Google Slides now features a handy right-side sidebar for quicker access to various creation and presentation tools. This includes a new "Building blocks" library with pre-formatted content like agendas and quotes, and an expanded stock image library with web images, stickers, and GIFs.
The sidebar also conveniently houses existing features such as templates, image generation, speaker spotlight, and Slides recordings, making it easier to design engaging presentations without leaving the Slides interface.
When you open a file that is owned by or shared with someone outside of your domain, you will see a badge and pop-up in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. More details about the file plus the option to report the externally owned file will be displayed.
Google is introducing a new collection of modern, professionally designed templates in Google Slides to help users build presentations much faster. Templates include sales pitches, strategic plans and workshop facilitation.
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Multi-monitor support enables presenters to see Presenter View components such as speaker notes, the timer and back/forward buttons on one display, while displaying the slides themselves on another monitor.
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It’s now easier to switch between different modes in Google Slides. If you would like to hide comments within a presentation or avoid accidental edits, you can switch to view mode. Switching to commenting mode hides all edit options but allows you to read and add comments.
Hovering over the border of an empty slide before dropping in an image (from your desktop, Content Library or another webpage) will now set the image as the background in Google Slides. Dropping the image anywhere else will simply insert the image onto the slide.
The new Speaker Spotlight command allows you to add your video feed directly into your slide content when you are presenting slides. Speaker spotlight also integrates seamlessly with Meet and Slides Recordings for more engaging virtual or recorded presentations.
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You can now record yourself presenting slides, then share the presentations with colleagues. You can record webinars, employee training, demonstrations and more without having to leave Slides.
You can now add GIFs and stickers to your slides directly from a new pane in Google Slides.
You can now add an emoji reaction to a comment in Google Slides to quickly and creatively express your opinions about slide content.
If you are collaborating on a presentation with colleagues, each person can turn on a live pointer, allowing everyone else to see exactly where they are in the presentation. Click on the View menu and choose Live Pointers to turn your pointer on or off in a presentation.
When presenting in Google Slides, you can now add annotations with the pen tool, allowing you to draw shapes, underline or make notes.
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Your Google Workspace administrator can set a default Slides template for your domain, which will appear when you create a new presentation in Google Slides. You can choose to use this template or continue with a blank presentation.
To make it easier to find commands in Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, a new tool search will be available in the command bar of these apps. This can be used to find a specific tool, and will also show suggested actions while you are creating your document.
There is a new-look share button near the top-right corner of the screen, along with the Meet button, comments and last edit button. The activity dashboard can now be viewed via the Tools menu. Comments now show in a different shade to make them easier to view in a document, without disrupting document flow.
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In Google Slides, Docs, Sheets and Drawings, you can now select colours in the any colour dialog box (text, background, etc.) by using RGB values. You can also use the eyedropper tool to use any colour currently showing on your screen, and can still enter the HEX value of a colour too.
If you join a Google Meet meeting from a Google Doc, Sheet or Slide, you can now quickly share the current file with meeting attendees. A link will appear in the meeting chat, and you will be able to choose how meeting attendees will be able to access the file.
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The dialog box for sharing docs, sheets and slides has been improved to include all sharing options in a single screen.
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You can now join a Google Meet call directly from Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. From the Google Meet icon, click on Join the call to quickly join and present a document, spreadsheet, or presentation to all attendees, allowing everyone in the meeting to collaborate while having a conversation.
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In Google Slides, the filmstrip shows on the left-hand side of the screen, allowing easy access to all slides in the presentation. This pane can now be collapsed by clicking on the arrow along the bottom of the pane.
In Google Chat, you can now open and edit a Slide presentation in a side-by-side view. Click on a slide preview image in your chat stream to open it in side-by-side view, or click on the blue link to open it in Google Slides.
When customising themes in Google Slides, you can now add image placeholders to your slides, to ensure that images added to the slide are positioned and sized correctly.
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You can now present content from Google Docs, Sheets and Slides directly into a Google Meet call. If you are not currently in a Google Meet call, you can choose to join a scheduled call or enter the code of the call you wish to join.
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The Master view in Google Slides will be renamed to Theme Builder and will be accessible via the View menu in Google Slides.
The presenter toolbar in Google Slides has been updated to show only the main controls usually required for presentations, with easy access to additional tools as needed.
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If your Google Slides presentation contains a video or audio clip, you can click on the clip to view a Link to Drive button which will open the original video or audio file when clicked.
In Google Slides, you can select specific slides to copy instead of the whole deck, and remove the speaker notes from the copy if required.
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You can now add an MP3 or WAV audio file into a slide presentation via the Insert menu and Audio command. Once the audio file has been added, you can set playback options, volume and looping via the Format Options pane.
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You can personalise the size and position of automatic captions when you present slides. You can choose to show captions along the top or bottom of the slide, and can set the size to small, medium, large or extra large.
In Docs and Slides, you can now set the line spacing of text to less than 1, if you wish text to appear closer together in the paragraph. Click on the Format menu, choose Line Spacing and Custom Spacing to do this.
There are a number of new shortcuts that can be used to show black or white slides during a slide show, or to advance slides automatically.
Show a black screen at any time by pressing B
Show a white screen at any time by pressing W
Set the time that each slide shows for during a presentation, and set it to loop by clicking on the Settings icon in the screen show
In Google Slides, you can now customise the colour palette associated with a theme, to change the colour of text, accents, backgrounds, etc.
Note: These changes will only apply to the current theme and will not create a new theme.
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A new user interface has been introduced in Docs, Sheets and Slides to match new Google material design guidelines. You will notice dialog boxes have rounded corners and buttons are much clearer in the colour of the application you are using e.g. blue for Docs and green for Sheets.
The Format Painter has been available on the toolbar of Google Slides for some time, allowing you to copy the formatting from one object to another. You can now double-click on the Format Painter button to copy formatting to multiple objects.
Select the object you want to copy formatting from
Double click on the Format Painter button
Click on each object you want to copy formatting to
Click on the Format Painter button again when complete
If you are giving a presentation in Google Slides and using a microphone attached to your computer, you can show closed captions automatically in real-time while you talk.
Captions are useful for audience members that are hard of hearing, or for non-native speakers in the audience.
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You can press Ctrl Shift C at any time during a slide show to start showing closed captions automatically.
You can quickly insert a slide from a Google presentation into a document, and can set a link so that any changes to the original slide will show in the document automatically.
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You can now add guides in Google Slides to set the position of items on a slide. You can also show a ruler in Google Slides to give you even more control over the placement of items, including bullet paragraphs.
Watch our how-to video to find out more guides and rulers in Google Slides:
Until now, comments could only be added to a Google Slide as a whole, making it difficult to work out the text that a comment was referring to, if the slide contained a number of different objects. You can now select any text within an object or text box on a slide, and add a comment directly.
Google Slides has a number of useful updates this month, including the ability to link slides between presentations. If the original slide changes in any way, you can update any copies of the slide automatically in other presentations, making it easy to reuse slides while keeping them all up-to-date. If you don’t want to show a particular slide in a presentation but don’t want to remove it completely, you can set the slide to skip, and you can now view your slides as thumbnails, so that you can reorders slides quickly and easily on one screen.
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