The slide editor is where you build a deck. Use it to add and arrange slides, insert elements onto a slide, select and move them on the canvas, and change them in the Properties panel. For the editor's top bar, panels and notes, see The deck editor.
One renderer draws your slide everywhere it shows: the canvas, the rail thumbnails, the deck cards on the dashboard, present mode and the printed output. Previews are the same at thumbnail size and full screen. Editor-only marks, such as the badges on live data and the dimmed placeholders, never appear outside the editor.
The slide rail on the left of the editor lists every slide. Its header reads Slides with the number of slides.
With a thumbnail focused, the same actions have shortcuts: Alt+Shift+D duplicates the slide, Alt+C copies it, Ctrl+Shift+V pastes a copied slide below, F2 renames it, Alt+L opens Apply layout, and Delete or Backspace deletes the slide. After a delete, the next slide becomes the active one.
Paste slide below stays greyed out until you copy a slide. The copy stays available until you copy something else or reload the page.
Rename slide opens one field. The name shows in the rail tooltip and is read out to screen readers.
Small avatars on a thumbnail show who else is on that slide. Up to three avatars show, then a +N chip. They fade out after someone stops working on the slide; see Saving and version history.
The Insert onto slide bar floats over the top of the canvas. Each button adds one kind of element.
| Button | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Text | A text box with the placeholder Add text. |
| Shape | A Rectangle, Ellipse, Triangle, Arrow, Line or Path. |
| Image | A file picker. You can also paste an image onto the canvas. See Images, video and deck assets. |
| Vector graphic | A file picker for a vector graphic. |
| Chart | A menu of chart types, for example Bar. See Charts and tables. |
| Table | A table. |
| Video or audio | A Video or Audio placeholder. You set its address in the Properties panel. |
Text, shapes, charts and tables land in the middle of the part of the slide you are looking at, in front of what is already there.
To add a text box quickly, double-click an empty part of the canvas. The new text box opens for editing straight away.
To move, resize or rotate:
Hold Shift while resizing to keep the proportions, and while rotating to turn in 15° steps. Hold Alt while resizing to resize around the centre.
While you drag, alignment guides show where the element lines up with others or with the slide. Guides do not appear for rotated elements, or while you hold Alt or Shift during a resize.
The Properties panel sits on the right of the editor. It always starts with Layers.
This slide has no elements yet.For a selected element, you see these sections:
| Section | What it does |
|---|---|
| Arrange | Sets the order, aligns and distributes elements, matches size, and locks, groups or ungroups them. |
| Layout | Sets X, Y, Width, Height, Rotation and Opacity. |
| Text, Shape, Image, Chart, Table and so on | Settings for that kind of element. |
| Effects | Drop shadow, Element blur, Backdrop blur and Blend mode. |
| Morph and Animation | Covered in Animations and transitions. |
{N} elements selected. Settings for single elements stand down until you select one.The Notes button in the canvas footer opens Speaker notes, where each slide has its own note. Only you see them while presenting. See Present.
To bring a picture from another app, copy it there and paste it onto the canvas. It becomes an image element. A picture on your computer's clipboard wins over anything copied inside Slides.
A layout re-composes a slide into a ready-made arrangement of its content.
The slide keeps its name, notes and transition. If the layout cannot be built, nothing changes and the message That layout could not be applied appears. For the 15 layouts and what each one expects, see Slide layouts.
Canvas shortcuts stand down inside dialogs, menus, popovers and the notes, and while you are typing on the canvas. Undo, redo and save are the exceptions: they work even while your cursor is in a Properties field.
For every key and gesture, including the crop and chart grid keys, see Editor shortcuts and gestures.
Editing needs edit rights on the deck. With view-only access:
Ask the deck owner for Can edit on the deck, or an administrator for the Edit Deck permission if your role should edit decks. See Slides permissions.
| Thing | Limit |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys | Move the selection by 1 px. With Shift, by 10 px. |
| Font size | 6 to 400 px. |
| Element size | An element cannot be resized below 8 px. |
| Rotation | With Shift, the rotate handle turns in 15° steps. |
| Duplicated element | Placed 24 px away from the original. |
| Undo history | 100 steps. |
| Typing and sliders | Changes to the same property within half a second merge into one undo step. Structural changes, such as applying a layout, never merge. |
| Zoom | 10% to 400%. Click the percentage to reset it to 100%. |
Double-click an empty part of the canvas. A text box opens in editing mode with the placeholder Add text. You can also click Text in the Insert onto slide bar.
Alt+click it. A plain click selects the whole group, and a drag moves it as one object. Alt+click is the way to reach a single member without breaking the group.
Delete acts on what is selected on the canvas, or on the slide that is focused in the rail. If the element is locked, it cannot be selected at all, so unlock it in the Arrange section first. If a field has the focus, the key edits text instead. With view-only access, editing keys do nothing.
Yes. The locked member stays where it is while the rest of the group moves. Unlock it first if the whole group should move together.
One gesture, one step: a drag, a resize or a rotation is a single undo. Typing in a field or dragging a slider is different. Changes to the same property within half a second count as one edit, and structural changes such as applying a layout never merge.
Some do. Undo, redo and save work everywhere, including inside fields. All other canvas shortcuts stand down while a field, a dialog, a menu or the notes panel is active.
Drag it lower in Layers, use the Order controls in the Arrange section, or press Ctrl+[ to send it backward. Press Ctrl+Shift+[ to send it to the back.
Guides are skipped for rotated elements, and while you resize with Alt or Shift held. Rotate the element back, or release the modifier, to get snapping again.
Right-click the slide in the rail and choose Copy slide, open the other deck, then right-click a thumbnail and choose Paste slide below. The pasted slide lands below the slide you chose and becomes the open slide. A slide pasted from another deck keeps its content and loses its layout association.
No. PowerPoint cannot show them, so an exported PowerPoint file shows the element unblurred and unblended. A printed PDF also skips backdrop blur.
You have view-only access to the deck. Ask the deck owner or an administrator for Can edit on the deck, or for the Edit Deck permission if your role should edit decks. See Slides permissions.