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About this lesson

How to create a new Google Slide presentation and introduction to ‘file, edit, view’ options.

Exercise files

The exercises below will open in a new tab. When signed in to your Google account, go to File --> Make a copy to get an editable copy of the file.

Google Slides Basic Controls
Link Google Slides Basic Controls Solution
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Quick reference

Creating a New Presentation and Basic Controls

Google Slides is an app for making slide presentations.

When to use

When you need to create and present a presentation to a group of people on some topic. Google Slides comes with a variety of templates which you can use to make polished looking presentations without having to design the visuals yourself.

Instructions

Creating a presentation with a template

  • Create a new Presentation
  • Click the yellow boxes in the top left corner to open “Slides Home”
  • Click “more” in the dark area at the top of the screen
  • Scroll down to see all the templates and click on the template you want to use

Selecting different slides

  • Scroll up and down in the left sidebar
  • Click on the slide you want to see
  • Press the up and down arrow keys to look at different slides

Presenting your slideshow

  • Click “Present”
  • To move between slides, click the screen, press the spacebar, or press the forward and down keys (to move forward) or the up and back keys (to move back)
  • To exit the slideshow press “Esc”
  • Bottom left menu options:
    • Previous - Move back
    • Play - Slideshow moves forward automatically
    • Next - Move forward
    • Slide # - Choose a slide to move to
    • Presenter view - Open presenter view, with speaker notes and options for the audience to ask questions over the internet
    • Turn on the laser pointer - Turn mouse cursor into a red dot
    • Full screen / Exit full screen - Present slideshow in full screen, or in a window
    • Options
      • Open speaker notes - Open presenter notes in another window
      • Report abuse/copyright - Report to Google
      • Print - Print presentation
      • Download as PDF - Download presentation as PDF file
      • Download as PPTX - Download presentation as PowerPoint file
    • Exit - Exit slideshow

 “File” options

  • Share - Share the presentation
  • New - Create a new file
  • Open - Open a file from Google Drive
  • Rename - The file name
  • Make a copy - Make a copy of the file
  • Move to - Move the file to a different folder
  • Move to trash - Remove the file from Drive
  • Import slides - Add slides from another presentation
  • See revision history - See all changes made to the presentation over time
  • Language - Change the language used by the spell check
  • Download as - Download the presentation as various file types
  • Publish to the web - Make the presentation available to view publicly online
  • Email collaborators - Email the people the presentation has been shared with
  • Email as attachment - Send the presentation as an attachment to an email
  • Document details - See where a presentation is located in Drive, who created the presentation, when, and when it was last edited
  • Page setup - Dimensions of the slides in the presentation
  • Print - Print the presentation

 “Edit” options

  • Undo - Undo the last action
  • Redo - Undo an undo
  • Cut - Cut text
  • Copy - Copy text
  • Paste - Paste text
  • Paste without formatting - Paste text, but without it’s formatting (bold, size, font, etc.)
  • Delete - Delete slide
  • Duplicate - Duplicate slide
  • Web clipboard - Copy multiple things in different formats and paste them in different apps on different computers
  • Select all - Select everything in the presentation
  • Select none - Stop selecting everything in the presentation
  • Find and Replace - Find text and replace it with different text

“View” options

  • Present - Present the presentation
  • Animations - Open the animations sidebar
  • Master - Edit slide types
  • Fit - Fit the slide to the window
  • 50% - Make the slide appear 50% of standard size
  • 100% - Make the slide appear 100% of standard size
  • 200% - Make the slide appear 200% of standard size
  • Zoom in - Make the slide appear larger
  • Zoom out - Make the slide appear smaller
  • Snap to
    • Grid - Make objects on the slide line up with an invisible grid
    • Guides - Make objects on the slide line up with the edges and center of the slide and other objects using red lines as a guide
  • HTML view - Display your presentation in a single scrolling page
  • Show spelling suggestions - Display red lines under misspelled words
  • Show speaker notes - Shows a space to add notes at the bottom of slides
  • Compact controls - Display fewer options on the toolbar
  • Full screen - Hide all toolbar controls

NOTE: Press “ESC” to turn off full screen

  • 00:04 If you need to deliver a presentation to others,
  • 00:08 it can be helpful to share that information by using a slideshow.
  • 00:12 So let's take a look to see how we can create a slideshow presentation
  • 00:17 within Google Drive.
  • 00:19 To create a new slideshow, select the blue New button, and then select Google Slides.
  • 00:26 This will open up a brand new blank slideshow presentation, where we
  • 00:31 can start to add new pieces of content and new information for our presentation.
  • 00:38 Google Drive also gives us the ability to start by using a template.
  • 00:43 To do so, we can select the slides home in the top left hand corner, and
  • 00:48 view the template gallery.
  • 00:51 Here you will see a variety of preset templates that we can start to
  • 00:56 use within our presentation.
  • 00:58 Let's say that I'd like to use this Case study template.
  • 01:02 I can select it, and it will open up in a new slides presentation.
  • 01:08 Now, I can start changing or editing the text within this particular slideshow.
  • 01:15 Now to present your slideshow, we want to select the Present button,
  • 01:19 which you'll find in the top right hand corner of the screen.
  • 01:23 This is what we want to select when it is time to present to those
  • 01:27 who we are sharing this information with or
  • 01:30 if we'd like to preview our presentation to see what it will look like.
  • 01:34 By selecting this button, you will see your presentation in full screen mode.
  • 01:40 Now, you can always select the Escape key on your keyboard to return to the editing
  • 01:45 window.
  • 01:46 In the bottom side of the screen, you will see a few different options.
  • 01:50 The most common one would be to navigate to the next slide
  • 01:54 by selecting this arrow key.
  • 01:57 But in many cases you may be using your keyboard, or
  • 02:00 perhaps even a clicker to navigate your slides.
  • 02:03 On your keyboard, you can simply select the down arrow,
  • 02:07 to advance to the next slide or the up arrow if you need to go back.
  • 02:12 With your mouse,
  • 02:13 you can simply click on the slide, which will also advance to the next slide.
  • 02:18 Let's take a closer look at the additional options we have here,
  • 02:22 within presentation mode.
  • 02:24 We are already familiar with how to navigate one slide ahead or
  • 02:27 one slide behind.
  • 02:29 But what if you would like to jump ahead several slides to a specific slide.
  • 02:34 To do so, select this drop down area and
  • 02:36 select this slide that you would like to jump to.
  • 02:39 Next, we have the opportunity to ask our audience questions and
  • 02:44 answer them while we are delivering our presentation.
  • 02:47 By selecting Q&A, we are presented with a new dialog.
  • 02:52 By turning on this Q&A option, we will be given a unique URL,
  • 02:58 which we can share with those who we are presenting to.
  • 03:01 This will allow them to submit questions, during your presentation and
  • 03:05 you have the option to answer them while you are presenting your slideshow.
  • 03:10 Next to the Q&A option, we have the Notes dialog.
  • 03:14 The Notes dialog will show all of the notes which you have created previously.
  • 03:19 You are not able to edit your notes at this time.
  • 03:23 The Speaker Notes dialog is meant for you to reference important pieces of
  • 03:27 information while you are giving your slideshow.
  • 03:32 And next to the Notes area, we have a Pointer icon.
  • 03:36 By selecting the Pointer, you will notice you will be given a red dot,
  • 03:41 or should I say, your cursor would be turned into a red dot.
  • 03:46 This can be very helpful if you wish to emphasize a particular area of
  • 03:50 your slideshow while you give your presentation.
  • 03:54 Lastly, we have the option to toggle between full screen and
  • 03:57 the size screen that we are currently viewing.
  • 04:00 And we have a few additional options here such as opening the speakers note and
  • 04:05 also printing the slide directly from this menu.
  • 04:08 Now, you can always select the Escape key on your keyboard to return to
  • 04:13 the editing window.
  • 04:14 Now, we can return and start editing the rest of our slide.
  • 04:18 Let's get familiar with the navigation within Google Slides.
  • 04:23 In the main part of our screen, you can see the slide that we can currently edit.
  • 04:29 To select a new slide, we wanna go to the left hand side of the window and
  • 04:33 select a different slide.
  • 04:36 In the bottom portion of the screen, you will see an area for speaker notes.
  • 04:41 This is where you can add information which will be helpful when you deliver
  • 04:44 your presentation, but
  • 04:46 will not be visible to those who are viewing your presentation.
  • 04:50 Lastly, on the right hand side of the screen, you will see a Themes area.
  • 04:55 And this area may change depending on what other actions or
  • 04:59 what other edits you maybe taking within the menus above.
  • 05:04 Although most of the options within the File and
  • 05:07 Edit menus are the same as we've seen in other Google Drive applications,
  • 05:12 I would encourage you to review the reference guide as a part of this lesson

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