If you’re just getting started with Google Slides, its extensive features and add-ons can be a little overwhelming. Here are some tips to help you get going with this powerful alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint.
What Is Google Slides?
If you’ve heard of Google Slides before, feel free to skip ahead; if you haven’t, here’s a crash course on what you need to know. We’ll go over the basics and get you brushed up on what Google Slides is and how you can get started right away.
Slides is a free, web-based presentation program designed to compete with Microsoft Office PowerPoint. It’s part of G Suite—Google’s complete office suite (though some people refer to it all as Google Docs). The other main services included in the cloud-based suite are Sheets (Excel) and Docs (Word).
RELATED: What is G Suite, Anyway?
Google Slides is available on all devices and platforms; all you need is an internet connection and a web browser (or, in the case of mobile, the Android and iOS apps ). Google does the rest and handles the brunt of the heavy lifting, while it runs the software in the cloud.
Slides supports several file types, including .ppt, .pptx, .odp, .jpg, .svg, and .pdf. This makes it easy to view or convert Microsoft Office files directly from Google Drive or insert images directly into a slide.
RELATED: What Is a PPTX File (and How Do I Open One)?
And since Slides is an online presentation program, you can share and collaborate with multiple people on the same file, and track revisions, changes, and suggestions, all in real-time.
