How to Insert Super Cool GIFs in Google Docs and Slides

Add Animated GIFs to your Google Presentations and Google Docs!

In case you haven’t noticed, animated GIFs, those moving pictures that are almost like videos, are ruling the world. It’s not enough anymore to just have a cool image in your presentation; you need to engage them with a little animation. Better yet, GIFs offer an excellent way to show step sets to help teachers and students learn new skills!

This post is Part 2 in a series on Google Presentations. Did you miss Part 1? How to Make Your Google Presentations Shine.

Note: This works in the entire Google Drive suite of apps! Just kept it to Docs and Slides for the purpose of titling this post. 😉

It’s not hard to insert GIFs in Docs and Slides, but there is only one way to make them work. If you try to import, you will notice, they do not animate. Here’s how to insert GIFs correctly:

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Find a GIF

You can use the advanced search filter in Google images to find GIFs. Watch the animation below for an example.

1. Go to images.google.com and enter your search terms
2. Click on the “search tools” button
3. Under type, select “gif”

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Copy the Image Address of the GIF

Locate the URL (or Image Address as it’s called in Chrome) of the GIF you wish to use. Simply right-click to copy the image address as shown in the animation below. (Note: this will vary in other browsers, but you should be using Chrome anyway!)

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Insert By URL in Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drawings, etc.

The only way to get the animation to work is to insert by URL.

1. Inside your document/slide, go to the Insert menu.
2. Select Image
3. Select By URL
4. Copy and paste the image address you copied above.
5. Click Select to insert the image.
6. Voila!

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So take the time to spice up your presentations, documents and more with animated GIFs. It’s a great way to engage students (and adults). Your animations can be for humor and other emotional responses, or they can be to show how-to complete tasks as I did above.

Note: I used the SnagIt Chrome extension to creates these animations, but the extension will be discontinued in August. What do you use to create GIFs?

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This post is Part 2 in a series on Google Presentations. Did you miss Part 1? How to Make Your Google Presentations Shine.

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Check out all of my Google Slides Resources here!

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