When you’re giving a presentation, you want to impress your audience and make sure they see you as credible. Whether you want to win the next big contract or simply inform, a well-designed presentation can make all the difference. One way to make your presentation stand out is by making it interactive. Interactive presentations are a great way to present information while keeping your audience engaged.

Before we dive in, it’s important to define what we mean by ‘interactive presentation’. ‘Interactive’ is sometimes used to describe presentations that include quiz questions or audience participation – that’s not what we’re talking about here. When we say ‘interactive’ we’re talking about a clickable presentation that uses hyperlinks to help users navigate to different sections. A presentation with hyperlinks is ‘interactive’ because it allows the user to choose what information they view, and in what order. As a general rule of thumb, an interactive presentation works well when your audience needs to engage directly with what’s on the screen, putting them in control of how they digest the information. In this blog post, we’ll walk through how to make an interactive presentation in Google slides.

Technical aspects, step-by-step

Now that we’re on the same page, let’s delve into how to actually create an effective interactive presentation in Google Slides. It’s easier than you might think.

Step 1

Start by opening a new presentation! From the Google Slides homepage, look to the top left and click the Blank button to open a new presentation. This is your blank slate from which to create an outstanding interactive presentation!

Step 2

Google Slides automatically inserts a title slide when you open a new presentation, so all you need to do is click on the title text box and type in a title. Make the title something clear and catchy, that your audience can easily understand.

Step 3

Now, let’s move on to the all-important menu slide. We’re going to create something that looks like a button, so that your audience knows it’s clickable. Later on, we’ll add in hyperlinks. You can use any shape for your button, but rectangular shapes with rounded corners often look the most ‘button-like’. First, locate the Shape button on the toolbar in slides, and select a shape. Then, double click on the slide and that shape will appear. Click and drag using the nodes along the edges of the shape to change its size.

You can add labels either by typing directly on to the shape, or by clicking the text box button (also on the toolbar) and positioning a text box on top of the shape. You might also want to add a small arrow shape on top of your button, to help show that the button is clickable. 

If you’ve got a more artistic temperament, this is an opportunity to be creative! Your button doesn’t have to be made from shapes. The buttons on the menu slide in our example presentation are actually images. Feel free to get those artistic juices flowing, but keep in mind that your buttons need to look clickable. One way of doing this is by adding a drop shadow or border. To add a border, use the border color and border weight buttons, found on the toolbar.

To insert a drop shadow just right click, then select Format options, and check the box for Drop shadow.

You could also make your buttons a contrasting color from the background and other text – however, avoid colors that are too bright, as this can be distracting.

This first button you have created is the basis for your menu. When you’re happy with how it looks, replicate it so that the number of buttons corresponds to the number of sections in your presentation. You can do this by copying and pasting. Simply select the entire button – click with your mouse and drag over the button so all elements are highlighted – then copy and paste it by right clicking, selecting Copy and then Paste however many times you need. Edit the text of each button to correspond to the section of the presentation it will link to. Next, ensure that the buttons are aligned in some sort of order. You can select various buttons and then align or distribute them as you like using the alignment tools found under the Arrange tab.

Note: If you decide to use icons or imagery, it’s a good idea to make sure the meaning is clear. For example, we all know that the house symbol mean ‘go to the home page’. There’s no point using a zebra icon to return to the homepage, because people will get confused. Stick to what people find familiar, good navigation is about ease of use!

Tip: To use icons in your interactive presentation in Google Slides, click the Addons tab, select Get add-ons, and then select the Insert icons add-on.

Then, under the Addons tab, a new option will appear which is Insert icons for Slides. Hover over this, and select Open sidebar to select icons.

Then, once the sidebar appears, ensure that the icon set selected on the drop-down menu is ‘Material Design.’

Step 4

Create section header slides for each section in your presentation. Do this by navigating to the top of the page, and clicking New slide on the top left of the tool bar. Repeat this step as many times as necessary. Next, build as many buttons as you need for the subsection using the steps outlined above. You can also simply copy and paste the buttons you’ve already created, and just edit the text.

Step 5

Add the information you want to include in each section. If this is images, like in our example presentation, then insert images using the Insert tab.

 

If this is text, type on the slide using a text box. However, it’s best to use visuals instead of long paragraphs of text. Keep your message clear and succinct.

Step 6

Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each section. Make sure each section has a header slide, with buttons if necessary. Look through your presentation up to this point – make sure all the sections are ordered correctly, and that there is a header slide at the beginning of each.

Step 7

Return to your initial menu slide. Make transparent shapes to cover each ‘button’ you have created. We will turn these transparent shapes into hyperlinks that allow users to navigate through your deck. First, click the Shape button on the toolbar, and then create a shape that covers the button that you have created, but not any white space outside them. Then, select the shape and click the Fill color button on the toolbar, select Transparent from the dropdown menu.

Place these transparent shapes over the top of every button in your deck. Using transparent shapes in this way makes it much easier to edit the hyperlinks if needed, and also makes it less likely that a user will miss a clickable area!

Step 8

Now we are ready to hyperlink each button! Select the first transparent box on your menu slide, right click, then select Link and choose Slides in this presentation. From here, choose the slide you want your button to navigate to when clicked.

Tip: If your slide has a title, it will have the same title in the link section, making it easier to find. After you have linked these two slides the link will stay connected to the specific slide, not the slide number – so it doesn’t matter if you move things around.

Step 9

Repeat this process for all buttons, so that each one links to the correct slide.

Step 10

Create buttons to return to the main menu. To do this, follow the steps outlined previously and use a transparent box that links back to the main menu slide. If you have different subsections within a section, you can also create a button linking back to the section title slide from each subsection.

Interactive presentations in Google Slides: Beyond the basics

Following these steps will give you a fully interactive presentation in Google Slides. But if you want to go beyond the basics, here are some tips and tricks that will help your interactive deck be even more intuitive and user friendly.

An effective menu slide is key

The centerpiece of a good interactive presentation is an effective menu slide that is clearly navigable, has a deliberate spatial layout, and is visually appealing. For example, the buttons on this menu slide clearly indicate the separate sections in our presentation. The arrangement of your buttons helps the user understand your presentation’s structure, so make sure they are arranged logically.

Your presentation needs to be visually engaging

We at BrightCarbon are particularly passionate about this point – far too often slides look dull and drab – and we think it’s important to be the change you want to see in the presentation world! It would be impossible to cover all the ways you can make your deck visually appealing in a short blog post – the important point is to consider the overall aesthetics of each slide and the presentation as a whole. If you’re looking for some design inspiration, check out this article about making slides look great using images.

Make navigation as simple as possible

Your menu slide is the jumping-off point to the different sections of your presentation – but constantly exiting present mode to return to your menu slide can break the flow. In a normal presentation there isn’t an effective way of returning to the main slide without clicking back through all the content you’ve already shown. As you want to be able to go through your presentation in a non-linear fashion you need an easy way to return to your jumping-off point. Place a button at the end of each section that links to the original menu slide, so you don’t have to exit the presentation once you start.

Provide your audience with signposts 

You want your audience to understand where they are within the presentation, providing them with signposts is an easy way to achieve this. A signpost can be a header slide at the beginning of the section or small indicator icons throughout a given section. It can also be a slide or button at the end of each that clearly includes options to either return to the main menu or go straight into the next section. Make it easy for your audience to follow the flow of your deck.

Be strategic when positioning buttons

Consider the location of buttons on the slide. If a button is at the end of a section and returns the user to the main menu, it’s probably best to put it at the bottom right, as in the West we tend to read from left to right, top to bottom. Think about where best to position buttons so the placement is consistently, and so they don’t get in the way of your main content. Take a look at the above screenshot – we’ve positioned our section buttons so they are clearly visible, but don’t dominate the slide.

Make sure you keep the best practices in mind, as they will help you make a clear roadmap that runs throughout your slides. You’re well on your way to creating a great interactive presentation in Google Slides, just one last thing to do – get started!

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Written by

Ian Wicks

Senior consultant;
Group messaging lead

View Ian Wicks's profile

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  1. Image of Adam Adam says:

    Is there a way to send an interactive slideshow with hyperlinks to students that allows them to click outside to YouTube and click to other slides, but does NOT allow them to edit the presentation? Thanks!!

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi Adam, There’s an easy fix for this problem. All you need to do is share the presentation as “view only” with your students. To do this, click the share button as you normally would, then click the pencil icon that is to the right of the “People” bar, and select “can view” from the drop down menu. This will still let your students use the links within the presentation as well as any external links, but won’t let them make any edits to the presentation itself. Hope this helps!

    • Image of Dylan Wymer Dylan Wymer says:

      Mabey make them a commenter on the slideshow?

    • Image of Lily Lily says:

      Yeah true that problem could be fixed and they should be able to!

  2. Image of kera kera says:

    When I share my presentations in present mode the presentation bar that shows up interferes with any buttons I have added. Is there a way to remove that so that only the arrow keys or buttons can be used, or is there a way to change it’s size? I makes the buttons almost useless.

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi Kera, unfortunately there’s no way to move the presentation bar once in present mode, it’s very frustrating! The best solution is to move the buttons so that they aren’t on the bottom left of the slide. Hope this helps!

      • Image of Melissa Melissa says:

        Actually there is a way to share without the presentation box there. After you click share to copy the link “choose anyone can view” paste into the task bar and change “edit” to “present” and add @rm=minimal to the end then copy and paste that link to where you are sharing.

  3. Image of Antonio Di Muoio Antonio Di Muoio says:

    Hi kera, this is really helpfull tutorial.
    I’ve a question….is possible to create a final quiz?
    I need a presentation with final valutation quiz….is it possible?

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi Antonio, yes you can use the same method in this post to make a quiz. All you would need to do is create a menu slide with buttons named “Question 1” “Question 2” etc. (or “Round 1” “Round 2” if you wanted to divide questions by round), and link those buttons to slides later in the presentation that included your quiz questions. Then, include a button on your question slides that link back to the main menu slide. Of course, you would still need to keep score outside of slides, as there’s no way for slides to track correct answers to your questions. Hope this helps! 🙂

  4. Image of Kelly Howser Kelly Howser says:

    I have made a 20 slide presentation. I have also made an interactive quiz that has 4 questions with a correct and incorrect slide for each question. That makes 12 slides in the quiz. I want to know if I can put the quiz interactive into a specific slide on the 20 slide presentation?

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi Kelly, if you want to add your quiz slides into another presentation, you should be able to copy the slides over and the hyperlinks should still link to he correct slides, maintaining all interactivity. Then just continue with your presentation once you reach the final quiz slide, instead of returning to the menu slide. If this isn’t what you’re asking, please clarify what exactly you need help with and I’m happy to help. Thanks!

  5. Image of Lisa P Lisa P says:

    Hi Ian, Thank you for this tutorial. it is great! I made an interactive quiz, published it and sent the link to someone to test. The tester said all of the buttons and links worked correctly and that he could not advance to the next slide unless he clicked on the “next” or “back” buttons. All good. BUT he COULD mouse scroll through the entire quiz and see all of the questions, correct and inocorrect prompt slides. Is there a way to publish or share without being able to scroll through with the mouse? Thank you again!

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi Lisa, I’m so glad to hear that you found it helpful! Unfortunately, there’s no way that we are aware of to keep people from scrolling through the deck once it’s been shared. I think the best solution is to just ask the person you share the interactive presentation with to be sure and review in present mode. Thanks!

  6. Image of Julie McIntosh Julie McIntosh says:

    I used interactive slides to create a classroom scene. There are several slides that are accessed by clicking on hyperlinks in the first slide, and every slide has a link back to slide one.

    When I try to publish it to the web, the only options include automatically playing through all the slides, which I don’t want to do. I want them only to go to the slides that they click on.

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi Julie, unfortunately there’s no way we know of to get around this – when publishing to the web, Slides only allows you to automatically play through all the slides, as you say. If you only need to share with a few people, we would recommend simply sharing directly with them as “view only.”

  7. Image of Bhavya Bhavya says:

    this is awesome
    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    i had no idea on how to get full marks on a project i am doing…. but now my chances have increases by 50% !!! how i love this article….!!!!!! amazing

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi Bhavya, I’m so glad to hear you found this article helpful!! Good luck on your project!

  8. Image of Royston Ball Royston Ball says:

    I found this very useful when producing an interactive display for our art club. However I want to call this display from another programme which deals with several clubs. This I have managed OK but how does the viewer leave the slides presentation and return to the calling programme? I need a QUIT button. I also want to ensure that it all works on tablets and desktops.

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi Royston, I’m not sure I fully understand your question – you should be able to exit present mode simply by clicking the Escape key. An interactive presentation should work on both tablets and desktops, according to Google Slides. Please clarify and let me know if I can help any more, thanks!

      • Image of Maggie Gibson Maggie Gibson says:

        I have the same question as Royston. I know users can press the esc key to exit, however that does not go along with the flow of the presentation. Also, when you press esc, it brings you to the slide show creation view. I want the show to just close on their browser with the click of a “button” on the last slide of the slide show.

        On the flip side, when I send users the link to the slide show, and they click on the link, it also brings them to the creation view, so they have to click “present” to see it as intended. Is there a way for me to send a link that will open right to the first slide at full screen, already in “present” view?

      • Image of Royston Ball Royston Ball says:

        I have now found a simple solution to my problem. The slide show contains several menu pages. On each of these I have a Quit button and I link this with the web address of the programme that calls the slide show. This does not send the user to the place on the calling programme which initiated the slide show but in my case this was OK.

        I have since modified this so that the Quit buttons lead to the first slide in the slideshow which makes it clear that the button it presents there quits back to the presenting programme but otherwise leaves the user the option of running through the slideshow again.

  9. Image of Sally Sally says:

    Hi.

    Is there a way of adding an already interactive PDF to slides and it retain its functionality?

    Thanks.

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi Sally,

      Unfortunately, once you import an interactive PDF into Slides it loses it’s functionality (as it sounds like you’ve already discovered). There’s no easy workaround here, I’m afraid.

  10. Image of Ces Michelin Ces Michelin says:

    Hi! This is really amazing. Thanks for share. I’d like to know if there is anyway to disable navigation through mouseclick, arrow keys or any other way instead of clicking the button links? Because I’m not secure that the viewers will follow the path we create if they can jump slide by slide. Thanks a lot for your attention. =)

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi Ces, thanks for your question. Unfortunately there’s no easy way that we know of to disable navigating through the presentation but keep the mouse’s other clicking functionality. There’s a way to disable clicking the mouse but still keep keyboard functionality, but this of course doesn’t solve your problem. Sorry about that!

  11. Image of Julie Julie says:

    I made a game for students like Jeopardy with columns for each topic area and buttons that show point values fr each question. Students can select the topic and # of points, and a hyperlink will take them to the specific question. I put in back buttons on each question page so they go back to main page.
    Is there any way to indicate on the main page when a “button” has been opened? Can a hyperlink and animation be embedded so once that button has been clicked it has a different appearance on the main page?

    • Image of Joe Joe says:

      Oh, I really wish that this question had been answered. I’ve been struggling with this for a long time. As far as I can tell, there is no way to do this. It’s a shame that something so easy in PowerPoint is seemingly impossible in Slides.

      If I’m wrong, PLEASE correct me. I’d love to have this solved.

  12. Image of Heather Laux Heather Laux says:

    I have a question….so we created an interactive slide show for the students with a slide correct-great job slide and a sorry, try again slide. We were able to link each answer to the correct slide or the try again slide, but once it goes there, how do we go back to the previous slide we were at?

    Also, if we are presenting our screen to during a google meet are the children able to interact with it if allow anyone with the link to be editors?

    Thanks!

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi Heather,

      You might try adding a ‘back’ button on the bottom right of both the ‘correct’ and ‘try again’ slides, and then link these to the previous slide you were at.

      As for your second question, yes that’s right – though it might be better to share the presentation with your students as ‘view only’ as if they are editors they can change the content, but if they are viewers they can’t and still have access to the interactive functionality.

      Hope this helps!

  13. Image of Tanish Tanish says:

    I tryed it and wow when i looked it was like wow so i shred it to my teacher ms eunick in bellmere junior public school shes like oh wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  14. Image of Fashion Styles Fashion Styles says:

    Would you be concerned about exchanging links?

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Switching out links shouldn’t cause any problem – all you need to do is follow the same process for adding a new link, but instead just remove the original and add a new one. Hope this helps!

  15. Image of Jo Jo says:

    This is super helpful and I really appreciate all of the time and effort that went into it. From the knowledge shared here, I am hoping you might be able to help me with this question. I want to know if there is a way to stay in Present mode and move things around on the slide. I present google slide shows on my Dell board and it would be so much better if students could come up and manipulate icons etc. while still being in present mode, instead of having to exit out and be in edit mode. Is this even possible, or should I give up trying to figure it out? Thank you so much!

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi Jo, unfortunately there’s not a way to make any changes from present mode. Slides doesn’t have that type of functionality available. Sorry about that!

  16. Image of UnicornGirl UnicornGirl says:

    Hey! Is there a shorter way to do this?

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi there, unfortunately there’s no quicker way that we know of!

  17. Image of Frank Frank says:

    Hello,

    Is there a way to prevent users from clicking on a slide in present mode and have it advance? This way the user can only advance when clicking on a button with internal links?

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi Frank, as far as we know there’s no way to do this. Sorry about that!

  18. Image of Nathan Nathan says:

    You guys are the BEST!!!!!! Usually, other websites just don’t help you but you guys helped me a lot.

    So, mahalo

  19. Image of Imb0red3030 Imb0red3030 says:

    Hey, is there a way to put it to when you click on the image it takes you to the next slide?

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi there, yes all you would need to do in that case is link the image on the slide to the next slide you want to advance to. Hope this helps!

  20. Image of Ali Ali says:

    Is there a way to publish these slides onto sites so the audience can click around on all the links but NOT move automatically forward or backward through the deck? I want people to have to click the “go back” button, and when I click it goes through every slide. (It’s an escape room for my students).

    Thanks!

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi Ali, unfortunately Google Slides doesn’t have the functionality to lock slides. Sorry about that!

  21. Image of Trisha Trisha says:

    Hi! I just created interactive slides for my students that includes slides that go back and forth between “good job!” and “try again!” so that students can go through and self-correct. It works fine when in presentation or slideshow mode and they use a mouse to click the answers. However, I have touch screen laptops and if my students touch the screen instead of the mouse (fine motor issues), the file copies itself and goes out of the slideshow mode. What am I doing wrong or can I not use links between slides without a mouse?

    Thanks in advance!

    • Image of Ian Wicks Ian Wicks says:

      Hi Trisha,

      As far as I can tell, that sounds like it might be a hardware issue – is there a way for you to disable the touchscreen feature on the devices themselves? As far as I know there’s nothing that can be done from within Slides.

      Sorry about that!

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