Seven Tips for Getting More Out of Google Slides

Google Slides are a great tool for creating presentations. They are simple to use, provide us with a way to collaborate, and are easy to share. I’d like to share a few tips and tricks I have learned over the years that might help you get even more out of Google Slides.

• Start with a template– Google has provided us with dozens of templates to help us create beautiful presentations. Why not use them? There are templates for photo books, recipes, case studies, science project, lesson plans, and so much more!
• Explore button– This button lives on the lower right corner of your slides. Really cool things happen when you click it! If you have added an image or two and some text, Google will automagically provide you with several suggestions for layouts that might look better than what you have created. This is super helpful for students who believe that neon yellow text looks awesome on a hot pink background.
• Resize your slides– Sometimes the size of your slides isn’t what you want. Maybe it would work better if they were taller or a specific size. What if you resized them to 8.5×11? When you resize to these dimensions (or to 11×8.5) your slides will be the same size as a sheet of paper. Think of the possibilities! Students could create posters and print them! To resize to to file, page setup, custom, then enter your desired dimensions.
• Fun fonts– By default, there are only a dozen or so fonts that are available in Google Slides. Did you know there are hundreds of fonts that you can add with just a couple of clicks? When you click on the font menu in slides it will open a drop down menu where you can add as many additional fonts as you wish. When you add a new font in one type of Google Doc it will transfer to the others.
• Edit photos– Slides has some really cool built in photo editing tools. You can adjust the transparency, brightness, and contrast of images as well as recolor them. Slides also has tools that allow you to create shadows and reflections.
• Mask image– If you find the perfect image, but you wish to change the shape of it you can mask it. Perhaps you want to change a square picture into a circle or heart. It is easy to do inside of Google Slides with just a couple of clicks.
• Duplicate slides– Perhaps you want students (or audience) to fill in specific information on a slide. All you need to do is create a single slide with the information you want then duplicate the slide so there is a slide for each person. If there are special instructions or links you want to share with your students then add them in the speaker notes before you create the duplicates.