Presenting with Google slides is clean and easy process. In the upper right corner click the PRESENT button.

A direct click on the button puts the presentation in full screen slide show (and there is an app to turn a cell phone into a remote for Google Slides!). Click the drop down menu and a few additional options are available; PRESENT FROM BEGINNING (eg. slide #1), PRESENT ON ANOTHER SCREEN (more on this below), and PRESENTER VIEW!

Yes, a web based app that can leverage a multiple monitors, and it does is very well! PRESENTER VIEW opens in a new window and shows the previous, current and next slides. There is a timer, an Audience Q&A feature and SPEAKER NOTES (that can be formatted with styling)  There is also a drop down menu to jump to any slide in the presentation easily (but like PowerPoint, jumping to a slide in a non-linear order does not respect the applied transition effect).

In the AUDIENCE TOOLS is the polling feature. It assumes everyone watching is on a device, and not watching the presentation on a large event screen. What I was really impressed with is how the audience polling integrated into the Presenter View interface (Microsoft – take note!). 

The PRESENT ON ANOTHER SCREEN is a clean interface to a ChromeCast enabled monitor (I can easily see this as a corporate event option of the presenter connecting to a ChromeCast that is inline with the show equipment, enabling a presenter to run their presentation from stage and roam). I also was excited about the thought of having Presenter View on a phone or tablet and the presentation on a wireless screen – but that is not an option…

There is a way to use Google Slides offline, but the safest approach is to plan to be online while presenting. The presenting experience is clean, easy to use and if using Presenter View, very robust.

Troy @ TLC