8 Useful Tips to Create an Awesome Presentation on Google Slides
Want to create awesome presentations with Google Slides but don't know how? If you want to learn this quickly without trying each and every button of Google Slide, dive deep into our article and learn how you can do so.
During the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), when the entire world was forced to stay indoors, and businesses were compelled to put several important activities on hold, Google Slides emerged as a savior to keep communication flowing between the sales professionals and clients, educators and students, managers and team members, and many others.
Though Google Slides, a cloud-based and dynamic presentation tool, has been a late entrant (it was developed and released by Google LLC in 2006) on the market, it has gained immense popularity in such a short time due to its impressive features, such as real-time collaboration, excellent online and offline support, etc. It has empowered the global at-home workforce to stay connected and collaborate smoothly amidst the pandemic.
Wondering how to create winning business presentations using Google Slides? I have provided a few tips to help you out. So, on your mark, get set, go!1. Leverage the Pre-designed Templates to Save Time
Have no time to prepare a presentation from scratch? No worries! Google Slides offers you a gallery of pre-designed templates for various categories, such as personal, work, education, etc. You can easily edit these templates according to your preferences.
Useful Tip: If you don't find relevant templates in Google Slides, you can rely on other presentation templates providers for innovative, creative, and high-quality professional presentation templates.2. Add Images to Grab the Audience's Attention
Images help the audience understand the presented information quickly and retain it for a longer time. Google Slides provide you with various options to insert images in your presentations - you can search the web for the images, upload the images saved on your Google Drive or computer, or insert the images by the URL. You just need to click Insert > Image and choose the source where you want to insert images.
Rather than simply putting the images on your slides, you can do more with them to increase the visual appeal of your presentations. You can use images as the background of the slides. In addition, you can crop the images and add borders to them. Google Slides also provides an option of image masking to use the selected image in the desired shape.
Learn more here -3. Add Audio to Make Your Presentation Memorable
Audio content is a great way to immerse the intended audience in your message, thereby increasing retention. Google Slides lets you add audio to any of the slides.
If you have an audio file in WAV or MP3 format saved on your computer, upload it to Google Drive. Now click on Insert > Audio.
Choose the audio file that you want to embed in your slide and click on "Select". An audio icon will appear on your slide.
This audio icon provides you with a few formatting options. Click on the audio icon > Format options. A panel will appear on your screen from where you choose to automatically start the audio, stop it on slide change, and hide the icon. 4. Engage Your Audience by Inserting Videos
As videos cater to both the auditory and visual systems of the brain, they are the best way to convey emotions. You just need to go to Insert > Video.
A window will pop up on the screen where you can paste the YouTube URL to insert the video. You can also upload the video from Google Drive or search for a specific video by typing its name in the Search bar of the window.
The inserted video will cover a small part of the slide; you can easily resize it to fit the whole slide by clicking on the drop-down arrow beside the magnifying glass. Choose the Zoom out option and drag the video wherever you want on the slide.
Then you can resize the video using its corner.
Formatting the video:
Click on Format > Format Options > Video Playback. Here, you can choose to play the video on click, automatically, or manually.
If you want the audience to watch a specific part of the video, you can change the Start at and End at times.
Click on Mute Audio if you want to talk over the video.5. Represent Real-time Data through Graphs and Charts
Charts and graphs allow you to provide up-to-date statistical or numerical data while presenting. Select the slide where you want to embed the chart, then click Insert > Chart. 
You will see options to insert various types of charts: pie, line, column, and bar. You can also insert a chart from existing Google Sheets. Choose the one that best represents your data. The chart will get inserted as an image.
To edit the chart, choose the Open source option from the drop-down arrow. It will open a Google Sheets document.
When you are done with the changes in the Google Sheets, go back to Google Slides and click on the Update button to reflect those changes.
6. Make Your Presentations More Interactive by Answering the Audience's Questions
To keep your audience glued to your slideshow and seek their active participation, Google Slides lets you create an interactive quiz. Here is how you can use this feature.
Click the drop-down arrow beside Present in the top-right corner, and select Presenter view.
Start a presentation session by clicking on Start new.
A URL will get displayed as a header at the top of the presentation, which the attendees can use to submit questions. The audience just needs to visit the URL and type the question into a box that appears on the top of the screen. The audience has the option to submit questions anonymously.
Audience questions will appear in real-time on your (the presenter's) screen. You can showcase the questions to other audience members by clicking on Present; they can use thumbs up and down arrows to vote for the question.7. Supercharge Your Presentations with Add-ons
Undoubtedly, Google Slides is an incredibly versatile tool, but you can make it more dynamic and outstanding by adding extra features to it using Add-ons. These add-ons allow you to turn your slides into formative assessments, add icons directly to your presentations, add animated GIFs, and much more.
You just need to click on Add-ons > Get add-ons.
It will open a window showcasing Google Workspace Marketplace. According to the requirements of your presentation, you can choose any of the extensions.
8. Create Presentations in Different Languages
With Google Slides, you can create amazing presentations even if you are not an English speaker. Yes, you heard it right! Google Slides support many other languages to help you create presentations keeping the linguistic preferences of the audience in mind.
You just need to go to File > Languages. Choose the preferred option from here.
The Inference
With Google Slides, you can accomplish more than you have expected. The best part is - you need not install special software; you can create presentations right in your web browser. Google Slides can be a game-changer for your presentation, so invest a little time learning this tool and prepare jaw-dropping presentations.
Hope you find this blog post insightful. Do you have more tips for leveraging Google Slides at SketchBubble.com for creating creative presentations? Do share your suggestions with us in the "Comment" section. And don't forget to share it on your social media handles.
Author Bio:
Ashish Arora is the Co-Founder of SketchBubble.com, a leading provider of result-driven, professionally built presentation templates. Travelling the world to gather new creative ideas, he has been working in the digital marketing space since 2007 and has a passion for designing presentations. You can also find him on Twitter or LinkedIn.
