How to Make Your Google Presentations Shine

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I create almost all of my presentations in Google Slides. Google Slides gives me the flexibility I need to be creative, add my own branding, and to share and access from anywhere on any device. I have seen some amazing Google Slides presentations, and I have seen some that made my skin crawl. Standing out as a presenter is not easy, so I decided to share some of my best tips and tricks in this new series: How to Make Your Google Presentations Shine! Welcome to Part 1: Templates.

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Until recently, one of the biggest complaints I would hear about Google Slides was the lack of professional looking templates. Well, that’s old news! Google Slides now has some amazing new templates that will make your presentation shine! Not only that, but we also have access to some great third-party templates that give us, even more, options to stand out from the crowd. Of course, these options also help our students produce more professional looking slides and improve their presentation skills. Anyone else tired of seeing the same templates over and over again?

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If you aren’t familiar with the Google Slides homepage, navigate to slides.google.com and take a look. At the top, you will see a few suggested templates. Click on the “more” option near the top-right to drop-down, even more, templates to fit your presentation needs.

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I often use Google Slides to create projects other than presentations, like creating eBooks. (See my post: How to Create an eBook with Google Slides.) There are so many other awesome ways we can use Google Slides in the classroom. Teachers can use slides to create certificates, interactive lessons, and more. (See my post on using Google Slides to Create a Magnetic Poetry activity.) In the new template gallery, you will find templates for all kinds of purposes including:

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Slides Carnival is a third-party option that has really stepped up the template game! Slides Carnival offers BEAUTIFUL templates with lots of different looks and colors to help set the tone for your presentation. Tip: Don’t choose the featured or most popular templates, dig in and search to find something that no one else is using. Remember, you want your presentation to stand out above the rest! You want your students or audience to ask: How’d she do that? Below is a screenshot of just a few of the fantastic options you will find on SlidesCarnival.com.

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Another third-party option for great Google Slides templates is FreeGoogleSlidesTemplates.com. Here you will find another gallery of great looking templates that you can choose from and preview. Below is a screenshot of some of the templates you can find on Free Google Slides Templates.

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It’s important to consider where you will be projecting your slides when considering the size of your presentations. If you will be presenting on an old, more square projector and screen, the 4:3 option is best. But these days, most projectors are widescreen and if you choose 4:3, as I see a lot of presenters doing, you will have black bars on the sides of your presentation—filling in the gap. Choose one of the widescreen options for newer projectors: 16:9 or 16:10. I usually go for 16:9.

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