Tag Archives: Google Slides

Accept questions from your audience when presenting in Google Slides

Any skilled presenter knows that an interactive presentation is often an effective presentation. Starting today, you can better engage your audience by allowing them to submit questions and vote on them during Google Slides presentations.

To see the feature in action, check out this video in which Google Science Fair winner Shree Bose fields questions from a group of 200 middle school students.



A few things to note:

  • You can only use Slides Q&A if you have edit or comment access to that Slides presentation.
  • By default, any user in your domain can submit a question. If your organization permits external sharing, you can allow external users to submit questions as well.

For more information on how to accept, submit, and view audience questions in Google Slides, check out the Help Center.

Bonus! Allowing your audience to ask questions isn’t the only way we’re improving the presentation experience on Slides today. We’re also making the following possible:

  • Use your mouse as a laser pointer in Slides on the web. Just choose the laser pointer option from the toolbar and move your mouse, and a red laser-like dot will appear in the same place on screen, helping your audience know where to look and when.
  • In the Slides iOS app, present to a new Hangout or to a Hangout selected from a meeting on your Google Calendar. For more information, check out the Help Center. 

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release:

  • All mobile features
  • All audience features on mobile and desktop

Launching to Rapid release, with Scheduled release coming in two weeks:

  • Ability for a presenter to enable Q&A on desktop

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Ask and present audience questions
Help Center: Present slides
Google for Work Blog: Talk with your audience — not at them — with Slides Q&A

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

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Talk with your audience — not at them — with Slides Q&A

Posted by Michael Frederick, Google Slides Engineer 

 (Cross-posted on the Google Docs Blog.)

Public speaking can be intimidating — even for veteran speakers with phenomenal ideas and experiences to share. Take Shree Bose, for example.

At just 17 years old, Shree took home the top prize at the first ever Google Science Fair for her research on drug resistance in ovarian cancer. Now, a senior at Harvard, she’s met with President Obama twice, crowdfunded a Minecraft computer program to support STEM education, and has given talks across the globe. But she still gets nervous every time she’s asked to speak at events.

When Shree recently visited our New York office to present to 200 middle school students, we invited her to try a new feature in Google Slides: Slides Q&A. This update—rolling out globally today—helps speakers connect with their audience and collect real-time feedback. With a simple link displayed on a Slides presentation, audience members can submit questions from their phones, laptops, and tablets—and vote on those they want answered the most. Hear what your audience has to say 

Slides Q&A is great for audience members, too. During Shree’s talk, students submitted more than 170 questions and voted 800 times. They enjoyed being able to submit questions online the moment they thought of them instead of having to remember them until the end of the presentation. Some students also chose to submit questions anonymously.

At the end of her talk, Shree left time for Q&A, but she couldn’t possibly answer all 170 questions. So, she sorted the questions based on audience votes—and responded to the top ones. The question with the most overall votes was submitted by a seventh grader named Leila. She says, “I was so surprised when I saw my question was the most liked. I probably wouldn’t want to stand up and ask the question because I’m kind of shy.” Focus on your ideas, not set up 

Slides Q&A makes it easy to interact with your audience—without having to worry about mics or moderators. Slides also helps you get your big ideas and stories on screen—without having to worry about wires or set up stress. Starting today, we're improving this "Show up, don't setup" experience in two ways:

  • You can now present your slides to a Hangout from your iPhone or iPad. So with just your phone or tablet and the Slides app, you can present to any screen using Chromecast, AirPlay or Hangouts. 
  • And for those of you who like presenting from a computer, we're introducing a new laser pointer on the web. Just in time for May the 4th (be with you). 

Today’s Slides updates are rolling out globally on Android, iOS, and the web. So go on, share your stories and present with confidence.

And for a little inspiration, check out Shree’s full talk, #HowCanWe Make the World Better with Science? on the Talks@Google channel.

Talk with your audience — not at them — with Slides Q&A

Posted by Michael Frederick, Google Slides Engineer

(Cross-posted on the Google Docs Blog.)

Public speaking can be intimidating—even for veteran speakers with phenomenal ideas and experiences to share. Take Shree Bose, for example.

At just 17 years old, Shree took home the top prize at the first ever Google Science Fair for her research on drug resistance in ovarian cancer. Now, a senior at Harvard, she’s met with President Obama twice, crowdfunded a Minecraft computer program to support STEM education, and has given talks across the globe. But she still gets nervous every time she’s asked to speak at events.

When Shree recently visited our New York office to present to 200 middle school students, we invited her to try a new feature in Google Slides: Slides Q&A. This update—rolling out globally today—helps speakers connect with their audience and collect real-time feedback. With a simple link displayed on a Slides presentation, audience members can submit questions from their phones, laptops, and tablets—and vote on those they want answered the most.

Hear what your audience has to say 

Slides Q&A is great for audience members, too. During Shree’s talk, students submitted more than 170 questions and voted 800 times. They enjoyed being able to submit questions online the moment they thought of them instead of having to remember them until the end of the presentation. Some students also chose to submit questions anonymously.

At the end of her talk, Shree left time for Q&A, but she couldn’t possibly answer all 170 questions. So, she sorted the questions based on audience votes—and responded to the top ones. The question with the most overall votes was submitted by a seventh grader named Leila. She says, “I was so surprised when I saw my question was the most liked. I probably wouldn’t want to stand up and ask the question because I’m kind of shy.”

Focus on your ideas, not set up 

Slides Q&A makes it easy to interact with your audience—without having to worry about mics or moderators. Slides also helps you get your big ideas and stories on screen—without having to worry about wires or set up stress. Starting today, we're improving this "Show up, don't setup" experience in two ways:
  • You can now present your slides to a Hangout from your iPhone or iPad. So with just your phone or tablet and the Slides app, you can present to any screen using Chromecast, AirPlay or Hangouts. 
  • And for those of you who like presenting from a computer, we're introducing a new laser pointer on the web. Just in time for May the 4th (be with you). 
Today’s Slides updates are rolling out globally on Android, iOS, and the web. So go on, share your stories and present with confidence.

And for a little inspiration, check out Shree’s full talk, #HowCanWe Make the World Better with Science? on the Talks@Google channel.

Choose the Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files you want to access offline

An internet connection isn’t always easy to come by, but that shouldn’t stop your employees from completing their work. That’s why we give Google Apps admins the option of allowing their users to enable offline access to Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files. Once an individual user has enabled offline access in Google Drive, a subset of their Docs, Sheets, and Slides files are synced to their computer or device. The specific files synced are based on certain criteria, primarily recency. 

With this launch, we’ll allow end users to choose the specific files they want to make available for offline access when they’re working in a Chrome browser on their desktop computer. This will make it easy for individuals to work anywhere, anytime, even when they don’t have an internet connection. To make a file available for offline access, a user simply needs to visit the Docs, Sheets, or Slides home screen and toggle the Available offline switch in a file’s overflow menu to ON.



Please note that this feature will only be available to users working in a Chrome browser on desktop and whose admins have allowed them to enable offline access in Drive. For more information, check out the Help Center.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid release, with Scheduled release coming in two weeks

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
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Change your filters, themes, and layouts in the Google Sheets and Slides apps for iOS

New versions of the Google Sheets and Slides apps for iOS are available in the App Store. With these updates, you can now:

  • View and modify existing filters in the Google Sheets iOS app.

screen_filter.png

  • Change the theme or layout of a presentation in the Google Slides iOS app.

Check out the Help Center articles below for more information.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Sort and filter data on iPhone and iPad
Help Center: Customize a slide with layouts and themes

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates

Support for more file formats in the Google Sheets and Slides Android apps

Updated versions of the Google Sheets and Slides apps for Android are now available on Google Play. Check out what’s new below:

In the Sheets Android app, you can now:

  • Send a copy of or save a spreadsheet as an HTML web page file (provided in a .ZIP folder) from the Share & export menu.
  • Save the sheet you’re currently viewing as a .CSV or .TSV file from the Share & export menu.
  • View Google Drawings in spreadsheets (note that Drawings will not be visible in frozen rows and columns).


In the Slides Android app, you can now:

  • Send a copy of or download the slide you’re currently viewing as a .JPEG, .PNG, or .SVG file from the Share & export menu.



Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace: 
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: View and create spreadsheets on Android
Help Center: Use the Google Slides app for Android

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates

Top ways to save time and #maketime with Google Apps

Posted by Matt Charman, Senior Product Marketing Manager

Today we’re launching the #maketime website, which builds on the movement to hold uninterrupted time on our calendars during the hours when we’re most creative. The website helps you prioritize time for the things that keep you inspired, over the things that just keep you busy.

Did you know that we spend 2.25 hours a day on average answering emails and 86 hours a month on average in meetings? The workplace is changing. We have the freedom to work and collaborate across any device and the flexibility to finish tasks and create from wherever we are. But we’re also more accessible.


Use the #maketime website to look at how you spend your work hours, so you can stamp out needless time takers, and not just save time, but #maketime for the things that are important to you.

Here are a few ways you can save time to #maketime with Google Apps.

Save time with Reminders in Google Calendar


Use Reminders in Google Calendar to combine an evolving and editable to-do list with your scheduled events. See the items on your list that you haven’t “checked off” yet at the top of your calendar each day, until you give them that triumphant swipe “complete!”

And Reminders sync with your contacts, so you can add phone numbers and addresses. When it’s time to call in dinner reservations at a favorite restaurant, dial directly from the Reminder.


Save time with machine learning and Inbox


From Inbox, use Smart Reply to respond to emails without typing out the reponses yourself. Machine learning recognizes emails that can be answered with short replies and creates natural language responses instantly — often with a few versions to choose from.

Save time by researching and collaborating in Docs


Switching between tabs and tools costs incremental time that adds up. In Docs and Slides, you can use the Research tool to do a quick Web and file search for terms you need to gather more info on. And now you can do the same on the go within the Docs app on Android.

From Docs, Sheets and Slides, you can also use the instant comments feature on the Web or your Android or iOS device to add teammates to the conversation by simply adding their names (just start typing names and contacts will appear in the comment box). So when you’ve got some great feedback on a line of text or a table of data, you can add a note right next to it that sends an email. No need to go back into Gmail to draft an additional note.

Also in Sheets, Explore deciphers your data for you and automatically creates charts and insights that illustrate trends. The time cost on your end: seconds.


Save time by converting image text


One of the coolest recent innovations in Drive for Work is the Optical Character Recognition that converts text in images into text documents to collaborate on. You can take a photo of a whiteboard brainstorm or an inspiring message on the other side of the subway window and turn that photo into a shared doc.

We can’t stop the clock — or to a large degree control the number of emails that flood our inboxes or the amount of traffic that slows our work commutes. But we can find ways to make more minutes meaningful.

Set expiration dates for access to Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides files

We know that businesses today don’t operate in isolation; employees work not only with one another, but with third-party vendors, clients, customers, and other businesses as well—and often on a temporary basis. To keep your organization’s information safe in these situations, we’re introducing the ability to set an “expiration date” for specific user access to files in Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

For instance, imagine your business hires an outside contractor for a project lasting three months. To complete the job, that contractor needs to view a spreadsheet containing the contact information of your employees. Following this launch, you’ll be able to share your employee list in Sheets with the contractor, give them view access only, and set that access to expire when their contract does (in three months). If the contractor attempts to open the spreadsheet after the expiration date has passed, they’ll be denied access.



This functionality, coupled with the Information Rights Management (IRM) features we launched last July, should significantly increase the security of your organization’s documents and information.

Please note that you’ll only be able to set expiration dates for users with comment or view access; you will not be able to set expiration dates for file owners or users with edit access.

IMPORTANT: This feature will roll out gradually over the course of two to three months; please note that you may not see the feature in your domains until mid- to late Q2 2016.

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to Rapid release, with Scheduled release coming in two weeks

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (2–3 months for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Change your sharing settings in Google Drive
Help Center: Share Google Drive files and folders

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates

Create better presentations and collaborate more easily on documents with the latest Google Slides and Docs apps for Android

New versions of the Google Slides and Docs apps for Android are now available on Google Play.

In the Slides Android app, you can now create and edit presentations that read from right to left, a necessity when presenting in languages such as Hebrew and Arabic.


In the Docs Android app, you can now select, copy, and comment on content in Print Layout view.

Screenshot_2016-03-02-10-25-58_framed.png

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Gradual rollout (potentially longer than 3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

More Information
Help Center: Edit and view text from right to left
Help Center: Print a document, spreadsheet, or presentation

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates

New templates in Google Docs: designed by experts, made for you

(Cross-posted on the Google for Work Blog.)

We launched a collection of templates in Docs, Sheets, and Slides in September to give your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations the extra polish they deserve. Today, we’re adding to that collection with new templates designed by five experts in their fields. All templates are available on the web and on Android and iOS.



For your big ideas, at work and on the go
Intuit's QuickBooks software helps small business owners get more out of financial planning with tools like automated budgeting, tax time reports, and payroll. Use the new annual business budget template by QuickBooks in Sheets to easily manage your budget so you can focus on building your business.



GV provides venture capital funding to bold new companies. In the fields of life science, healthcare, artificial intelligence, robotics, transportation, cyber security, and agriculture, GV’s companies aim to improve lives and change industries.The new GV pitch template in Slides helps entrepreneurs share their vision, based on proven presentation tactics.



And, in the bestselling book, Made to Stick, brothers Chip and Dan Heath revealed that “sticky” messages of all kinds draw their power from the same main traits. In their big idea template in Slides, they use these principles to help you build and deliver your most memorable presentation yet.



For a head start, at school and beyond
Reading Rainbow, the third-longest-running children's TV series in US history and award-winning digital service, has been inspiring children to read for more than 30 years. Reading Rainbow created a lesson plan and a book report template in Docs to help teachers and students get things done.



The Google Science Fair (GSF) is an annual online science and engineering competition open to teens globally. In the competition, young scientists have tackled issues like world hunger, life-threatening diseases and the energy crisis. Use GSF’s science fair template in Slides for a head start on your next project—or for this year’s GSF.



Jump-start your next project with these easy-to-use templates in Docs, Sheets, and Slides—available on the web and on your Android device or iPhone. Let us know what you create!

Launch Details
Release track:
Launching to both Rapid release and Scheduled release

Rollout pace:
Full rollout (1–3 days for feature visibility)

Impact:
All end users

Action:
Change management suggested/FYI

Note: all launches are applicable to all Google Apps editions unless otherwise noted

Launch release calendar
Launch detail categories
Get these product update alerts by email
Subscribe to the RSS feed of these updates