Using Grid View in Google Slides

In a modern classroom, a student wearing a hijab uses her laptop to engage with Google Slides while a group discussion is displayed on a screen.

As you work on your presentations, you may end up with quite a few slides. When that happens, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture. Now, if you were using PowerPoint, you could switch to Outline View (which is an excellent feature), but Google Slides lacks this option.

A good way to get around this so you can see the overall structure of your Google Slides presentation is to use Grid View. It’s easy to do and not only enables you to see the structure, but to easily change the order of your slides to adjust the flow of your slide deck.

Switching to Grid View in Google Slides

There are several ways to change views in Google Slides.

  • Go to the View menu, then select Grid View
  • Use the Grid View icon at the bottom left of the screen
  • Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + 1

The image shows a Google Slides window where the "View" menu is open with "Grid view" highlighted, alongside a presentation titled "Consulting Proposal," featuring snowy mountain imagery.


The image shows a Google Slides grid view of a consulting proposal presentation, featuring slides titled "Consulting Proposal," "TOC," and "Market Trends."

Rearranging slides in Grid View

After selecting Grid View, your slides will be displayed as thumbnails. Now you can move a slide by clicking and dragging to a new location. You can also select multiple slides by clicking the first one, then pressing and holding the Ctrl key and selecting more slides.

The image showcases a Google Slides Grid View with a highlighted "Overview" slide, emphasizing its connectivity within the presentation layout.

Returning to Filmstrip View

Once you finish rearranging things, you can return to your regular Filmstrip View by going back to the View menu and clicking Grid View again. This turns off the view. Or you can simply click on the Filmstrip View icon at the bottom left of the screen.

Conclusion

There you have it, using grid view in Google Slides provides a nice simple way to rearrange slides in your slide deck to quickly change the flow of your presentation. If your presentation has lots of slides, perhaps because you will be using more than one presenter, this can be a real help. Enjoy!

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