Slides basics

What can you do with Slides?

Create and present professional pitch decks, project presentations, training modules, and much more.

With Google Slides, you can build presentations right in your web browser—-no special software is required. Even better, multiple people can work on slides at the same time, you can see people’s changes as they make them, and every change is automatically saved.

What you need:

Google Workspace account & 10 minutes

1.1

Create a new presentation

From Slides homepage: Click Create new presentation .

From Google Drive: Click New > Google Slides > Blank presentation orFrom a template.

1.2

Import and convert old presentations to Slides

If you have existing presentations that you created in another program, you can import and convert them to Slides to collaborate with your team.

1. Go to Drive.

2. Click New > File Upload and choose a presentation from your computer. Supported files include .ppt (if newer than Microsoft®Office® 95), .pps, and .pptx.

3. Right-click the file you want to convert.

4. Select Open with and choose Google Slides.

Converting a presentation from another program creates a copy of your original file in Slides format. You can then edit it in your browser like any other Slides presentation.

Have a PowerPoint presentation?

If you've already stored Microsoft PowerPoint® presentations in Drive, you can also update them without converting to Slides.

2.1

Choose a theme

When you first create a presentation, you can choose a theme to give all your slides the same background and text styles for a consistent look and feel.

For theme suggestions, click Explore assistant and click a layout.

2.2

Add and edit content

1. Rename your presentation: Click Untitled presentation and type a new name.

2. Add text: Click Insert > Text box to add new text boxes, then click text boxes to type in them. You can also move, delete, or re-size text boxes.

3. Add images, videos, and more: Click Insert to add images, videos, shapes, slide numbers, and other features to your presentation. You can also move, delete, or re-size these inserted features.

4. Add notes: Use speaker notes to keep track of your talking points for each slide. In the presentation editor, notes appear beneath the current slide. When you present your slides, your speaker notes show in a separate window.

2.4

Create and arrange slides

1. New slide—There are several ways to create a new slide. The easiest is to click the add button in the toolbar. You can choose a layout for the new slide by clicking the Down arrow arrow_drop_down.

2. Move slide—Drag the slide you want to move to a different position in the presentation.

3. To move several slides at once, Ctrl+click multiple slides before dragging them.

4. Duplicate slide—Right-click the slide you want to duplicate in the sidebar and select Duplicate slide.

5. Delete slide—Right-click the slide you want to delete in the sidebar and select Delete slide.

3.1

Share presentations

Share a file you own or can edit:

1. Open the file you want to share.

2. Click Share.

3. Enter the email addresses or Google Groups you want to share with.

4. Note: If you can't add people outside your company, see your Google Workspace administrator.

5. Choose what kind of access you want to grant people:

   • Can edit—Collaborators can add and edit content, or add comments.

   • Can comment—Collaborators can add comments, but not edit content.

   • Can view—People can view the file, but not edit or add comments.

6. Click Send.

Everyone you shared with will receive an email with a link to the presentation.

3.2

Add comments and replies

If you can’t collaborate in real time, you can leave feedback and questions on the side for team members to look at when they open the presentation.

1. Select a section of the slide.

2. In the toolbar, click Insert comment .

3. Add your notes and click Comment.

If a comment is important for a specific collaborator to see, enter +followed by their address. They’ll get an email with your comment, along with a link to the presentation. They can then reply to your comments to answer questions or start a discussion.

When you’re done with a comment, click Resolve.

4.1

Present your slides

When you’re ready to preview or present your slides, click Present at the top of the page. Click the Down arrow arrow_drop_down to see more options.

To see your speaker notes, click Presenter view. See Use speaker notes in presentations.

When you move your mouse on your slideshow, a bar temporarily appears with controls to:

4.2

Print your presentation

To print your presentation from the editor, click File > Print or click Print .

In the preview that appears, you can scroll through your document on the right, or choose print options on the left.

4.3

Download versions in other formats

To download your presentation so it can be opened by other programs, click File > Download as and choose one of the following formats:

• Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx)

• Adobe® PDF

• Scalable Vector Graphics (.svg)

• PNG

• JPEG

• Text file

4.4

Make a copy in Slides

Copying a Slide is useful for creating templates. For example, if you create a lot of pitch decks, make copies of one pitch deck. Then, update each copy for a new pitch without having to format it again.

To make a copy of your presentation, click File > Make a copy. You can rename the copy, change where you save it in Drive, and optionally share it with the same collaborators.

4.5

Email a copy as attachment

If you need to collaborate with someone on your presentation in your old program or format, such as PowerPoint or PDF, you can email it as an attachment.

1. Click File > Email as attachment.

2. Select a format.

3. Enter the email addresses or Groups you want to send copies to.

4. (Optional) Enter a message.

5. Click Send.

Note: This sends a copy of the presentation instead of sharing the original, so you won’t be able to use Slides’ collaboration tools.