Adding pictures to your Google Slides presentations can make them much more visually appealing and interesting for your audience. However, simply inserting a picture doesn’t always look very professional – you’ll want to take a bit of time to format your images properly. One of the most basic formatting tasks is centering a picture, and luckily Google Slides makes this very simple. In this article, I’ll walk you through the different ways to center images in Google Slides using the alignment tools or the “Arrange” menu.
Why Should You Center Pictures?
Before jumping into the how-to, let’s briefly go over why you should center pictures in the first place. Here are some of the benefits:
- It looks more professional. Centered images give your presentation a cleaner, more polished look.
- It focuses attention. Centered pictures naturally draw the viewer’s eye.
- It’s easier to format. When images start out centered, it makes aligning other elements like text boxes faster.
- It’s more flexible. If you later adjust the slide size or layout, centered images will still look good.
So in most cases, taking the small amount of time to center your images is worth it!
Centering with Alignment Tools
The fastest way to center a picture in Google Slides is using the alignment tools. Here’s how:
- Click on the picture to select it.
- Hover your mouse over the picture until alignment guides appear. These are dotted vertical and horizontal lines.
- Drag the picture until the guides are evenly spaced on all sides. The picture is now centered!
The alignment guides automatically position the image center both vertically and horizontally. Once you get familiar with this tool, centering pictures takes only a few seconds.
Pro Tip: You can turn the alignment guides on or off by going to the View menu and selecting/deselecting “Guides”.
Using the Arrange Menu
Alternatively, you can use the powerful “Arrange” menu to center images:
- Select the picture you want to center.
- In the top menu, click Arrange > Center on Page > Horizontally & Vertically.
- The picture will instantly snap to the center of your slide.
The Arrange menu also gives you additional options like setting precise position coordinates or rotating an image.
Pro Tip: Use the Arrange menu’s “Order” function to send pictures behind text boxes and other elements.
Aligning Multiple Images
If you want to center several images at once horizontally or vertically, here’s what to do:
- Hold down CTRL or CMD and click each picture you want to align. This selects them all.
- Click the Arrange menu at the top and pick an alignment option under Align.
- All selected images will now align accordingly!
This technique saves you the hassle of centering pictures one by one.
Correcting Overlapped Images
Sometimes when centering images they end up overlapping each other. To fix this:
- Select one of the overlapped images.
- Under Arrange, use the Order > Bring to Front option.
- Repeat these steps to arrange images in the correct stacking order.
After organizing which pictures are in front or behind, you can then use the alignment tools again to center them.
Resizing Images
One last thing to keep in mind is image size. Pictures that are too big or too small can look strange when centered.
- To resize an image, click it and drag the white circles around the edge.
- For more precision, use the Size options in the top Format menu.
Resizing and centering go hand in hand for great formatting.
Conclusion
I hope this article helped explain the basics of centering images in Google Slides! Correctly formatting pictures only takes a few clicks once you know the tools. Here are a few key takeaways:
- Use alignment guides for quick centering
- The Arrange menu offers precise positioning
- Center multiple images at once
- Reorder overlapped objects
- Resize images before centering when necessary
Following these simple Google Slides tips will instantly make your presentations look cleaner and more professional.
