Highlighting text on Google Slides is an easy yet powerful way to draw attention to key points in your presentation. Proper text highlighting improves audience engagement, guides the viewer, and boosts memorability of crucial information.
In this comprehensive guide, we will cover everything you need to know about highlighting text in Google Slides, from basic highlighting to advanced techniques.
Benefits of Text Highlighting
Before jumping into the step-by-step instructions, let’s first understand why text highlighting is so important for presentations:
- Draws attention: Highlighted text immediately grabs the viewer’s focus towards the most important information. This allows your audience to quickly scan and digest slides.
- Improves memorability: According to research, people remember highlighted information better than non-highlighted text [1]. Highlighting boosts retention and recall.
- Enhances engagement: Strategic use of text highlighting keeps audiences interested and focused. It adds visual variety to slides.
- Guides the viewer: You can direct the viewer’s eyes to crucial data by highlighting it. This prevents them from missing key statistics or facts.
Step-by-Step Guide to Highlight Text
Highlighting text in Google Slides is easy. Follow these simple steps:
1. Select the Text
Click on the text box and use your mouse to select the part you want to highlight. You can highlight a few words, entire sentences, or multiple paragraphs.
2. Click on “Highlight Color”
In the toolbar, click the highlight color icon, located to the right of the text color icon.
Highlight color icon in Google Slides
3. Choose a Color
A palette of highlight color options will now open. Choose a color that stands out against your slide’s background.
Tip: For better visibility, pick a darker shade to highlight light text and a lighter shade for dark text.
4. Customize the Color (Optional)
Don’t like the default colors? You can also choose a custom RGB or HEX color. Just click on “Add custom color” to open the color picker.
And that’s it! The selected text will now have a highlighted background.
Advanced Highlighting Techniques
Along with basic highlighting, Google Slides also allows you to highlight text in creative ways:
Use Multiple Colors
Apply different highlight colors to various key points within the same text box. This technique is perfect for distinguishing stats, data, quotes, or conclusions.
Add Effects
Make the highlights pop even more by adding effects like glow, shadow, or 3D rotation. Just ensure the text remains readable.
Animate Highlights
Bring in highlights via exciting entrance animations. This grabs attention and reveals important points in a captivating manner.
Highlight Images/Icons
Draw focus to a specific part of an image or icon by highlighting that portion. This helps reinforce visual communication.
Dos and Don’ts
Keep these best practices in mind:
Do:
- Use highlights sparingly, only for the most crucial information
- Ensure enough contrast between text and highlight colors
- Be consistent with highlight colors and styles
Don’t:
- Overuse highlights on trivial information
- Choose low-contrast color combinations
- Use too many different highlight colors
Conclusion
Text highlighting is an indispensable technique for boosting engagement and recall in Google Slide presentations. With this simple guide, you can now effectively highlight key messages and make them stick with audiences.
Strategically apply highlights to guide your viewers, improve slides visually, and reinforce your core story.
