Adding graphs and charts to your Google Slides presentations can help visualize data, illustrate trends, and make your information more engaging and memorable for your audience.
In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn the step-by-step process for creating different types of charts and graphs in Google Slides, including bar graphs, pie charts, line graphs, and more.
Step 1: Open Google Slides and Insert a New Slide
First, open Google Slides in your web browser and either open an existing presentation or start a new one.
Once your presentation is open, insert a new blank slide where you want to add your graph by clicking the + icon at the top left. The entire slide will be taken up by the graph initially so having it on its own slide works best.
Step 2: Access the Chart Insertion Menu
Next, click on the Insert menu at the top and select Chart from the drop-down options. This will open up the chart insertion menu.
Here you’ll see chart options like Bar, Column, Line, Pie, etc. Hover over each chart type to see a preview before selecting the one you want.
Step 3: Choose Your Chart Type
The chart types available include:
- Bar – Compares values across categories
- Column – Also compares values across categories
- Line – Illustrates trends and changes over time
- Pie – Shows proportional data in percentages of a whole
- Scatter – Plots data points to show correlation
- Combo – Combines two or more chart types
Select the chart that best fits your data and what you want to illustrate. The most common types are bar, line and pie charts.
Step 4: Customize the Chart Data
Once you select a chart type, a basic chart with sample data will be inserted into your Google Slides presentation.
To customize it with your own data, click on the three dots in the top right corner of the chart and choose Open source.
This will launch Google Sheets in a new tab, showing the data table connected to your Google Slides chart.
In Google Sheets, edit the sample data with your own numbers, categories and labels. Any updates made here will automatically sync with your Google Slides chart.
Step 5: Format and Style Your Chart
Back in Google Slides, you can now format and style your chart to fit your presentation theme and branding.
With your chart selected, use the formatting options on the right to:
- Change colors
- Add borders
- Adjust transparency
- Apply chart layouts
- Edit titles and labels
- Switch row/column data
- And more!
Play around with different options under the Customize tab to see how you can tailor your Google Slides chart to meet your needs.
Step 6: Annotate and Explain Your Google Slides Chart
To make your data even more informative and engaging, consider annotating key elements of your Google Slides chart as you present:
- Callouts – Use callouts and text boxes to explain parts of your chart
- Arrows – Draw arrows pointing to sections of data
- Highlighting – Highlight important elements like maximums and minimums
- Animations – Animate chart components to reveal them one by one
Annotations help you guide your audience through your data visually step-by-step.
Step 7: Keep Your Chart Updated
If your data is from a live source that updates regularly, you can keep your Google Slides chart current by clicking Refresh in Google Sheets whenever the numbers change.
The chart in your presentation will automatically update to reflect the latest figures each time without having to recreate it.
Key Takeaways
Creating and customizing charts and graphs directly in Google Slides is fast and simple with just a few clicks. Follow the process outlined above:
- Insert a new slide
- Open chart insertion menu
- Select chart type
- Customize data
- Format and style
- Annotate and explain
- Refresh with live data
Integrating eye-catching charts into your presentations is an impactful way to present data and engage your audience.
So give your next Google Slides graph a boost using these best practices for chart creation, design and explanations.
