Adding videos to your Google Slides presentations can be a great way to make them more dynamic, engaging, and informative. However, there are some best practices you should follow when embedding videos in Slides to ensure they play properly and provide a smooth viewing experience for your audience. In this article, we’ll cover 5 essential tips to guide you when using videos in Google Slides.
1. Check Video Format Compatibility
The first thing you want to check before inserting a video into Slides is whether the video file format is compatible. Google Slides supports common video formats like:
- MP4
- AVI
- MOV
- WMV
If your video is in a format like MKV, FLV, or other less common codecs, you’ll want to [convert it] to an approved format first before adding it to your presentation. This will prevent errors or issues with getting the video to play correctly when you present the slides.
2. Be Aware of File Size Limits
When adding videos in Google Slides, pay attention to the file size limit for presentations. Currently, Slides presentations have a maximum file size of 50MB.
Large, high-resolution video files can easily cause you to hit or exceed that limit. Before inserting a video, check its file size and consider compressing oversized videos to keep the total presentation file size under 50MB.
There are many free online tools you can use to compress videos like [HandBrake] or [Online Video Converter]. Reducing video resolution or bitrates are common compression techniques to cut file sizes.
3. Check Video Aspect Ratios
The aspect ratio of your video – its width compared to its height – is also important to consider before inserting into Slides. You want to choose videos that match the slide canvas’s aspect ratio to prevent black bars or cropping issues.
Standard Google Slides use a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio. Selecting HD or 720p videos will best match that landscape layout. Videos shot in square or vertical orientations may have black bars or appear cropped when embedded in slides.
Using the Slides video formatting options, you can manually adjust the sizing and cropping to mitigate issues with non-16:9 videos.
4. Verify Videos Play Properly Before Presenting
Once you’ve inserted videos into your Google Slides, thoroughly test that they play back properly before presenting the deck. Verify that:
- Videos start and play smoothly without glitches
- Audio plays clearly at an appropriate volume
- Controls work as expected
- Aspect ratio looks correct
Checking for issues ahead of time prevents any embarrassing video fails when presenting to an audience. Make sure videos work as expected on both desktop and mobile devices since viewers may use different platforms.
5. Have a Backup Option
Even if you follow all the best practices, technical problems can still arise when embedding online videos in presentations. To be safe, have a backup plan to show the video just in case.
Options like having the video downloaded on your laptop or mobile device will allow you to play it separately if unable to get it working properly from within Slides itself. Worst case, being prepared to describe the video content can get you through the presentation if the technology fails.
Summary
Adding videos can make for more powerful and memorable presentations in Google Slides. Keep these key tips in mind when embedding videos to ensure your viewers have the best experience:
- Convert videos to compatible formats
- Compress overly large video files
- Select videos with 16:9 aspect ratios
- Test videos play properly before presenting
- Have a backup option ready just in case
Following this video usage best practice guide will help your presentations make the strongest impact on audiences.
