How to Add Audio or Video to Google Slides | Digital Trends

Google Slides is a great way to add style and polish to your everyday workplace presentations. It’s also a great teaching tool that’s easily adaptable to students of all ages. Packed with graphics, animation tools, and other immersive features, Google Sheets even lets you upload your own audio and video files to your slideshows.

If you’ve been wanting to take your Google Sheets presentations a step further, we’ve put together this guide to show you how to incorporate these captivating images and sounds.

How to add audio to Google Slides

To add audio to a Google Slides presentation, make sure it is available in Google Drive with the same Google account. You can add MP3 and WAV audio files to Google Slides.

If you have another file type, check out how to convert M4A to MP3 or FLAC to MP3.

Step 1: Visit Google Slides, sign in, and open the presentation you want to use. Then select the slide you want to add the audio to.

Step 2: Click Insert > Audio from the menu.

Google / Digital Trends

Step 3: At the top of the pop-up window, select the Google Drive location for your file from “My Drive,” “Shared with Me,” or “Recent.” You can also find the file using the search box.

When you see the audio file you want, select it and click Choose Button below.

Audio file locations available in Google Slides.

Google / Digital Trends

Step 4: The audio file will appear on your slide. You can select it and drag it anywhere on the slide.

Step 5: Additionally, the Format Options sidebar should open automatically. In the Audio playback In the Playback Options section, adjust playback options.

Play Now: You can choose between “On Click” and “Automatically” how you want the audio to start playing.

Options: Use the slider to adjust the volume for the sound. Then check the boxes for the optional items, which include hiding the icon (for autoplay only), looping the audio, and stopping playback when the slide advances.

Audio playback options in Google Slides.

Google / Digital Trends

Step 6: When you’re finished adjusting how your audio plays, you can close the Format Options sidebar. To reopen the sidebar later, do one of the following.

  • Right-click the audio icon and select Format options.
  • Select the audio icon and click Format options in the top toolbar.
  • Select the audio icon and go to format > Format options in the menu.

Unlike Microsoft PowerPoint, which offers an audio recording feature, Google Slides currently only allows you to upload an audio file. So if you’re wondering, “Can you create audio narration on Google Slides?”, the answer is yes – if you create the audio narration outside of the application and upload it as described above.

Format options in the Google Slides Format menu.

Google / Digital Trends

How to add videos to Google Slides

If you want to add a video to Google Slides, you have several options. You can insert a YouTube video, add one via URL, or upload it from Google Drive.

Step 1: Visit Google Slides, sign in, and go to the slide in the presentation where you want to insert the video.

Step 2: Click Insert > Video from the menu.

Video in the Insert menu of Google Slides.

Google / Digital Trends

Step 3: At the top of the pop-up window, select the location to save your video file from a search on YouTube, by URL, or Google Drive.

When you see the video you want to use, select it and click Choose Button.

Video locations available in Google Slides.

Google / Digital Trends

Step 4: The video will appear on your slide and you can drag it anywhere on the slide. You can also drag a corner or edge to resize the video.

Step 5: You should also have the Format Options sidebar open. The Video Playback section allows you to customize playback options.

  • Play: You can choose how you want the video to play from the drop-down box between “On Click”, “Automatic” or “Manual”.
  • Start at and end at: If you only want to play part of the video, you can set this up in two different ways. Either enter the start and end times in the appropriate fields or play the video in the preview at the top of the sidebar and click Use current time under the start and end time fields.
  • Mute audio: If the video contains audio that you don’t want to play, select the check box Mute audio.
Video playback options in Google Slides.

Google / Digital Trends

Step 6: When you’re finished adjusting how your video plays, close the Format Options sidebar. You can reopen it later by doing one of the following.

  • Right-click the video and select Format options.
  • Select the video and click Format options in the top toolbar.
  • Select the video and go to format > Format options in the menu.
Format options in the Google Slides Format menu.

Google / Digital Trends

Unlike documents in Google Docs, Google Slides allows you to add audio and video to your presentations. So if it’s a useful addition to the slideshow, consider including one or both!

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