However, take note that PDF files may have limited functionality for presentations. A PPTX or PowerPoint file will be more suitable if you have to present the slides in a room or office setting. If you are using the Google Chrome web browser, the PowerPoint file should automatically be saved to your computer’s Downloads folder. Google Slides doesn’t offer an option to save presentations as videos but there’s a new add-on in town - Creator Studio - that brings new export capabilities to your Google Slides. With Creator Studio, you’ll be able to save your decks as animated GIFs, image sequences and HD video (with audio).

PowerPoint has been around for more than 3 decades. For many, it’s still the king of presentation apps. But don’t count out Google Slides yet. As a Google product, its popularity has been steadily increasing amongst Google users. If you’re tired of PowerPoint and want to try out something new, then this Google Slides review article should help you determine if Slides is right for you.

18 Reasons To Use Google Slides As Your Next Presentation Software

There are other great PowerPoint alternatives, but Google Slides surely ranks in the top 5. Check out these reasons why should definitely try out Slides for your next presentation:

Google Slides is 100% free

Photo by Jules Marchioni on Unsplash

How do you download google slides on a mac

Someone may have told you before that ‘free is not always a good thing’ or that ‘you get what you pay for.’ In many cases, this may be true. Free software may pale in comparison to its premium counterparts. But if you’ve ever used a Google product before, then you may already have an idea that Slides isn’t like other free apps.

With Slides, you only need to use your Google account to use the software. And in this day and age, who doesn’t have a Google account? So, chances are, you already have one (or more)! If not, well, sign-up is quick and easy, and you can then use your Google ID to access all Google products.

That said, if you haven’t tried out Slides yet, you can type slides.google.com on your browser, and start using this free presentation app right away!

Google Slides is web-based

There are plenty of benefits to using web-based apps. You can access said app anytime of day, anywhere on the planet. There’s no app to download, well, except of course, if the developers made an app especially for mobile users.

The same thing holds true for Google Slides. You can access it on any of these browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer 11, and Safari (for Mac). According to Google, other browsers may work but functionality may be limited.

For mobile users, you will be re-directed to download their mobile app; this is to help maximize the Google Slides experience. So, go ahead and download the Google Slides mobile app on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, and see how you like it!

Lots of free Google Slides templates online

Yes, you heard it right! There are plenty of Google Slides themes online. You simply need to know where to look. The good news is we’ve recently published lots of free Google Slides templates on our very own 24Slides.com Template Hub! Here’s a screenshot:

The default view is going to be PowerPoint, so make sure you click on Google Slides like you see in the screenshot above (see red arrow).

Scroll down the list of templates and click on one you’d like to use. If you don’t have an account yet, it’s time to create a free account. Don’t worry, there are absolutely no strings attached if you use our free Google Slides templates!

Once you’re logged in, you’ll see the green ‘Use Google Slides Theme’ button on your screen:

Clicking on the giant green button above will open up a new browser tab. The file is going to be ‘View only’ so if you want to make a copy, you’d need to sign in to your Google account.

Note that the first slide is on our free Google Slides templates will give you instructions on how you can use the file. Here’s how:

Once you’ve made a copy and saved the file to your Google Drive, you can then edit it as you see fit!

What’s really awesome about using these free Google Slides templates is that you don’t need to download anything. With just a click of a button, you’ll have your free template saved in your Google Drive account!

Offline access works as advertised!

One of the biggest drawbacks to most web-based apps is the lack of offline access. Fortunately, this feature is now available on Google Slides. However, to enable offline access you’d need to be on the Chrome browser (Mac or PC). You can’t see the option to make the file available offline on non-Chrome browsers. For mobile users, you’d need to use the official Google Slides app.

Before you activate offline access, you need to be connected to the Internet and be logged in to Chrome. Don’t use private or incognito mode. You also need to download and activate the Google Docs Offline Chrome extension for offline access to work.

Next, you need to go to the Slides home screen and open the Menu options. Click on Settings and enable Offline access like you see below:

Google Slides will now make your most recent files available offline. Note that this feature will depend on how many presentation files you have and your device’s storage. So, if you want to make sure your earlier files will also be available offline, you can manually select these files. You can do this in Chrome or via mobile app.

Here’s what it looks like in Chrome:

Alternatively, you can also open the individual file and enable offline access there. Just click on File then Make available offline. And that’s it!

Google Slides works well with PowerPoint

This Google Slides review won’t be complete if I didn’t include this point. This is, after all, probably one of the most frequently asked questions about Google Slides. Does it work with PowerPoint? Fortunately, it does.

Google App Download For Mac

Google Slides presentations can be downloaded in PowerPoint format. And likewise, you can easily open PowerPoint files in Google Slides. Here’s a tutorial that will aid you in the conversion process: How To Convert Google Slides To PowerPoint and Vice Versa.

The caveat is that no matter the conversion direction (from Google Slides to PPT or the other way around), you’re not going to get a 100% perfect conversion. Creative cloud download mac os. PowerPoint is a literal powerhouse; it’s got several features that are missing in Google Slides.

So, if you use a fancy transition effect in PowerPoint, then chances are, it’s probably not going to be available in Slides. That said, most of your content will convert just fine. So, if you need to make adjustments, they shouldn’t be too consuming (at least not as time consuming as creating the slides from scratch).

Google Slides is built for collaboration

Google is making the world a much smaller place, one app at a time. And with Slides, they made it so that any user can collaborate with anyone in the world. Once you’ve shared the presentation file with somebody else, you can see the edits they make in real time!

It’s great for accountability too because you can’t lie and say you worked on something when you clearly didn’t. Slides will say who edited what and there’s a timestamp to indicate when the changes were made. It’s an awesome piece of software, really.

Another thing that goes in Slides’ favor is that for browser-based edits, everyone will be using the same version of the software since it’s automatically updated. Remember, there’s no app to download, so the moment you login to Slides, you’re on the latest version. So, the editing and commenting experience is pretty much consistent for all Slides’ users.

No need to save your Slides… ever!

How many files have you lost due to not being able to give it a name and save it? If you’re clumsy like me, you’ve probably lost a lot. Now, PowerPoint has an auto-save feature too if you save your file on OneDrive. But Google Slides takes it a step further.

With OneDrive

Download Google Slides On Mac