also lets you see the presentation’s Q&A history, export it, make it available offline, and more.

The Google Slides Android app.

To edit or comment on a slide: Tap the slide, and a menu will appear that lets you add or view comments for that slide or edit it. Tap an element on a slide, such as text or an image, and tools to edit that element will appear.

Any changes you make to your presentation in the mobile app are automatically saved and will appear the next time you open it in the Google Slides web app.

Get suggested slide layouts and content

Click the Explore icon at the lower-right corner of the screen. The Explore sidebar will open along the right side. In most cases, you’ll be presented with thumbnails of suggested layouts that Google Slides has automatically customized for the slide that’s open in the main window. Click the one you want, and it will be applied to the slide.

Use the Explore tool to get suggested layouts (left) and search for images (right).

At the top of the Explore sidebar is a search box. You can type in a word or phrase to find related content on the web or in your Google Drive. Search results appear on separate Web, Images, and Drive tabs in the sidebar. Click a web or Drive result to open it in a new browser tab. On the Images tab, click the + icon on the upper-right corner of an image to insert it onto your slide.

Create custom slide layouts to use as templates

You can design your own slide layouts to use as templates in any future presentation. First, open a new, blank presentation as described above. Then:

• On the menu bar over the blank presentation, select View > Theme builder .
• The main window switches to a layout editor. Toward the left you’ll see a column with the heading THEME on top and LAYOUTS just below that. Click the thumbnail of any layout in the LAYOUTS list. It will appear in the main window.
• You can remove objects that are already in any layout. For example, click on a block of text. A frame appears around the text. Without selecting the text itself, move the pointer to ward an edge of the frame, right-click, and select Delete from the menu that opens.

Creating a custom slide layout. (Click image to enlarge it.)

• Using the formatting toolbar above the slide, you can add new objects to the slide, including images, image placeholders, shapes, lines, and blocks for text. (Tip: enter placeholder words inside the text blocks.) When you click on any object, a frame appears around it. Drag and drop the frame to relocate it on the slide, or drag its edges to change its shape or size. You can also add or change the border and background colors for any object on the slide and/or change the background color for the whole slide.
• When you’re finished designing your layout, click the Rename button above the slide and give the layout a unique name.
• If you want to create another custom layout, click on the thumbnail of another layout under the column LAYOUTS and repeat the above steps starting from #3.
• When you are finished custom-designing all your layouts, click the X toward the upper-right of the slide layout in the main window.
• Along the top of the screen, click anywhere inside Untitled presentation and start typing. Tip: Use a name that indicates this is a template (e.g., “Annual Budget Presentation – Template”).

In the future, you can make new presentations starting from this template, and your custom slide layouts will be available.

• Open the template presentation you created in the steps above. On the menu bar, click File > Make a copy > Entire presentation . On the panel that opens, type in a name for the new presentation you want to create and click the Make a copy button. Google Slides will open this new presentation in a new browser tab.
• On the toolbar above the first slide of your new presentation, click Layout . From the panel of thumbnails that opens, select one of the layouts that you created. It will then be applied to the slide in the main window.

Collaborate on a presentation in Google Chat

An alternative way to collaborate on a presentation is to share it in Google Chat. Other people in your chat can add comments and help make changes to your presentation.

Start in Google Chat . To the left of the box where you type in your chat messages, click the + icon and select Drive file from the menu that opens. A panel will open over the screen listing the files in your Google Drive. Find and click your presentation to highlight it, then click INSERT on the lower-right corner.

You’ll be taken back to the chat message box. Click the blue right-pointing arrow to the right of the box, and a panel will open over the screen designating permissions for the shared presentation. By default, permissions are set to Comment. To change this, click Comment and select View or Edit . You can also allow the people in the chat to share a web link to your presentation with others outside of the chat by selecting Turn link sharing on .

You can share a presentation to individual or group chats in Google Chats. (Click image to enlarge it.)

After you’ve set the permissions, click SEND , and your message will appear in the chat stream with a large thumbnail of your presentation. To open a presentation in the chat, click the thumbnail. The presentation will open inside a large window that’s laid out alongside the right of the chat stream.

This is actually Google Slides running inside the chat window with your presentation loaded in it. Thus, most of the Slides commenting and editing tools are available for you and others in the chat to use on your presentation (if you granted them permission to comment or edit). The user interface is the same, except there’s no menu bar.

Collaborating on a presentation from within a Google Chat. (Click image to enlarge it.)

Use keyboard shortcuts

Save time in Slides by using keyboard shortcuts for common tasks. Below are some of the most useful to know. For more, select Help > Keyboard shortcuts from the top menu when you have a spreadsheet open or press Ctrl + / (Windows, Chrome OS) or ⌘ + / (macOS).

Handy Google Slides keyboard shortcuts

This story was originally published in September 2019 and updated in August 2022.

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Howard Wen ( www.howardwen.com ) is a longtime contributor to Computerworld . He specializes in explainer guides, how-tos, and reviews of office applications and productivity tools.

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Google Slides 101: Tips and Tricks Every Teacher Needs To Know

Everything you need to become an expert in no time!

Google Slides is a favorite teaching tool for many educators, both in person and online. With a huge selection of free features and options, this powerhouse allows teachers to create dynamic, interactive presentations that really engage their students. Whether you’re new to Google Slides or are looking to up your game, these resources will help you make the most of it.

Start with the basics

If this is all new to you, watch this video to see how to create simple Google Slides. It walks you through the process one step at a time. Plus, grab a free Google Slides Cheat Sheet from Shake It Up Learning .

Share slides with your students

You aren’t limited to using slideshows to accompany in-class presentations. Share them with students to use when studying, assign them as homework or for asynchronous learning, or create interactive slides (more on that below). Assigning Google Slides to your students is easy in Google Classroom. Teaching With Jennifer Findlay shows you how it’s done.

Use themes and templates

Jeoparty! Theme from SlidesCarnival

Google Slides themes are a pre-set group of colors, fonts, backgrounds, and layouts.  You may sometimes see themes called “templates”—these two terms are interchangeable and work in the same way. Themes/templates allow you to enter your own information but save you a lot of time by taking care of the overall look and layout for you.

Doodles Theme from SlidesMania

You’ll find a variety of themes built into the program itself (watch the Google Basics video above to see how to use them). You’ll also find thousands more available for free or purchase online. Using them is generally as simple as clicking a link and then choosing “Use Template” to customize.

Add sounds to Google Slides

Adding sounds like music or narration can make your slide presentation a lot more interesting. Play bird songs in a lesson on ornithology, listen to a concerto as you discuss Mozart, or even create your own read-aloud. Narrated slides are terrific for asynchronous learning situations too. Learn how to add audio from Fluxing Well.

Don’t forget video

The nice thing about embedding a video directly in your Google Slides presentation is that you (or your students) don’t have to worry about clicking over to another window or website. Instead, you can simply set the video to play automatically (or once the Play button is clicked). You can use YouTube videos, videos from other sites, or those you’ve created yourself. (Pro tip: You can set a video to start and stop at any time you like !)

Make your Google Slides interactive

If you think a slideshow is something for students to sit and watch passively, Google Slides is here to prove you wrong. Have kids click on correct answers, type in text, and a whole lot more. This in-depth video demonstrates the entire process. Get more info from Super Sass and Science Class.

Choice boards are a popular way to make slides interactive. This video has the quick how-to.

Drag-and-drop slides are another terrific way to draw learners into a slide presentation. It’s amazing how much of a difference this makes in student engagement!

Link to internal slides and external sites

Adding links really ups the interactivity of your slides and turns them into self-directed activities in a snap. You can link kids to other pages in the slides for self-checking assessments or to external sources like websites or Google Classroom docs. This is one (easy) skill every teacher should master.

Check out Google Slides add-ons

Google Slides itself has lots of features, but you can also get lots of (often free) add-ons to make certain tasks easier. Add-ons are available to make diagrams, find better images, and display math equations … just to name a few. Ditch That Textbook has a list of 20 add-ons all teachers should try here.

Source: Maneuvering the Middle

One add-on teachers swear by is Pear Deck . It makes it easy to drop in formative assessments and evaluate student progress. The basic program is free for all users; learn how it works here .

Get in on the Bitmoji classroom trend

Those Bitmoji classrooms that are all the rage are right at home on Google Slides. Learn more about these virtual classrooms here, including how to make your own.

If you’re really ambitious, you can “animate” your Bitmoji to create a cool effect that kids will enjoy. It takes a bit of time, but as this video shows, it’s really not that hard to do.

Teach students to use Google Slides

Once students know how to use the program, there are all sorts of awesome assignments they can take on. Even elementary kids can learn how it works. Two Boys and a Dad has an awesome free project to get them started. Once they’ve got the basic skills, here are a few ideas to try.

Challenge your students to create an e-book using slides. Have them illustrate their creative writing, or try it for a different twist on a standard report. Get the quick tutorial from Shake Up Learning.

Digital interactive notebooks make it easy for you to monitor student progress, online or in-person. Plus, no more worries about kids “forgetting” to bring their notebook! Two Boys and a Dad shows you how they work. Make your own, or find ready-to-use templates on the web like this one from Student Savvy .

Looking for more ways to use Google Slides? Learn How Teachers Can Plan and Use Virtual “Stations” Online.

Plus, 30+ Virtual Learning Platforms and Tools for Teachers and Kids .

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35 Fantastic Free Google Slides Templates and Themes for Teachers

Add some pizzazz to your presentations! Continue Reading

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Home Blog Google Slides Tutorials Google Slides Dimensions: What Size is Google Slides and How to Change Slide Size?

Google Slides Dimensions: What Size is Google Slides and How to Change Slide Size?

Slide dimensions can play an important role when displaying information on large screens or according to the type of content on the slide. A large screen would require a widescreen orientation, and you might even need to customize it to fit the screen size. Similarly, some infographics and illustrations require making necessary adjustments to slide orientation to display the content during the presentation correctly. Like PowerPoint, you can also change slide dimensions in Google Slides.

How to Change Slide Size in Google Slides

Google Slides allow setting different slide dimensions according to user needs, including a Standard, Widescreen, or Custom size. To change Google Slide dimensions, go to File > Page Setup .

You can adjust the Google Slides page size from the pop-up menu displayed via Page Setup. The available options include switching to Standard 4:3, Widescreen 16:9, Widescreen 16:10, and a custom slide size. Select the desired slide size and click Apply .

What Size is Google Slides?

If you’re wondering what Google Slides size is right for you, pick a Google Slides resolution that best goes with your screen type. If it’s an old monitor or small screen, you might want to use a Standard orientation, whereas modern monitors or projectors often suit the Widescreen orientation. 

Standard Orientation (4:3)

The Standard 4:3 slide orientation displays content in a smaller size compared to widescreen orientations. This orientation was commonly used in legacy versions of PowerPoint and Google Slides, as projectors and screen monitors did not offer the utility to project a widescreen slide correctly. However, this orientation is still used for smaller slides and screens. Where the slide content might be smaller and better suited to a Standard slide size. This might include pictures, illustrations, tables, and other types of slide content that might appear too stretched on a widescreen slide orientation.

Widescreen (16:9)

The 16:9 widescreen resolution is quite commonly used, and might even be considered the standard size for modern presentations. This is because 16:9 was the replacement for the 4:3 aspect ratio post-2008, as screen sizes and display standards evolved for monitors, projectors, and television channels globally.

Widescreen (16:10)

While 16:10 is not as widely used as 16:9; it is commonly used in tablets and computer monitors. The ratio is closer to the Golden Ratio of 1.618, but the higher manufacturing cost of devices has meant that manufacturers mainly stick to 16:9 for electronic devices.

Custom Orientation

Google Slides also provides a Custom orientation option, where you can also choose to pick the slide size in inches, centimeters, points, or pixels. This option can be useful if you intend to edit the slide orientation according to a specific document, picture, infographic, etc. For example, you can switch to 8.5 x 11 inches for Letter orientation or 8.27 inches for A4 size. Similarly, you can make changes in pixels, points, or centimeters.

When considering how to edit slide size on Google Slides according to your display monitor or presentation requirements, you might want to run a mock presentation with a colleague. If it’s a remote meeting, the slide size would automatically adjust due to the responsive UIs of various devices. However, one orientation or another might appear more convenient for your audience based on your presentation needs. For example, suppose your remote meeting participants are mainly using mobile devices. In that case, you might want to test out a lower resolution, compared to when you are presenting before an audience using a widescreen monitor.

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• Google Slides Tutorials

What is Google Slides and what it is used for

Are you familiar with the name Google Slides ? Of course, you are! And we are pretty sure that before you have used a Google Slides template for your presentations. However, do we really know what it is and what it is used for?

It is a question that may seem difficult to answer. For that reason, Slidesgo wants to explain what Google Slides is and what it is used for so that from now on, you'll never doubt it again. Here we go! 

Google Slides is a titan of editing and creating presentations. This online and offline platform (you have the advantage of being able to continue editing even without an internet connection) is part of the Google Drive suite along with other services such as Google Docs or Google Sheets. Nowadays, it is very common to have a Google account, being the only thing you will need to edit in Google Slides, a completely free service! 

What is Google Slides: Definition

What is google slides used for, what is a slide in google slides.

"An online presentation editor" would be a good way to pick up the Google Slides concept.

It works similarly to editing in PowerPoint, only in the cloud, where all the changes you make will be saved. You can edit a previously designed template or create a new one from scratch.

If you have doubts about what resources and design options are available for you, at Slidesgo School we have a section completely dedicated to Google Slides tutorials .

A Google Slides presentation has the same purpose as a PowerPoint presentation: to serve as visual support in an oral presentation. However, Google Slides offers different advantages such as being able to have your presentation in the Google cloud and have access to it from anywhere and from any device, that several users can modify the same presentation at the same time or that all changes are automatically saved thanks to the auto-save feature.

Finally, we are going to explain what is a slide in Google Slides, you are about to get a Master's degree in Google Slides knowledge!

The slides in Google Slides are all the sheets that you can edit to put your content on them. You can modify and make all the changes you want. Add text, images, transitions, change the background color, add links to other pages... Google Slides has endless editing possibilities at your disposal.

This is the end of the lesson on Google Slides. Surely your presentations look great with all the new information you have. If you want to know more about this topic, you can read this article from Slidesgo School about the advantages of Google Slides and PowerPoint .

Do you find this article useful?

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When preparing a presentation, many people start panicking because they realize how much time it will take to edit each and every slide. Creating them from scratch, filling them in, looking for pictures, moving the elements...How stressful! But there is a solution that saves you a lot of time. We're sure that you've browsed the internet for templates, or basically, pre-established designs and elements, that can be downloaded for free and can be edited to your liking. Are we right? Then, we have some good news for you!

Discover our collection of printable templates

With the advance of technology, printing has become something that is no longer a necessity. Smartphones have made the paper format less and less frequent, but there are still certain cases in which having physical resources is much more convenient. Whether it's for taking notes, handing out assignments, making worksheets or handing out business cards or invitations, it's necessary to print your customized designs.From now on, in every Slidesgo printable presentation that you download, you will find the instructions for printing on the third slide. Depending on the style, colors or format of each presentation, we will tell you if you can...

How to Add Superscript and Subscript in Google Slides

Let’s take the most famous formula: E=mc^2, Einstein’s relativity equation. It wouldn’t be the same if it was E=mc2, right? Okay, yes, some people write it like that because it’s very famous and it won’t be misunderstood. But technically… It can! This is where the sophistication of superscript or subscript enters the room! Do you know how to write them in equations, copyright brands or even footnotes in your presentations? Let’s figure out how.

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• Presentations

How to Create Google Slide Layouts (Dimensions, Sizes, and Design)

Do you need a specialized Google Slides layout for your presentation? Maybe you need to add a logo to a title page layout? Maybe you want to change the default font or colors for certain slide layouts. Or maybe you want to format your text into columns.

It doesn't matter if your presentation is for your business, for a class, or for some other purpose. You may find yourself wanting to arrange a slide in a way that isn't defined by your current presentation theme. You'll need to know how to change slide dimensions in Google Slides for that.

You can create unique layouts in Google Drive Slides that you can use throughout your presentation if you know how. Follow the steps in this tutorial to learn how to create your own Google Slides layouts . We'll also discuss Google Slides dimensions and cover a few slide design basics.

Guide to Making Great Presentations (Free eBook Download)

Also, be sure to grab our free eBook:  The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations . It'll help you master the presentation process, from: initial idea, through to writing, design, and delivering with impact.

Now let's get started with this tutorial. You'll learn all about how to change Google Slides slide size and dimensions.

• How to Create Google Slide Layouts Quickly (QuickStart)

In this screencast, we walk through how to create Google Slides layouts using Master Layouts. This way you can take your new slide design and apply it to any number of slides in your presentation quickly: 

Read on for an illustrated guide to making your own unique Google Slide layouts with or without presentation templates. 

Jump to content in this section:

Choose a Google Slides Presentation Template

Understanding google slides sizes & dimensions, what is a master slide, how to create google slide layouts, 5 basic google slide design tips, take control of your layouts in google slides, learn all about how to make great presentations (free ebook), find tons of google slides templates on envato elements.

For this tutorial, we've used the Bold Lapis Google Slides template from Envato Elements. It's a modern download with multiple layouts for Google Slides available.

To use the template, simply type over the slide information in the template with your own information. It's really easy to make these premade layouts for Google Slides fit your content. You typically won't have to worry about what are the dimensions of a Google Slides deck with them either. But more on that later.

Discover more  Google slides presentation templates on Envato Elements. You can also browse through our top new selections: 

Before you download a template, however, choose the Google Slides dimension that you want to use for your presentation. This section covers the Google Slides Page Setup option, which is how you define the aspect ratio of your Google Slides layouts.

In Google Drive Slides, you'll find the available slide dimensions in the Page Setup dialog box. Open the dialog box by File > Page setup :

Click the up and down arrows to see the various aspect ratios available. These help you decide the size and dimensions of a Google Slides presentation:

As you can see, there are four aspect ratio options available to change the size and dimensions of a Google Slides deck:

• Standard 4:3
• Widescreen 16:9
• Widescreen 16:10

The Google Slides size of layout depends on the aspect ratio of the equipment you'll present with. Whether it'll be printed out also matters. The numbers after each choice represent the slide's aspect ratio. It compares the horizontal to vertical resolution. This takes the guesswork out of wondering what are the dimensions of a Google Slides presentation.

If you're unsure what are the dimensions of a Google slide, don't worry. You can tell if the aspect ratio is wrong for your equipment if you see black space around the edges of your presentation when you view it.

The second and third options are best for most new devices. Even most smart phones use a 16:9 aspect ratio. But if you're using older equipment to display your presentation, you may need to use the Standard 4:3 option. These two are the most common size and dimensions of a Google Slides template.

Using the Custom option, you can define your own aspect ratio in inches, centimeters, points, or pixels. This is useful if you want to adjust the size of the Google Slides yourself:

The Bold Lapis Google Slides template comes with a pair of aspect ratios. That means you don't need to know how to change the Google slides size because common options are available:

You can learn how to choose and download your own professional Google Slides theme in this quick tutorial:

It's good that you understand more about how to change Google slide dimensions and sizes. Now it's time to look at another important, related concept. Let's examine the concept of master slides:

Before we can create our own Google Slides layouts, you need to know what a master slide and a master layout is.

A master slide defines how your presentation looks. It affects all the slides in your presentation. In contrast, master layouts could be used by all your slides, but you may choose to only re-use a layout several times.

Each slide you create is based on both the master slide and the master layout. To see the master slide and layouts for your presentation, use the Slide > Edit master menu option to open the Master Layout Editing dialog box:

Many presentation themes have a pre-defined master slide as well as master layouts. This reduces the need to create your own master and layouts.

Even with so many options available, you may occasionally feel the need to create your own layout. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create your own master layouts. Let's get started: 

Google Drive Slides themes include a wide variety of master layouts for you. But sometimes you need a different slide layout. When that happens, you'll need to create your own master slide.

Do you like this tutorial? You may also be interested in this Google Slides tutorial. It explains how to add background images to a Google Slides presentation:

Step 1. Start with an Open Presentation

Start by opening the presentation for which you want to create the Google Slides layout:

Step 2. Add a Blank Slide to Your Presentation

Next, add a new blank slide to your presentation. This is the slide for which we'll create a new master layout.

To add a blank slide, click on the down arrow to the right of the Plus (+) symbol in left corner of the screen:

A dialog box opens displaying master layouts that are available. Click the Blank option to add a blank slide. A blank slide displays:

Step 3. Open the Master Layout Editing Dialog Box

Make sure the blank slide is selected by clicking on it in the pane to left of your open slide.

Select the Slide > Edit master menu option to open the Master Layout Editing dialog box:

As you can see, you're working with a Blank layout that's currently used by one slide.

At this point, it's a good idea to rename the layout since it'll no longer be blank after you're done with it. Click the Rename button:

Type the new name of your master layout and click the OK button. In this case, I named the new layout AnyTown Consulting, since I am creating it for an AnyTown Consulting presentation. But you can call it whatever you want.

Step 4. Make Layout Changes to Your Master Slide

With the Master Layout Editing dialog box open, use the toolbar tools make the layout changes you desire to the master layout you're working on:

• Use the Text tool to insert a placeholder for text.
• Use the Image tool to add an image.
• Use the Shape tool to add a shape.
• Use the Line tool to add a line.

Whatever layout changes you make for Google Slides appear on every slide that uses the master layout you create.

In this example, I used the Text tool to add a title. I used the Line tool to add a blue line underneath that title. And I used the Text tool again to create four columns of text. Also, just for fun, I used the Shape tool to add a solid blue diamond at the top right of the slide layout.

You can also use the toolbar tools to change the font style, font size, and font color. In the illustration below, I am changing the font in a text box:

Once you've finished your master layout, click the white X in the right corner of the dialog box to close it.

Here's a slide using the new master layout I just created:

Simply type the text and subtitle where indicated.

Step 5. Apply Your New Master Layout

Now that you've created a new master layout in Google slides, you can apply it to as many slides as you want.

Here's how to use the new master layout on a new slide:

To add it to a new slide, simply click the down arrow next to the + symbol on the left of your screen to add a new slide. Notice how the new master layout that you created is now available as a choice:

Click on the new master layout to apply it to the new slide you're creating.

Here's how to apply the new master layout to an existing slide:

To apply it to an existing slide, click on a slide to select it. Right-click on the selected slide to bring up a drop-down menu:

Select the Apply layout option from the drop-down menu. Next, click on the new master layout from the layout selections to right of the drop-down menu.

The master slide layout you created is applied to the new slide.

It's great to be able to create your own master layouts in Google Slides. But if your presentation is going to be effective you should remember to follow these basic design principles. 

Discover basic slide design guidelines to follow. In this section, we briefly cover three design areas that you need to master:

• graphics (including images)

Let's examine each area separately.

1. Use Less Text

There's nothing that can add unnecessary bloat to your layouts for Google Slides like text. Big blocks of text are distracting for an audience, and they don't translate well to a visual medium like a slideshow.

No matter what your Google Slides size and dimensions are, avoid using a lot of text. Keep it simple. Use bullet points and short lines of text to keep space free for more important elements.

2. Add Animations

You may not think of animations as part of slide design, but they're key for your overall presentation. They help you tell the story you want with your content.

You can dictate everything from pacing to transitions to a different main point all with a well-placed animation.

Google Slides has plenty of animations by default that you can explore. Try out how they can interact with your text boxes, images, and more on the site.

Color is an important part of your design. You can change the color of slide elements using the master slides and master layouts in Google Drive Slides.

You can also change some color elements as you create a slide without going into the Master Layout Editing dialog box.

For example, you can change the color of fonts used in your presentation. You can also change the color of drawing elements that you add directly to a slide, such as lines and shapes. You can't change the color of drawing elements added through the Master Layout Editing dialog box without going back into the dialog box.

When choosing colors, remember the following points:

• Color choices should contrast or complement one another. In most cases, avoid clashing colors such as orange and purple.
• Choose colors that portray a professional image to your intended audience. Earth tones and neutral colors such as white, black, gray and blue are usually considered professional. Pastels such as pink and lilac may work for certain markets and not others.
• Keep in mind your branding. Other elements of your branding such as your logo, website, and stationery should already have a unique color scheme. Your presentation should mirror your branded color scheme.
• Keep in mind visibility. Text in some colors, such as light yellow against a white background, are hard to read.

Your font choices are another important design decision. The fonts you choose can affect how successful your presentation is. When it comes to fonts there are three main factors to consider:

• Readability
• Number of fonts

Simple fonts like Helvetica or Arial work best. Avoid fonts with lots of flourishes such fonts that are made to look like script or handwriting. The fancier fonts are more difficult to read.

Also, you should limit the number of fonts you use in your presentation to one or two. Enhance your font choices using bold, italic or underline. But avoid using many different fonts if you want your presentation to look cohesive.

5. Graphics

Photos, drawings and charts play a big part in an effective slide presentation. To make the most of your graphics avoid these common mistakes:

• picking a poor-quality image
• using an image with a low resolution
• choosing a chart with text that's too small
• putting too many graphics on a single slide

To learn more about presentation design, review this tutorial for more detailed information: 

Creating your own Google Slides master layouts can be quite useful—especially if you make a lot of presentations. Learn more about how to use Google Slides in our ultimate tutorial guide series. Our instructors have also created helpful articles to get you on your way in Google Slides.

Take the knowledge you gained in this tutorial further with our eBook: The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations . Grab this PDF Download now for Free with your subscription to the Tuts+ Business Newsletter.

It'll help walk you through the complete presentation process. Learn how to write your presentation, design it like a pro, and prepare it to present powerfully.

Learning how to change the Google Slides size isn't the only thing you should know from this article. We've got a creative service that'll help you in presentations and other creative projects.

It's called Envato Elements. Get unlimited downloads of professional assets (such as Google Slides presentation templates) for a low monthly fee.

Explore Envato Elements

That includes everything from layouts for Google Slides to Photoshop templates, and so much in between. You can sign up for Envato Elements today to start designing without limits.

Start Your Next Presentation Today

In this tutorial, you've learned how to change slide dimensions in Google Slides. You also learned how to work with master slides and master layouts. We also showed you how to create your own custom slide layouts for Google Slides that you can use over and over. Finally, we covered some basic design tips for making more effective presentations.

Keep this information handy for whenever you need to work on a presentation! Knowing what are the dimensions of a Google Slides presentation you're making helps you make better slide decks.

Why not get started on your next presentation today? Find and download your favorite Google Slides template.

Editor Note: This article has been updated for accuracy and relevancy by Nathan Umoh .

How-To Geek

7 google slides features for eye-catching presentations.

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• Apply Image Effects
• Crop an Image to a Shape
• Place Text in Front of an Image
• Shorten Lengthy Videos
• Insert a Chart or Graph
• Position Slide Items With Guides
• Use Subtle Slide Transitions

Assembling a professional slideshow can be intimidating if you don't feel creative or artistic. But that doesn't mean you can't make an appealing and successful presentation. Google Slides provides features to help you design an attractive slideshow.

1. Apply Image Effects

You may have an image or two that could use a little pizzazz. Google Slides offers shadow and reflection features that may give your picture or photo just the right touch.

Related: How to Make an Image Transparent in Google Slides

Select your image and choose "Format Options" in the toolbar. When the sidebar opens, check the box for Drop Shadow or Reflection. Then, expand that section to adjust the transparency , distance, angle, or size.

This lets you take ordinary images up a notch.

2. Crop an Image to a Shape

Another way to make an image stand out is by cropping it to a shape . This is referred to as using a mask in Google Slides.

Select your image and click the Mask Image arrow attached to the Crop Image button in the toolbar. Move to Shapes, Arrows, Callouts, or Equation to see the available shapes in the pop-out menu.

Then simply click the shape you want to use. You'll see your image cropped to fit the shape.

To make additional adjustments to the image, select "Format Options" in the toolbar. You can change the size, rotation, position, brightness, or contrast.

3. Place Text in Front of an Image

For things like a title slide, section divider, or conclusion, you may want a unique look. You can place text in front of (or even behind) an image.

Related: How to Place Images Behind or in Front of Text in Google Slides

With your image and text on the slide, move the text box on top of the image. If the text displays behind the image, select the box and head to the Arrange tab.

Choose Order and pick either "Bring to Front" to place the text box on top of all slide elements or "Bring Forward" to place the text box one level up.

This lets you create a different look or save space, and it works well for welcome, transitional, or wrap-up slides.

4. Shorten Lengthy Videos

If you want to include a video in your slideshow but trim it to only show a certain part of the clip, you can do so right in Google Slides.

Select your video and click "Format Options" in the toolbar. When the sidebar opens, expand Video Playback.

If you have the exact times you want to use, enter those in the Start At and End At boxes. You'll then only see that part of the video when you play it in the presentation.

If you aren't certain of the times, press Play in the preview of the video in the sidebar. When you reach the spot where you want to start the video, pause the playback and click "Use Current Time" below the Start At box. Then, do the same for the end time to the right.

You can then play the video on your slide to make sure you've got the timing correct or adjust it further in the sidebar. Optionally, you can check the box for Mute Audio if needed.

Related: How to Add Videos and Customize Playback in Google Slides

5. Insert a Chart or Graph

Slideshows are all about visuals. So, if you have data you want to present, using a chart or graph is a good way to do it. If you have a chart in Google Sheets you want to use, you can simply insert it. Alternatively, you can create a graph from scratch.

Select the slide where you want the chart. Go to Insert > Chart and choose a chart type to create one or "From Sheets" to import one.

If you make your own graph, you'll see sample data when you insert the chart. Use the arrow on the top right to pick "Open Source."

Google Sheets will open with the sample data in a new tab. Then just add your own data.

Return to the Google Slides tab and update the chart using the Update button. You'll then see your updated visual.

From there, you can do things like resize the chart to add some text or a title or apply a border. For a full tutorial on creating a chart in Google Slides , check out our how-to.

Related: How to Create a Graph in Google Slides

6. Position Slide Items With Guides

To make sure that your images, videos, text, shapes, and other items are placed neatly on the slide, you can use the built-in guides.

Go to View, move to Guides, and pick "Show Guides." You'll see horizontal and vertical lines appear which help you to line up your items perfectly.

To make aligning items to the guides even better, you can add a snap. Head back to View, move to Snap To, and pick "Guides."

Once you enable the second feature, you'll see red horizontal and vertical lines appear as you drag your item on the slide. You can then release the item once it's lined up with those indicators.

For additional details on using guides in Google Slides , take a look at our tutorial.

Related: How to Use Guides to Position Items in Google Slides

7. Use Subtle Slide Transitions

Rather than a sudden jolt from slide to slide, consider using subtle slide transitions. You can apply a fade, dissolve, or other effect for a nicer transition from one slide to the next .

Select a slide to start with; you can easily apply the transition to all slides later. Click "Transition" in the toolbar. When the sidebar opens, expand the section below Slide Transition.

Use the drop-down box to choose an effect. You'll see dissolve, fade, slide, flip, and more.

After you pick an effect, press "Play" at the bottom of the sidebar to see a preview. You can also adjust the speed of the transition using the slider.

To use the transition throughout your presentation, click "Apply to All Slides." When you finish, simply close the sidebar. When you play your slideshow, you'll see that attractive transition between slides.

With tools for sprucing up images , removing unnecessary video content, and replacing data with visuals, consider these Google Slides features for your next presentation.

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PowerPoint vs Google Slides: Which is Better? [ULTIMATE Test!]

By: Author Shrot Katewa

Both PowerPoint and Google Slides are powerful presentation design applications, but which is better? This blog post will compare the two to help you decide which one to use. We’ll cover the advantages of each application and share some disadvantages. Finally, we’ll make a suggestion for what type of user might prefer either PowerPoint or Google Slides.

So, without any further delay, let’s get started!

Is Google Slides Better than PowerPoint?

There are a lot of people who have been wondering this very question a lot lately! In fact, a quick comparison of the popularity of PowerPoint and Google Slides using Google Trends showcases that the question is quite valid!

As you may notice, Google Slides has been on an upward trend ever since it was launched. In the last few years, it has only gathered further momentum.

Furthermore, with the pandemic in 2020, Google Slides has been seen as a great free alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint. It has gathered a lot of attention and accolades, especially from teachers and students apart from the business owners.

That said, if more people are using a particular service doesn’t really mean that it is better than its competitors!

Let’s do a side-by-side comparison of the two applications and see how they compare with each other. After all, your purpose of using a presentation design application might be different from what majority of the people might be using it for!

PowerPoint vs Google Slides (Side-by-Side Comparison)

In this section, I shall be doing a side-by-side comparison between PowerPoint and Google Slides. This comparison will be based on some of the key parameters that any user should consider before choosing the correct presentation design applications for themselves.

Hopefully, the comparison will highlight the strengths of each of the two applications and help you make your own decision about which application is best for you.

What is Common to Both PowerPoint and Google Slides?

While there are differences between the two applications (which we will learn more about below in the article), here is what is common to both PowerPoint and Google Slides –

• Developed by Tech Giants – Both, PowerPoint and Google Slide, have been developed by technology giants namely Microsoft and Google. This means that both these presentation programs share a common goal to enable the user to create a well-defined and impressive presentation. Furthermore, both the applications will continue to invest in further development and adding features!
• Mass Appeal – Both PowerPoint and Google Slides have a strong mass appeal and are often the go-to choice for a presentation design application.
• Presentation Templates – Since both PowerPoint and Google Slides have a mass appeal, there are several pre-made themes are templates available for both PowerPoint and Google Slides! In fact, third-party players like Envato Elements allow you to download unlimited beautifully curated presentation templates!
• Presenter View – The presenter view enables the user to present a PPT or Google Slides effectively. Both the presentation applications work in a similar manner. The user can project the presentation to the audience on a second screen while keeping the speaker notes visible only on the user’s screen.
• Design Assistance – Both Google Slides and PowerPoint provide a feature that assists you with the design of your slides. PowerPoint provides the “ Design Ideas feature ” (for Office 365 users only) that automatically and instantly generates the design ideas for the slides. Google Slides provides the “Explore” feature that pretty much does the same thing.

There are perhaps many other similarities between the two applications if we start digging into each feature that the two applications provide. That will require a separate article altogether. However, I’m confident that the above high-level information should suffice.

How is Google Slides Different from PowerPoint?

If you are seriously considering either switching over from PowerPoint to Google Slides or perhaps just deciding which presentation application to choose for your next project, this section will be super helpful for you!

Here’s a list of key differences between PowerPoint and Google Slides –

• Google Slides is More Affordable – One of the key differences between the two applications is the cost itself! As mentioned before, Google Slides is completely free to use, whereas PowerPoint needs to be purchased and can be bought for as low as $6.99 per user per month!
• Google Slides is Easily Accessible – Google Slides is an online presentation program that can be accessed anytime, anywhere, and on any device. The two prerequisites are an internet connection and a Google account. Unless shared, PowerPoint can be accessed only on the computer on which it has been saved. Thus the user is required to carry the device along.
• Google Slides is the Best Tool for Collaboration – Teamwork is one of the key highlight features of Google Slides. Multiple users can easily collaborate on a presentation and make comments or edit it simultaneously while working on the presentation. The editing or chatting is instantly visible to all the users. In PowerPoint, collaboration is not seamless and is a bit more lengthy process.
• Google Slides is Very Compatibility – Google Slides is compatible with not only Google applications but also with PowerPoint. Charts from Google Sheets or videos from YouTube can be embedded in a Google Slides presentation with ease. A Google Slides presentation can easily be converted and opened with PowerPoint. Likewise, it can easily import a PowerPoint file.
• Google Slides Provides Instant Autosaving – Google Slides works with cloud-based technology. The presentation made with Slides is stored in Cloud and is automatically saved. There is no fear of losing data due to not saving frequently as is the case with PowerPoint.
• Revision History in Google Slides – A prominent feature of Google Slides is revision history. Every edit made in the presentation is saved with details such as the time of the editor the name of the user who made the edit. The user can refer to the previous versions of the presentation anytime and can restore them. In PowerPoint, revision history is not available. 
• Google Slides can’t be Lost – Google Slides is stored in the cloud. Cloud storage is more secure and more effectively backed up than a local drive. Data stored in the cloud can only be lost when the user removes it from cloud storage. PowerPoint is stored on a hard drive and data may be lost forever due to various reasons such as corrupt drive, virus, or power failure.

Is Google Slides Compatible with PowerPoint?

A Google Slides presentation can be converted to PowerPoint file format and vice versa. A Google Slides file can be downloaded in PowerPoint format. Similarly, a PowerPoint presentation can be opened in Google Slides.

However, a factor that may limit the compatibility level of Google Slides with PowerPoint is the difference in the list of features offered by both the presentation programs.

As compared to Google Slides, PowerPoint is more advanced and is loaded with a wide variety of features and transitions. For example, fancy transitions are not available in Google Slides. Thus, on converting a PowerPoint to Google Slides, the user may have to make certain adjustments.

Furthermore, if some animations that are not available on Google Slides have been used while creating the PowerPoint file, these animations can be lost as they are not available and supported .

Nonetheless, the entire process is not much time-consuming and provides the user with the flexibility to switch between Google Slides and PowerPoint easily.

To add, as per the recent updates, now a user can open, view, and edit PowerPoint in Google Slides without converting it to Google Slides supported formats. Earlier, a PowerPoint presentation opened in Google Slides in preview mode. To edit the files, PowerPoint was either converted to Office edit mode or downloaded.

With the recent advancements, PowerPoint files can open in edit mode by default. Another advantage extended by this update is that through collaboration a team can work on PowerPoint even if all the members do not have MS office installed. The exception to this development is password-protected files.

Which is Easier: Google Slides or PowerPoint?

Google Slides is easier to use than PowerPoint. Google Slides comes with a clean and simple user interface. It takes less time for a user to get conversed with Google Slides. Furthermore, since Google Slides only provides basic features, it is easy to remember and master as compared to PowerPoint!

The majority of us must have learned to make a presentation on PowerPoint in our school and college days. Microsoft Office forms an integral part of our education. As a result, almost everyone well converses with PowerPoint which makes working with PowerPoint familiar.

On the other side, though Google Slides is much younger than PowerPoint, it is relatively simple. The screen view and structure of Google Slides is similar to those of PowerPoint. Thus, a user who has worked with PowerPoint can seamlessly work with Google Slides.

The popular version of PowerPoint is desktop-based whereas Google Slides is web-based. This makes Google Slides easily accessible.

Instant auto-saving makes it easy to work with Google Slides. It eliminates the need to remember and save frequently as is the case with PowerPoint.

A team cannot collaborate as conveniently on PowerPoint as it can on Google Slides. Google Slides provide for real-time collaboration and instantly update all the team members.

To summarize, at the forefront both the presentation programs are easy to use. However, PowerPoint consists of relatively complex interfaces and requires pre-defined software and hardware set up. Compared to this, Google Slides is easy to use and access. 

Which is Better for Teachers and Students – Google Slides or PowerPoint?

PowerPoint is three decades old and is an integral part of the education system worldwide. At the school level, the subject of computer science includes a dedicated chapter on Microsoft Office. Thus, both teachers and students are familiar with PowerPoint.

Google Slides is better suited for teachers and students as a presentation design application. It is free and easy to use. It also allows to include YouTube videos making learning more convenient. Google Slides is also compatible with other e-learning platforms like Schoology, Nearpod, etc.

The advancements in technology have reformed the education sector to a great extent. Classes are equipped with Wi-Fi or projectors and tablets have become an element of school bag. Covid-19 has fuelled the process. This has increased the user base of Google Slides. A user who has worked with PowerPoint can quickly learn to work with Google Slides. 

However, when a presentation is to be shared either by teachers or students, Google Slides is convenient. It makes it easy for students to view a presentation on their Chrome Books and for teachers to grade a presentation.

Who is PowerPoint Most Suited for?

A PowerPoint presentation is a great option for those looking to create simple, visually appealing slides but also understand the nuances of graphic design. If you are an advanced user, then you will really understand and appreciate the advanced features that PowerPoint has to offer.

The power user will enjoy using PowerPoint because it offers more advanced editing tools. It also has a large library of templates and design features which is helpful for those who want to create presentations with complex animations or graphics.

If you are someone who perhaps enjoys creating a lot of presentations, or perhaps you are someone who provides presentation design as a service, then Microsoft PowerPoint is definitely one of the best options for you!

That said, if you have been using PowerPoint and you are well-versed with the interface, there is no need necessary to switch to Google Slides as you will most likely be able to all that Google Slides has to offer.

Moreover, if your team prefers to work on Google Slides and you are more comfortable with PowerPoint, then you can continue creating presentations using PowerPoint. Once you are done with the design, you can simply upload it to Google Slides!

But if you have little expertise in graphic design then PowerPoint may be too much work for you as there is less of a learning curve with Google Slides.

In my opinion, the best choice for beginners is Google Slides as it is completely free to use and learn. Once you’ve picked up the flair for design, you can then switch over to Microsoft PowerPoint!

Which is Better: PowerPoint or Google Slides? [Final Verdict]

If you look at a software from purely the purpose it is used for (in this case designing a presentation), then Microsoft PowerPoint is certainly a better presentation design software than Google Slides . PowerPoint provides loads of small features that provide the flexibility and streamline the process of designing.

That said, if you are low on budget or perhaps are beginning your presentation design journey, then Google Slides is definitely the better option for you.

Each program has its list of advantages and disadvantages. Depending upon the purpose of your presentation and the amount of time and budget you are willing to dedicate, you will be able to decide the presentation software that is most suited for you!

Credit to Wayhomestudio for the featured image of this article

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How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”

• Guy Kawasaki

Remember: Less is more.

A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some unique elements that make a presentation stand out.

• Fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred for their clean lines, which make them easy to digest at various sizes and distances. Limit the number of font styles to two: one for headings and another for body text, to avoid visual confusion or distractions.
• Colors: Colors can evoke emotions and highlight critical points, but their overuse can lead to a cluttered and confusing presentation. A limited palette of two to three main colors, complemented by a simple background, can help you draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the audience.
• Pictures: Pictures can communicate complex ideas quickly and memorably but choosing the right images is key. Images or pictures should be big (perhaps 20-25% of the page), bold, and have a clear purpose that complements the slide’s text.
• Layout: Don’t overcrowd your slides with too much information. When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences.

As an intern or early career professional, chances are that you’ll be tasked with making or giving a presentation in the near future. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others.

• Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist at Canva and was the former chief evangelist at Apple. Guy is the author of 16 books including Think Remarkable : 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference.

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How to Make Google Slides Vertical in 6 Easy Steps [2024]

• Vertical slides offer a unique visual perspective that stands out from traditional horizontal layouts, enhancing audience engagement and making presentations more memorable.
• Open Google Slides and navigate to "File" > "Page setup" to access custom dimensions.
• Regular practice, attention to detail, and a commitment to delivering confident presentations are essential for harnessing the full potential of vertical slides and becoming a skilled and effective presenter.

Presentations are more interesting when they look different. Making slides go up and down instead of side to side can make your ideas stand out. In this guide, we’ll show you how to make Google Slides vertical. Let’s get started!

Table of Contents

Why even make vertical slides, step 1: open google slides, step 2: navigate to file, step 3: select page setup, step 4: choose custom aspect ratio, step 5: set custom dimensions, step 6: apply changes, tips & tricks, wrapping up.

Here’s how vertical slides can benefit you:

• Enhanced Visual Appeal: Vertical slides offer a refreshing change from the traditional horizontal layout, making your presentation stand out and capturing the audience’s attention.
• Optimized for Mobile Devices: They are easier to view on smartphones and tablets, catering to the increasing trend of mobile usage during presentations.

• Storytelling Advantage: The vertical orientation lends itself well to storytelling, allowing for a more natural progression and flow of information, especially for narratives with tall content elements.
• Infographic Showcase: Vertical slides are ideal for displaying tall infographics, graphs, and timelines without the need for excessive scrolling or resizing.
• Differentiation: Using vertical slides sets your presentation apart from the crowd, signaling to your audience that you’ve put thought into the design and layout of your content.

READ MORE: 3 Easy Ways to Convert a PDF to Google Slides [2024] ➜

How to Make Google Slides Vertical

Follow these steps to make Google slides vertical:

Access Google Slides and open the presentation you want to edit or create a new one by clicking on “ + .”

Go to the Menu bar at the top of the screen and choose “ File .”

Choose “ Page setup ” from the list of options.

In the “Page setup” dialog box , locate the aspect ratio dropdown menu.

Now, select “ Custom ” from the dropdown menu.

Enter the desired dimensions for a vertical orientation. You can choose from common sizes such as:

• US Letter: 8.5 x 11 inches (similar to A4 size)
• US Legal: Around 8.5 x 14 inches.
• A4 (International Standard): Sized at 21 x 29.7 cm.
• A3 : 29.7 x 42.0 cm.
• Mobile: 2532 x 1170 pixels, with a 9×19.5 aspect ratio
• Social Media: 1080 x 1920 pixels, with a 9:16 aspect ratio

Once you’ve entered the dimensions, click on the “ Apply ” button to confirm the changes.

READ MORE: How to Add a GIF to Google Slide ➜

Use the following tips to make the most of vertical Google Slides :

• Visual Appeal: Use captivating images and graphics to enhance engagement and convey your message effectively.
• Simplicity is Key: Keep slides uncluttered with concise text and minimal distractions to maintain audience focus.

• Consistent Design: Maintain a cohesive theme throughout your presentation with consistent fonts, colors, and layout styles.
• Engage with Animation: Incorporate subtle animations to add interest and guide the audience’s attention without overwhelming them.
• Practice and Prepare: Rehearse your presentation multiple times to ensure smooth delivery and confidence in your content, allowing you to connect with your audience effectively.

READ MORE: What is Slidesgo, and how to use it for better Google Slides ➜

Mastering the art of creating vertical Google Slides opens up a world of creative possibilities for your presentations. By following the steps outlined in this guide and implementing the best tips and tricks, you can transform your slides into captivating visual stories that leave a lasting impact on your audience.

With practice and dedication, you can become a skilled presenter capable of delivering dynamic and memorable presentations that resonate with your audience long after the slideshow ends. So go ahead, unleash your creativity, and make your mark with vertical Slides!

It’s essential to preview your presentation on various devices to ensure optimal viewing experience.

Yes, you can adjust the slide size and layout settings to convert horizontal slides to vertical orientation in Google Slides.

Yes, you can collaborate with others in real-time on vertical presentations in Google Slides, allowing for seamless teamwork and editing.

Common mistakes include overcrowding slides with text or images, using too many animations, and neglecting consistency in design elements.

Kamil Anwar

• System Analyst | Microsoft Certified Professional |

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