As far as design and presentation tools go, PowerPoint, Canva, and Keynote are the most well-known. But there’s one versatile tool that gets very little press—Google Slides.
Not only is Google Slides free to use, but it’s also extremely convenient. Its real-time collaboration capability, design features, and user-friendly interface make it a great choice for professional and creative uses. If you’re not too familiar with Google Slides, here’s a quick breakdown of a few things you can do with the tool.
1. Create a Presentation for Work or School
Google Slidesis an excellent tool forcreating visually appealing presentationsthat are informative and engaging. You get to choose from numerous professionally designed templates or create your own presentation from scratch.
The platform also supports various multimedia, including photos, videos, and GIFs, and you may easily integrate your presentation into Docs or Sheets.
The best part is that you’ll always have access to all your edits using the version history feature, which means you can rest easy knowing that you can always revert to a previous version of your presentation or view all the changes you’ve made since you started working on your project.
2. Redecorate Your Home
If you’re considering redecorating your space or even just a room in your house, using onlinedesign and decorating platformscan help you avoid relying on just your imagination before making an expensive investment. Google Slides, in this case, can be the perfect tool to play around with different design choices, furniture layouts, and color choices.
For instance, you can work with Shapes on Google Slides to create makeshift furniture. Similarly, if you want to experiment with accent colors for your walls, try using different hex color codes on slides until you find something you like and that you’re sure will work in your home.
3. Plan a Vacation
Google Slides can significantly simplify the process of creating a travel itinerary. All you need to do isfind an itinerary templatethat features predefined sections for you to input key details, like your travel dates, locations, potential events, and photos. If you prefer, however, you can also design your own custom template.
Once you’re done creating your presentation, you can either download it or share it online with your friends and family if you’d like to have their input. Thanks to Google Slides’ online collaboration capability, the people you share it with will be able to add their notes and feedback or even make changes.
4. Teach a Class
Google Slides is one of the best tools out there for creating interactive presentations that will engage your students. With a selection of free templates, live captions, speaker notes, and aneasy-to-use presenter view, you’ll be able to up your presentation game thanks to Google Slides.
A unique feature of Google Slides is that you’re not limited to using them for in-class presentations. Rather, you can also share them with your students, assign them homework, or collaborate on interactive slides with your teaching assistants.
5. Collaborate on Group Projects
As in the case of many Google Workspace tools, Google Slides allows multiple users to work on the same project at once. This makes it an ideal presentation tool for group projects or team collaborations.
Unlike some presentation tools, you have access to multiple sharing settings when you use Google Slides. So, for instance, you can choose to keep your project private, allow people to view your project but not edit it, or allow people to view and edit your work.
6. Make a Memorable Photo Album
An excellent digital substitute for physical photo albums, you can use Google Slides to create and share your favorite photographs with your loved ones. All you need to do is add pictures to your Drive and insert them into your Slides presentation. You can also add captions or descriptions to each photo, so people viewing it at a later point will have some context.
The best part about using Google Slides as a digital photo album is that it allows for easy editing and customization. This gives you the option to add, remove, or rearrange photos, allowing you to update your album as needed.
7. Build a Portfolio
Whether you need to list your educational achievements or have a digital space to showcase all the work projects you’ve collaborated on, Google Slides is the perfect platform.
To get started, all you need to do is use thePortfoliotemplate that you’ll see pre-populated in your Google Slides template list. Alternatively, you can also create your template from scratch; however, the former option is undoubtedly easier.
8. Craft an Eye-Catching Resume
While most people use tools like Google Docs andCanva to create resumes, you can also create an interactive resume with dynamic elements using Google Slides.
Thanks to all the built-in design features in Google Slides, you’re able to format your resume with ease and create something that stands out. What’s more, since Google Slides are editable, you can customize the current design at any point in the future to suit your professional capabilities and requirements at the time.
9. Create Flashcards
Flashcards are great for memory retention. That said, creating them with pen and paper can be time-consuming and wasteful of resources. The good news is that you can use Google Slides to create digital flashcards quickly.
you may print out your flashcards if you want to or use them online. What’s more, you can also go back to your Google Slides presentation and edit the flashcards if you need to. This is especially useful if you’re studying something challenging or are teaching someone.
10. Write a Journal
Journaling has a number of therapeutic benefits. However, an offline journal poses a ton of privacy concerns. Furthermore, it may not be accessible to you at all times. Google Slides, fortunately, can be an excellent digital substitute.
Given that you may use it at any time and from anywhere as long as you have a stable internet connection, you can use Google Slides to safely record your thoughts, experiences, and reflections.
Leveraging Google Slides’ Built-In Features
Google Slides is undoubtedly one of the most useful and versatile Google Workspace tools. While it is often overlooked by more popular alternatives, the platform’s integration capability with other Workspace tools and range of powerful features make it a great option for both professional and personal projects.
Ultimately, whether it’s for creating winning business presentations or designing plans for your bedroom, Google Slides proves to be an indispensable tool.
