Skip to main content

How to draw on Google Slides

A concept that shows drawing on the screen of a MacBook with an Apple Pencil.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Google Slides is a cloud-powered alternative to PowerPoint, a slideshow tool that allows you to put together a presentation at high speed, share it with others, and get feedback with collaboration features. When you’re ready to present, you can easily connect the project to a Google Calendar event, send it to another screen, or start slideshow playback right from Slides, and if you know how to draw on Google Slides, you can even add handwritten notes, annotations, and hand-drawn diagrams.

Here are a few tips to get you started.

Recommended Videos

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

5 minutes

What You Need

  • PC, laptop, tablet, or smartphone, with Google Slides access.

Open up your presentation in Google Slides

Step 1: If you’ve never used Google Slides before, you can find the web app right here. You may need to log in with your Google account info when first signing in.

Go to Google Slides.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 2: Once you are in, navigate to the specific slide in the presentation that you want to draw on. We will go through the process on a single basic slide format, but it should work for any slide that you’ve created in the platform.

Enable the drawing function in Slides

Step 1: Look at the top menu in the Slides window, and select Insert. This is where you can manually insert a broad variety of shapes, images, or text into Slides.

Choose Insert in Google Slides.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 2: Go to the Line option under Insert.

Choose Line in Google Slides.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 3: At the bottom of the Line menu, select Scribble.

Choose Scribble in Google Slides.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 4: With Scribble activated, you are now ready to begin drawing lines. Use your mouse pointer and hold left-click down to start drawing. When you unclick, the line you have drawn will automatically be highlighted, allowing you to move it around as you see fit or copy and paste it to different slides.

A Scribble in Google Slides.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 5: If Scribble is a little too free-form for what you have in mind, you can try one of the other options under Lines instead, such as Curve or Polyline. If you’ve used draw functions in PowerPoint before, these will probably be familiar to you.

Step 6: Do you want to change to a particular line width or color? Slides makes that easy, too. Look at the icons at the top of the Slides window to find more options. The marker-like icon is called Line Colorand will allow you to pick from a variety of colors to change to. Next to it, you will find Line Weight, which allows you to change the thickness. You can also choose to change it to a dotted or dashed line with Line Dash.

Choose Line Color in Google Slides.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

As usual with Google’s cloud apps, your work will be automatically saved as you go. Got an existing PowerPoint presentation you'd like to tweak in Google Slides? You may also want to check our guide on how to convert a PowerPoint project over to Google Slides.

Tyler Lacoma
Former Digital Trends Contributor
If it can be streamed, voice-activated, made better with an app, or beaten by mashing buttons, Tyler's into it. When he's not…
Google demos its smartglasses and makes us hanker for the future
A screenshot from Google's TED Talk on its smartglasses.

At a recent TED talk, Google’s exciting XR smartglasses were demonstrated to the public for the very first time. While we’ve seen the smartglasses before, it has always been in highly polished videos showcasing Project Astra, where we never get a true feel for the features and functionality in the real world. All that has now changed, and our first glimpse of the future is very exciting. However, future is very much the operative word. 

https://www.ted.com/talks/shahram_izadi_the_next_computer_your_glasses?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

Read more
Google’s Firebase Studio lets you prototype apps in minutes — no code needed
The Google Gemini AI logo.

Google is giving its mobile and web app development platform, Firebase, a vibe coding makeover -- transforming it from a dev tool into a DIY AI app builder. It's in a preview phase right now but any individual Google user can give it a go.

Just as chatbots like ChatGPT generate text or images from your prompts, Firebase Studio endeavors to generate app prototypes. For businesses, the idea is to majorly speed up the prototyping process, but the reason "vibe coding" is getting attention right now is that non-techie individuals can use these tools to build personal apps as well.

Read more
Google Drive, iCloud, or OneDrive: Which cloud storage is most private and secure?
Google Drive, iCloud, and OneDrive are open on a PC monitor.

Cloud storage is convenient, syncing your files and photos between devices, but is it secure enough to keep your data safe? And how much private information are you sharing when you use Microsoft OneDrive, Apple iCloud, and Google Drive?

If you’re paying for the best antivirus software to protect your computer, you want to safeguard your data that’s in the cloud. Likewise, the best VPNs hide your identity, but some cloud storage providers lack the end-to-end encryption that ensures privacy.
Cloud security

Read more