13 Essential Google Slides Tips to Use it Like a Pro
13 Tips and Tricks:
Google Slides is one of the best alternatives to PowerPoint. It’s free, easy to use, and easily accessible.
It is a dynamic, cloud-based presentation program that had been used more recently.
Whether you want to make a professional or a casual presentation, Google Slides has got you covered. Most of the users know the basics of how to use Google Slides, but let us tell you; it is jam-packed with amazing and time-saving features.
To help you make the most of Google slides, we have listed the 13 most essential tips you must know.
Without further ado, let’s begin:
- Speaker notes with voice
- Insert images
- Text formatting
- Master slide formatting
- Gifs and Animations
- Multiple Slides editing
- Slides Interlinking
- Graphs and charts
- Language Conversion
- Embed with website
- Collaborate
- Shortcuts
- Play Your Presentation Using Chromecast
1. Speaker notes with voice:
It is quite tiring to type the lengthy speaker noted. Isn’t it?
Well, Google Slides has simplified this by Voice Typing. With this feature, you can verbally dictate text onto new slides. The feature even recognizes punctuation and other commands to ensure each and every text appears exactly the way you want it to.
To use this feature your system (PC, laptop, and likewise) should have a microphone. Make sure your microphone is turned on. Click in the Speaker Notes section of your screen. Select Tools > Voice type speaker notes.
The Microphone icon will appear. All you have to do is click the Microphone icon and begin speaking. As you will speak, your text will get added to the speaker's notes. How impressive!
2. Images:
"A picture is worth a thousand words" is indeed a fact. Well, images and graphics are an important part of any presentation.
They add a lot to a presentation. It also adds interest to a slide and draws in your audience.
But, do you know you can do more than just inserting them? Here are a few ways how you can use images:
i) Use it as a background
A background image can help make your presentation be more visually appealing. And it's easier to use an image as a background in Google Slides than you might think.
You can:
- Change the background colour
- Add a background image
Let’s see how to do it:
- Click the Background option on the toolbar
- The Background dialog box will appear
- Change the colour as you want
- From the same dialog box, click on the word Choose to the right of the image option.
- The Insert background image screen will appear. Choose the desired image and then you are ready to roll.
For better formatting, you can also make an image transparent, mask the image, add a border to the image or even re-colour the image. On top of that, you can even insert images directly from Google Images.
All you have to do is click on Insert > Image. Then select ‘Search the web’ from the drop-down list. The side panel ‘Search for Google Images’ will appear on the right side of your screen.
3. Text formatting
Just as visuals, texts are equally important.
Google Slides provide you with one of the most impeccable features - Drop Shadow. (Believe me, it is AESTHETIC!)
Firstly, duplicate the content and change the colour of the text. (you can also reduce the opacity of an image). Then, place it directly upon the original, a slight shadow will emerge. This is one of the assured techniques to highlight important facts in your presentation.
Along with this, you can also explore more font and formatting options.
To access more fonts, then just go to the Fonts feature on the toolbar and click on “More Fonts”. This will launch a dedicated pop-up from where you can explore hundreds of readily available fonts.
On top of that, you can highlight your text by converting it into Word Art. For this, you need to go to Insert > Word Art.
Then, add the desired text and press Enter on the keyboard. The best part is, just like normal text, you can easily change the size, colour, and font of the Word Art.
4. Master Slide formatting:
This is a life-saving hack if you are working on lengthy presentations with many slides. However, once you say from 10 slides onwards, then you can use this feature.
All you have to do is just go directly to the slide master and all slides in your presentation will automatically be updated.
- Slide > Edit Master.
- Click on the elements you want to change.
For example, if you want all titles and subtitles to be in Roboto font, then you can change that, or you want to add your company’s logo in the footer or header section, you can do it here.
All the changes done in the master slide will automatically appear on all other slides. This will save your time significantly.
Try it now and thank us later.
5. Gifs and Animations
Any presentation that is visually appealing will automatically become interesting.
There are two ways by which you can make your presentation drool-worthy.
- By adding GIFs
- By adding animations
TBH, GIFs have been in the current trends and they will certainly make even a mundane topic interesting.
Simply go to the Insert tab on the Menu bar and choose to insert images. This will let you add GIFs from your local system, the web, or even Google Drive. Apart from that, you can also animate an existing element of your slide.
Just go to Insert > Animation and select an object you wish to animate to explore the available options.
And Voila! You did it!
6. Cut, Copy, and Paste
Whenever you are working frequently on different presentations, many times you want to re-us the slide from one presentation to another.
Well, in that case, you don’t need to create the entire slide again. You can copy a single slide from one presentation to another. Or you can copy a single slide from a theme or template.
Open the Google Slides file with the slide you want. Click the desired slide and Ctrl + C to copy it to the clipboard. Then simply paste it into your existing presentation. Easy-peasy!
Similarly, you can perform cut and paste as well.
7. Slides Interlinking
With Google Slides, you’re not limited to adding just links to websites, you can also link to images, your files on Google Drive, and even to other slides in your presentation!
You can also link different slides as well. If you are working on an extensive presentation, then this can help you jump from one slide to another pretty easily. Simply insert a link and choose to link “Slides in the presentation”. From here, you can select the slide you wish to link.
In this way, you can easily organize your slides smartly.
8. Graphs and charts
More visuals, better the presentation. Besides, whenever you are working on some statistics or numerical presentation; it gets difficult for the audience to follow the complex numbers.
In that case, you can insert a chart from Google Sheets for effective presentation.
Simply go to Insert > Charts > From Sheets option. While selecting the chart, make sure the “Link to Spreadsheet” feature is enabled.
Afterward, you can arrange the chart the way you like and click on the “Update” button.
This will automatically reflect the changes made on the original Sheet. Therefore, if you are representing data that is being constantly modified, then this feature will certainly be a lifesaver.
9. Language Conversion
Not most people are aware of this feature, but it can stand as an incredibly beneficial feature.
Google supports almost a hundred different languages as well that you can explore on Google Slides.
In this way, you can easily draft engaging presentations in the language of your choice and target your audience. And doing that is quite simple.
Just go to the File menu > Languages and select your preferred option from there.
10. Embed with website
Do you know, you can directly embed your Google Slides presentation with your website? Well, you can do that easily!
Simply, go to File > Publish to the web menu option to embed a slide presentation on your website. Publishing a Google Slides presentation means that someone can see it without logging into their Google accounts.
(As opposed to sharing a presentation, where a user must be logged into Google Drive to see your presentation. Also, note that those who view a published presentation cannot edit or make comments.)
11. Collaborate
This is one of the most common features when it comes to using Gsuite applications.
You can easily share the Google Slide you are working on with others. This can help users to collaborate together and work on a document in a better way. Simply click on the “Share” button to do it.
Either share the Google Slide with other users via its URL or by sending them invitations. Simply provide the email id of the collaborator, set privileges, and send them an invitation to do it.
Google Slides allows you to define the level of access others have and what they can do. You decide whether they can edit the presentation, comment only, or just view it.
Furthermore, you can even create a shareable link to send out in the email.
12. Keyboard shortcuts
Just as routine shortcuts, Google Slides have its own set of shortcuts. Learning and using keyboard shortcuts can save a lot of time.
You can find the keyboard shortcuts at the Help > Keyboard shortcuts menu option.
13. Q&A session
Whether it is a presentation for your team, or for your clients; most of them are ended with a Q&A session.
Well, you can transform the mundane Q&A with Google Slides’ Q&A tool.
Firstly, share the link with your audience. Then, they can simply go to the URL and submit their questions. It also allows them to ask anonymous questions as well.
Later, you can go to the Presenter view to access these questions.
Your audience can even vote up or down a question as well.
Bonus: Play Your Presentation Using Chromecast
Chromecast allows you to share a presentation from an Android mobile device if you've got a Chromecast device available and set up. You also need to have a Google Home app on your mobile device, available Wi-Fi and be using the Google Chrome browser.
The Chromecast device plugs into the monitor you want to use. It even works with some Smart TVs.
When you open your Chromecast app, it looks for nearby Chromecast devices. Select the correct device, enter your password, and name your Chromecast. Select the Google Slides presentation you wish to stream to the TV or monitor. Then, click on the Chromecast button to stream your presentation.
Conclusion
This is not the end, you can accomplish more with Google Slides than you may have realized. Once you master these professional Google Slides tips, you'll be amazed at what you can do. Use the above-mentioned tips and tricks, and use Google Slides like a pro.
