Google Workspace Changes

More control over accessibility preferences in Google Slides

Improving the ability to adjust your accessibility preferences for Slides separately. Rather than having the same accessibility settings apply across these products, you’re now able to set preferences for each product individually. We expect this change to make it easier to ensure accessibility settings are personalized to best meet each user’s needs.

You can now use originality reports on Google Slides files, which were previously only available for Google Docs.

You can now use originality reports on Google Slides files, which were previously only available for Google Docs. Originality reports allow students and teachers to compare work against billions of web pages and books on the internet, making it easier to ensure academic integrity of the work.

PPTX file limit increase in Google Slides

Google Slides has increased the import limit for PPTX files using Office Editing mode from 100MB to 300MB. Once imported, users can save their edits back to the original PPTX file.

The filmstrip in Google Slides is now collapsable

Editors in Google Slides can now collapse or expand the filmstrip as needed. Collapsing the filmstrip expands the current slide view for more focused editing, while expanding it allows users to view, navigate to, and edit other slides in the presentation.

The 'Present' button in Google Slides is being renamed to 'Slideshow'.

Google is replacing the existing 'Present' button in Google Slides with a new 'Slideshow' button. This change is intended to make it clearer for users when they are beginning a slide show or sharing their screen during a Google Meet session.

New viewing interface for Google Slides on iOS app.

Google is improving the mobile viewing experience for Google Slides on iOS, allowing users to scroll through a vertical stream of slides, pinch to zoom for a closer look, and easily switch between editing, presenting, or casting content.

Smart Compose is now available in comments for Google Slides, Sheets, and Drawings.

Google has expanded Smart Compose functionality to include comments within Google Slides, Sheets, and Drawings. This feature assists users in composing high-quality content more efficiently by suggesting relevant contextual phrases, reducing repetitive typing, and minimizing spelling and grammatical errors.

New options for copying presentations in Google Slides, including selecting specific slides and removing speaker notes.

When creating a copy of an existing Google Slides presentation, users can now select specific slides to copy instead of the entire deck and choose to remove speaker notes from the copy. This update simplifies the process of parsing out and sharing the most relevant content with teams and stakeholders.

More options for copying presentations in Google Slides

When creating a copy of an existing Google Slides presentation, you'll now be able to select specific slides to copy instead of the whole deck and remove the speaker notes from the copy.

Rollout of the ability to add audio to Google Slides presentations.

The feature allowing users to add audio to Google Slides presentations is now fully available to Rapid release domains and is currently rolling out to Scheduled release domains, with full availability expected for all users by the end of November 2019.

Customize text size and position for captions in Google Slides

Users can now personalize the text size and position of captions while presenting in Google Slides. This allows presenters to make captions easier to read for audience members in large rooms or reduce the text size to maximize the number of words visible on the screen at once.

Custom line spacing less than one is now available in Google Docs and Google Slides.

Google Docs and Google Slides now allow users to set custom line spacing to be less than one. This provides more detailed control over font appearance, helping users meet strict brand guidelines and create visually polished documentation. Additionally, this update improves the preservation of formatting when importing and exporting files in legacy formats.

Accessibility settings are now easier to access on Slides

It’s now easier to discover accessibility features like screen reader support, braille support, and screen magnifier support in Slides. This change will make these settings more readily available by placing the Accessibility settings in the Tools menu.

New size and position controls for objects in Google Slides.

Google Slides is introducing new controls to allow users to precisely adjust the size and position of shapes, images, and text boxes. These updates enable users to set exact sizes using numeric values or percentage scales, adjust the specific position of objects on a slide, and rotate objects by flipping them horizontally or vertically or by setting a precise rotation angle.

Comment on specific text within individual objects in Google Slides

Collaboration in Google Slides is improved by allowing users to comment on specific text within an object, such as a text box, rather than being limited to commenting on the entire object or the whole slide.