Richard Bray - Photo Slideshows Using Google Slides (20 Jan 2020)

Photo Slideshows Using Google Slides

Posted 20 January 2020

STEP1. CREATING THE GOOGLE SLIDE PRESENTATION

The first step in the process is to head over to Google Drive or Google Slides and create a new slide deck. Once that is done, you might want to adjust the background color or overall theme of the presentation. I tend to prefer white backgrounds for only pictures, and black backgrounds when I play on having text involved (using white text). Mainly this is because I prefer the contrast of white text on a dark background as opposed to black text on a light background.

In order to change the background color or slide theme, be sure nothing on the slide is selected (by clicking off the slide, for example in the yellow space shown in the picture to the right) and then click either Background (purple arrow) or Theme (red arrow) and make the changes you wish to see. If you change the background color only, be mindful to select the "Add to Theme" button, as the "Done" button will only change the background color for that specific slide.

To adjust the layout of your slide (title style, header with single text box, header with 2 or 3 columns of text, etc.) you can:

Option 1

Click on the "Layout" button in the top/middle of the screen (blue arrow shown above), and select your preferred option.

Option 2

Right click on a slide (pink arrow shown above), and then select "Layout" form the drop down menu that appears (green arrow shown above). You can then select your preferred option.

Option 3

Click on the down arrow next to the new slide button (red arrow shown above), and select your preferred option.

Please note: Options 1 and 2 will modify the layout of the slide selected, while Option 3 will insert a new slide with the selected layout style (not modify an existing slide layout).

STEP 2. ADDING PICTURES TO YOUR SLIDES

Now that your slide deck is created, you're ready to start adding some images. There are a bunch of different ways this can be done, so this post is going to use the workflow of selecting pictures in a folder within Google Drive. There are two ways you can insert a picture, and you can pick the method that best works for you.

Menu Bar Method

Click "Insert" in the top menu bar (red arrow shown above)
Select "Image" from the drop down menu (orange arrow shown above)
Select "Drive" form the pop out menu (blue arrow shown above)

Button Method

Click the Image icon, which is meant to look like a landscape picture (green arrow shown above)
Select "Drive from the drop down menu (teal arrow shown above)

That will open the slide bar on the right side of your screen (purple arrow) where you can select from Recent, My Drive, Shared With Me, Starred, and Computers using the arrows at the top of the window. If you know the specific folder your pictures are located in, it may be easiest to click on "My Drive", and then dive into the specific folder.

Once you see the picture(s) you want, click to highlight (blue border) and then click on "Insert" at the bottom of the right panel.

After your picture has been added to the slide, you can grab a corner box to adjust the size of the image, and move the image to your desired placement.

Helpful Hint: If you grab a corner box to adjust size will keep the proportions locked for the image. Grabbing a dot along the top/bottom/left/right center will change the size of the image, but distort the aspect ratio.

STEP 3. Sharing and/or Viewing Your Slideshow (via Publish to the web)

An advantage to using Google Slides is that you have the option of generating a share link at any time during the build process. If you make changes to your slide deck, those changes will be updated in that SAME share link just by revisiting the link or refreshing the page. In other words, there is no need to "share a new link".

If you are already familiar with the "Googleverse", your first inclination might be to simply share a link (as view access only) out to your intended audience. One catch we have run into is that if your audience is using an iOS device (iPhone or iPad) it may require them to download/use the Google Slides app... and that presents a potential barrier to entry. Publishing to the web not only remedies this problem, but it also makes your own access easier. Viewing the slideshow no longer requires you to log into your Google account. You can simply open any browser and enter in the appropriate address into the URL bar. I recognize the web address for this can be very complicated, so I would recommend shortening the address using a URL shortener such as bit.ly, tinyurl.com, etc. Here is a quick rundown on how to publish to the web:

In the menu at the top of the page, click on File (top left)
In the dropdown menu, select "Publish to the web" (about 2/3 of the way down)

That will bring up a pop-up window
You can change the time duration for slides (the default setting is 3 seconds per slide)
There are also two check boxes
- The first will cause the slideshow to automatically start when the page finishes loading (helpful for this use case)
- The second will cause the slideshow to continuously loop (Restart the slideshow after the last slide), which may or may not be desirable.
When you are all set, click the yellow "Publish" button at the bottom

Once your link is created, you can copy that link and either paste it where appropriate, or use a link shortener to make the link more manageable.

Can I "unpublish" it?

Yes. If you follow the same steps above (File --> Publish to the web), you can scroll to the bottom of the pop-up window and there is an option for "Published Content & Settings" (pink arrow). If you click on that title, a button will come up that allows you to stop publishing the slideshow (blue arrow).

STEP 4. ADDING MUSIC

This is where the magic really starts. With the addition of "Insert audio" to Google Slides, and manipulating some of the available options, you can really bring your slideshow to life! Let's dig a little deeper into that one

The first step is to insert your audio file

If you are not familiar with how to do this, this video shown to the left walks you through that process.

The beauty of this feature lies in the format options, which can be accessed by right-clicking on the audio icon, and selecting "Format Options" towards the bottom of the list. That will bring up a side panel on the right with multiple control options. The top choice is "Audio playback", which has options very similar to video format options if you are already familiar with those.

Start Playing
- On click will require the viewer to physically click on the sound icon to start the track
- Automatically will start the track as soon as the presentation finishes loading
Options
- This sliding scale allows you to control the volume of the audio track that is played (for example if you want background music, not in your face music)
Hide icon when presenting can only be checked if "Automatically" is checked above. Just like is sounds, if checked the gray audio icon will not be seen on the slide in present mode.
Loop audio will put the audio track on a continuous play loop so it plays over and over again until the slideshow is taken out of present mode.
Stop on slide change, if checked will cause the audio file to stop playing when the slideshow is advanced to the next slide. If it is NOT checked, the audio file will continue to play until the end of the file (unless you also checked the loop audio option above).
PLEASE NOTE: If you have two audio files within a presentation there is the possibility that they will play over each other (if the first is set to NOT stop on slide change, and the file doesn't fully play before activating the second audio file)

My recommendation

In most cases teachers are looking for some background music to play while the pictures cycle through. One way to accomplish this is to:

Have the first slide in the slideshow be the "title" that has the audio file on that specific slide
The format options for that audio file would be
- Start playing automatically
- Check Hide icon when presenting
- Check Loop audio
- DO NOT CHECK Stop on slide change

In closing

This is just one example of how it could work, and depending on your personal goals/objectives the workflow might need to be tweeked here and there... but it offers an easy point of entry for this type of work. My inspiration for this post came from both my work life, and personal life. I have had a few teachers ask about this workflow using platforms such as PowerPoint, only to be foiled because their work/files/etc were saved locally on a different device... and utilizing the G Suite puts everything in the cloud, insuring access from any device. Additionally, I was at an open house where a photo slideshow was presented. When a parent asked the teachers if she could share a copy of the presentation, her response was "I'm not sure how to do that, but I'll try!".... I fully acknowledge that this skill set is not her primary focus, but I started thinking about ideas to make the creation/sharing process easier... and here we are! I hope you find this workflow useful, and please feel free to reach directly via email (rbray@btboces.org) or on Twitter (@MrChemGeek) with any questions!