How to Enhance Your Google Slides with Video Integration

Google Slides has become the go-to choice for educators and small start-ups. Its free, web-based platform offers a host of features and superior sharing options. To truly make your presentations stand out, you can add images, sound, and even integrate videos directly into your slides. But how and why should you add videos to Google Slides?

Adding a video to your slide not only enhances the appeal of your presentation but also showcases the research you've done as a presenter. Fortunately, you can add videos to Google Slides using both the web and mobile versions. Moreover, the web version offers additional video editing options. Read on to learn how to seamlessly integrate videos into your Google Slides.

Adding Video on Google Slides

We recommend using the Google Slides web version to add videos. This version allows you to preview and play the video directly on the slide and offers video editing options that are not available on mobile apps.

Google Slides Web

Follow these simple steps to add a video to Google Slides on the web:

1. Open Google Slides in your preferred browser.
2. Start creating a new slide from scratch or use one of the built-in templates to speed up the process.
3. Select the slide where you want to add the video.
4. Click on “Insert” at the top of the page and select “Video” from the dropdown menu.

5. You have three options for adding a video to your slide:

• Search: This option, powered by YouTube, allows you to search for and add relevant videos directly using the search bar.
• By URL: If you already have the YouTube URL of a video, you can use this option to paste the link and add the video to your slide.
• Google Drive: If the video you want to add is from a site other than YouTube, you can download the video and upload it to Google Drive. This option allows you to add any kind of video to your Google Slides.

Note: When using videos from the web, it's important to obtain proper permissions to avoid copyright infringement.

Large videos may take a few minutes to load properly on the slide, so please be patient. Once you've added the video, Google Slides will provide you with formatting options to personalize it. Let's take a look at these options.

• Video Playback: If you only need a specific portion of the video to play during the presentation, you can use the “Start at” and “End at” options to select the desired segment.

• Size & Rotation: This option allows you to change the size and position of the video thumbnail. You can adjust the angle, flip the video, and customize its appearance.

• Position: If the video thumbnail is interfering with other elements on the slide, you can use the Position menu to place it wherever you prefer.
• Drop Shadow: Adding a drop shadow to a video can enhance its visual impact. You can adjust the shadow's color, transparency, distance, and blur radius.

That's it! You've successfully added a YouTube video to your Google Slides presentation and customized its appearance using the formatting options.

Google Slides Mobile

If you need to make last-minute changes to your presentation and want to add a video to a slide using the Google Slides mobile app, there's a slightly different process. Unfortunately, there is no direct way to integrate videos like on the web version. Instead, you'll need to add a video link to a keyword on your slide. Here's how:

1. Open the Google Slides app on your mobile device.
2. Select the slide where you want to add the video.
3. Tap on the keyword within the slide that you want to link the video to.
4. Google Slides will display a pop-up menu with the option to “Insert link.”

5. In the following menu, paste the URL of the video. Please note that on the mobile version, you won't see a thumbnail of the video in the slide. Instead, you'll need to click on the linked text during the presentation to open the video in a new tab. Additionally, the video editing options available on the web version are not available on mobile.

Wrapping Up: Elevate Your Google Slides with Videos

Adding videos to your Google Slides presentations can reform your pitch to investors or impress your professors for better grades. Follow the steps outlined above to seamlessly integrate videos into your slides using both the web and mobile versions of Google Slides.