Google Slides is a popular presentation software that allows you to create visually engaging slideshows right from your browser. With its easy-to-use interface and handy collaboration features, Google Slides has become the go-to choice for many professionals and students.

One useful trick in Google Slides is setting your presentation to loop automatically, so it continuously cycles through the slides without you having to manually advance each one. This can be handy for unattended displays, trade show booths, digital signage, and more.

You may think that looping requires you to formally publish your presentation to the web first. However, there are ways to loop a Google Slides presentation instantly without publishing.

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn multiple methods for looping Google Slides, including:

Looping slides from edit view
Looping slides while presenting

Looping published slides

Let’s get started!

Method 1: How to Loop Google Slides from Edit View

The easiest way to loop slides is directly from edit view, before you even begin presenting. Here’s how:

Open your Google Slides presentation and go to edit view.
Click on Slideshow at the top.
Click on the drop-down arrow next to Slideshow and select From Beginning.

Your presentation will open in presentation mode. Click the 3-dot menu at the bottom.
Select Auto-play from the menu.
Choose an Auto-advance timing, such as every 10 seconds.

Tick the Loop checkbox at the bottom to enable looping.
Click outside the menu to resume the presentation. It will now loop automatically based on your settings.

And that’s it! With just a few clicks, your Google Slides presentation will now continuously loop through all the slides automatically.

Method 2: How to Loop Slides While Presenting

You can also loop slides while live presenting to an audience, without having to publish first. Just follow these steps:

Open your presentation and click Slideshow > Presenter View.
When presenting, hover over the bottom left corner so the Presenter Toolbar appears.

Click the 3-dot menu on the right side.
Choose Auto-play and select an Auto-advance duration.
Tick the Loop checkbox.

Resume presenting and your slides will now loop automatically.

This method allows you to enable looping on the fly while presenting. It’s perfect for longer, unattended presentations where you want the slides to cycle continuously without interruptions.

Method 3: How to Loop Google Slides After Publishing

Publishing your Google Slides presentation provides additional options for enabling automatic looping:

From edit view, select File > Publish to the Web.
In the publish settings, go to the Auto-play section.
Set your desired Auto-advance duration, such as every minute.

Tick the boxes for Start slideshow as soon as the player loads and Restart the slideshow after the last slide to enable looping.
Click Publish and confirm.
Copy the published link or embed code. When viewers open your published presentation, it will now loop automatically based on your settings.

The benefit of this method is it allows your looping presentation to be shared more widely and viewed by anyone with the link. The loop settings become baked into the published version.

Pro Tip: Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Control Looping

Once your Google Slides presentation is set to loop automatically, you can use keyboard shortcuts to manually control the playback:

Right Arrow: Advance to next slide

Left Arrow: Go back one slide
Escape: Stop the presentation
Spacebar: Pause/Resume looping

So if you need to temporarily pause the looping, press the Spacebar. Then hit it again to resume where you left off.

These shortcuts allow you to easily jump around and control your looping presentation on the fly.

Create Seamless Looped Presentations

A continuously looping Google Slides presentation can transform an ordinary slideshow into dynamic signage. It draws attention, keeps viewers engaged, and requires no manual interaction once enabled.

With the techniques outlined above, you can now set Google Slides to loop automatically without having to formally publish. So test out the different methods and create seamless presentations that run on their own.

Just remember to tailor the auto-advance durations based on slide content. You want each slide to display long enough for viewers to digest the information before advancing.

Do you have any other questions about looping presentations in Google Slides? Let us know in the comments below!