Google Slides / Google Slides Power User
Customise themes
The theme of the presentation can be customised to change the format of all slides in a single step, by setting the format of text, and backgrounds, and by adding objects such as images. As well as changing all slides in the presentation, you can also make a change to just the slides that use a particular layout e.g. all title slides.
Editing themes
Each presentation you create in Google Slides is based on a theme, which controls the format of the presentation. You can change the theme at any time to update all slides in the presentation in a single step, by setting the format of text, changing the background and by adding objects such as images. As well as changing all slides in the presentation, you can also make a change to just the slides that use a particular layout e.g. all title slides.
To edit the slide theme:
Click on the Slide menu
Choose Edit Theme
The edit theme screen will be displayed, with each available layout showing on the left-hand side of the screen. Any changes made to the Theme slide will show on every slide in the presentation, but you can also make changes to an individual layout if you only want the change to show when a slide has that layout applied.
When all changes have been made to the theme, click on the Close button in the top-right corner of the screen.
Updating the theme slide
To make changes to all slides in the presentation, regardless of their layout:
Click on Theme on the left-hand side of the screen
Click on the edge of the placeholder you wish to format e.g. the title or content placeholder, then format the element using the toolbar and menus across the top of the screen
Add any images, shapes or other objects to appear on each slide using the Insert menu
Set the slide background using the Background button on the toolbar. You can choose a solid background colour or add an image to the background
Updating individual slide layouts
To make changes to all slides that follow a specific layout, click on the required layout on the left-hand side of the screen, then make all changes in the same way as to the main theme slide described above.
Removing slide layouts
If there is a slide layout that you will never use, you can remove it from the theme so that it does not show as an option when creating a new slide or changing the layout of an existing slide.
To remove a layout from the theme:
Edit the theme and right-click over the layout you wish to remove
Choose Delete from the shortcut menu displayed
You won’t be asked to confirm whether you wish to remove the layout, but you can click on the Undo button on the toolbar if you change your mind about removing a layout.
Creating slide layouts
By default, Google Slides have 11 slide layouts that you can use to create your slides e.g. title slide, title and body, and blank. In addition to using these layouts for your slides, you can create new slide layouts in your presentation. New layouts allow you to position text and objects in a specific way, without the need to manually format each slide.
New layouts are created in the theme.
Edit the theme by clicking on the Slide menu and choosing Edit Theme
On the left-hand side of the screen, click on the layout that you wish you new layout to appear underneath
Click on the Insert menu and choose New Layout
Each slide layout contains text placeholders, which are clicked on to add titles and body text to a slide.
You can add new placeholders to your theme and layouts, if you want to be able to add additional text easily to specific areas on each slide. To add a new placeholder to a layout:
Click on the Insert menu and choose Placeholder
Choose Subtitle placeholder or Body text placeholder as required
On the slide, click where the top-left corner of the placeholder should appear, then drag the mouse to specify the width and height of the placeholder
Release the mouse to add the placeholder to the layout
When all changes have been made to the layout, click on the Close button in the top-right corner of the screen.
To use the new layout in your presentation, click on the Layout button on the toolbar and choose the custom layout you wish to use.
