Keyboard shortcuts, presenting tools, and design reference for Google Slides.
| Group | Action | Mac | Windows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slides | New slide | ⌘ + M | Ctrl + M |
| Slides | Duplicate slide | ⌘ + D | Ctrl + D |
| Slides | Move slide up / down | ⌘ + ↑ / ↓ | Ctrl + ↑ / ↓ |
| Slides | Move slide to start / end | ⌘ + ⇧ + ↑ / ↓ | Ctrl + ⇧ + ↑ / ↓ |
| Objects | Group / ungroup | ⌘ + ⌥ + G / ⌘ + ⌥ + ⇧ + G | Ctrl + Alt + G / Ctrl + Alt + ⇧ + G |
| Objects | Bring to front / send to back | ⌘ + ⇧ + ↑ / ↓ | Ctrl + ⇧ + ↑ / ↓ |
| Objects | Duplicate in place | ⌘ + D | Ctrl + D |
| Objects | Nudge selected object | Arrow keys | Arrow keys |
| Objects | Nudge by one pixel | ⇧ + Arrow | ⇧ + Arrow |
| Objects | Constrain shape to a square / circle | ⇧ + drag | ⇧ + drag |
| Objects | Select next object on the slide | Tab | Tab |
| Objects | Enter / exit a text box | Enter / Esc | Enter / Esc |
| Format | Paste without formatting | ⌘ + ⇧ + V | Ctrl + ⇧ + V |
| Format | Copy / paste formatting | ⌘ + ⌥ + C / ⌘ + ⌥ + V | Ctrl + Alt + C / Ctrl + Alt + V |
| Format | Clear formatting | ⌘ + \ | Ctrl + \ |
| Format | Insert link | ⌘ + K | Ctrl + K |
| View | Start presenting (from slide 1) | ⌘ + ⇧ + Enter | Ctrl + ⇧ + Enter |
| View | Present from current slide | ⌘ + Enter | Ctrl + Enter |
| View | Open speaker notes | ⌘ + ⌥ + ⇧ + S | Ctrl + Alt + ⇧ + S |
| View | Show all keyboard shortcuts | ⌘ + / | Ctrl + / |
| View | Search the menus | ⌥ + / | Alt + / |
| View | Zoom in / out of the canvas | ⌘ + ⌥ + + / - | Ctrl + Alt + + / - |
| Comments | Insert comment | ⌘ + ⌥ + M | Ctrl + Alt + M |
| Comments | Open comment history | ⌘ + ⌥ + ⇧ + A | Ctrl + Alt + ⇧ + A |
Open the theme editor
Slide → Edit theme. The panel on the left shows the master at the top and each layout below it.
Set fonts and colours on the master first
Change the title and body fonts there and every layout inherits them. Set the theme colour palette from the fill dropdown → Theme so your brand colours appear as swatches everywhere.
Put the logo on the master, not on each slide
Anything placed on the master appears on every slide and can't be accidentally moved or deleted by a collaborator.
Customise individual layouts
Adjust the placeholder positions on "Title and body", "Section header", and so on. Use Insert placeholder to add a proper title, body, or image placeholder — placeholders keep the outline and accessibility structure intact in a way plain text boxes don't.
Apply the layout to slides
Right-click a slide → Apply layout. To undo per-slide overrides and snap a slide back to its layout, use Format → Clear formatting on the offending element.
Set the right slide size before you build
File → Page setup. 16:9 is the default and correct for nearly all screens. Changing it later rescales every element and usually looks wrong — decide first.
- Select several objects → Arrange → Align to snap them to a common edge or centre.
- Arrange → Distribute spaces three or more objects evenly — far more reliable than eyeballing it.
- Red guide lines appear automatically while dragging. View → Guides adds fixed guides you can position yourself.
- View → Snap to → Guides / Grid controls whether objects lock onto them.
- ⇧ + drag on a corner handle resizes proportionally; without it, images distort.
- Double-click an image to enter crop mode — drag the black handles to crop, the image itself to reposition within the frame.
- Format options → Recolor tints an image to a theme colour — useful for making mismatched stock photos look like a set.
- Mask to a shape: select the image, then the arrow beside the crop button, and pick a shape.
- Right-click → Replace image swaps the file while keeping the exact size, crop, and position.
- Insert → Image → Search the web filters to images labelled for reuse, but verify the licence yourself before anything public.
| During a presentation | Does |
|---|---|
→ / Space / N | Next slide or next animation. |
← / P | Previous slide. |
Number + Enter | Jump straight to that slide number. The most useful one to remember for Q&A. |
B / W | Black or white the screen — pulls attention back to you. Press again to resume. |
L | Toggle the laser pointer. |
S | Open the speaker-notes window. |
A | Toggle audience-question tools. |
C | Toggle captions — live speech-to-text subtitles. |
Esc | Exit the presentation. |
Home / End | First / last slide. |
Press C while presenting and Slides transcribes your speech onto the screen in real time. Genuinely useful for accessibility and noisy rooms, and it needs no setup. English only, and it requires microphone access in Chrome.
In the presenter view, Audience Tools → Start new gives a short URL where attendees submit and upvote questions. You control which appear on screen.
Speaker notes view includes a timer that starts automatically. Click it to pause or reset — a much better rehearsal tool than a phone stopwatch.
Replace /edit in the URL with /present to open straight into presentation mode, or /preview for a clean read-only view with no editor chrome.
Conference Wi-Fi fails. Either enable offline access in Drive beforehand, or File → Download → PDF and keep it on the machine. Do this every time you present somewhere unfamiliar.
In present mode, the settings gear offers auto-advance intervals and loop. Combined with a /present link, that's a lobby display with no extra software.
- Three roles: Viewer, Commenter, Editor. Commenter is the right default for review — feedback without the risk of someone reformatting the deck.
- Under the share dialog's gear icon, turn off "Editors can change permissions and share" for anything sensitive.
- "Anyone with the link" means genuinely anyone who obtains the link, including forwarded copies. Prefer named people for anything confidential.
- Set an expiry date on Viewer and Commenter access (Workspace accounts) so external reviewers lose access automatically.
- File → Make a copy before a big restructure gives you an untouched version to fall back on.
⌘/Ctrl + ⌥/Alt + Madds a comment to whatever is selected — an object, a text range, or the slide itself.- Type
+or@and someone's email in a comment to assign it to them; they get an email and it shows in their Drive action items. - Resolve hides a comment thread but never deletes it — reopen it from comment history (
⌘/Ctrl + ⌥/Alt + ⇧ + A). - File → Version history keeps every change. Name important versions ("Client review v2") so they're findable later.
- Version history also shows who changed what, colour-coded per person — the fastest way to find who altered a slide.
Lesser-known features
Paste a structured list into a Slides doc via File → Import slides, or draft in Docs and use Tools → Convert. Working on the structure before the design is what makes decks coherent.
File → Import slides pulls chosen slides from any other presentation, with an option to keep the original theme or adopt yours. Better than copy-paste, which drags formatting along unpredictably.
Insert → Diagram gives ready-made timelines, hierarchies, cycles, and process flows already in your theme colours. Vastly faster than assembling shapes.
Right-click an image → Alt text (⌘/Ctrl + ⌥/Alt + Y). Use real placeholders rather than free text boxes so screen readers get a sensible reading order.
The font dropdown's More fonts adds any Google Font. Note that exporting to PowerPoint may substitute fonts the recipient lacks — PDF is safer for fixed layout.
Extensions → Apps Script exposes the Slides API — generate slides from a spreadsheet, batch-replace text across a deck, or produce personalised copies. The `replaceAllText` method alone handles most mail-merge-style needs.
Gotchas
- Slides opens
.pptxand exports to it, but fidelity is not guaranteed — animations, transitions, SmartArt, and embedded media are the usual casualties. - Never round-trip a complex deck repeatedly. Each conversion degrades it further.
- If the recipient needs exact layout, send a PDF. If they need to edit, agree on one tool up front.
- Fonts that exist in Slides may not exist on their machine, causing reflow. Stick to widely available fonts for exported decks.
- Very large decks (100+ slides) or many high-resolution images make the editor sluggish — it all runs in the browser.
- Resize images before uploading. Slides stores the original file, so a 12 MP photo stays 12 MP even when displayed at thumbnail size.
- Split genuinely long decks into several files and link between them.
- Embedded videos stream from YouTube or Drive, so they need a working connection during the presentation — another reason for a PDF fallback.
Resources
⌘/Ctrl + /.
support.google.com
Apps Script Slides service
API reference for generating and editing decks programmatically.
developers.google.com
Google Slides REST API
For building decks from an external system rather than from within Google.
developers.google.com
Accessibility in Google Docs editors
Alt text, reading order, and screen-reader support across Slides, Docs, and Sheets.
support.google.com
Google Sheets
Where linked charts come from — the other half of any recurring report deck.
build.ty1er.com