We’ve all been there: You’re creating something to use with students, and you copy and paste from another document. Next thing you know, you have a chunk of pasted text that is not only in a different size and font than your other text, but it also copied and pasted some weird background color! Or maybe you’re building slides and change the font in one text box, but still have more to go. The solution? The “paint format” button!
How it works: Highlight a word (or simply place your cursor in a word) that is formatted the way you want. Click on the paint roller icon in the Google Docs/Slides/Sheets toolbar. Now, highlight the text that you need to change to match, and, ta da!
A similar feature is available in many other programs, so keep your eye out for it! For example, it is also available in Canva and Microsoft Outlook (as a paintbrush).
Our students are surrounded by aesthetic, visually stimulating content every day, and we also want to model how to be thoughtful creators of content. If you’ve ever read about the principles of design, you also know the importance of creating a visual hierarchy for influencing the way a slide is read by your audience. But what educator can afford to spend much time making their presentation slides…pretty?
Fear not! There are four free tools that can help make the creation of beautiful, professional-quality slides a cinch:
GIPHY stickers are an easy way to add movement to a slide to draw students’ attention to the slide at hand. Search for what you’d like at giphy.com/stickers. Save the GIF you’d like to include on your slide (on a Mac, right click and “Save Image As”), then drag & drop it onto a Google Slides presentation!
GIPHY Sticker by Trap Bob
Google Slides Explore Tool
If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent way too much time in your career choosing themes and repositioning your images and text for maximum effect. Give yourself a break with the Explore Tool in Google Slides!
After adding text and an image to your slide, click on the Explore icon (bottom right corner) to choose from a variety of recommended layouts. Google Slides will come up with different options depending on your text (e.g., titles, subtitles, etc.), your image, and the size of your image. Just click on the one you’d like to apply to your presentation!
Google Slides Explore Tool in action!
SlidesCarnival
SlidesCarnival offers a seemingly endless collection of FREE Google Slides themes/PowerPoint templates. Browse their gallery, or filter your search by color and categories (e.g., formal, playful, etc.).
Once you find a template you like, click on it, then scroll down and choose to either download it as a PowerPoint template or click to open it as an editable Google Slides theme!
Use SlidesCarnival to find engaging Google Slides themes.
For those of you who are Canva users, SlidesCarnival also has Canva presentation templates available.
Flat Icon
Flat design is a very popular, simple style that uses two dimensional elements. Add flat visual elements to your presentations for free at flaticon.com. Think of flat icons like a more contemporary alternative to clipart!
Search for the image you’d like, then download as a PNG in the size you need. PNGs will maintain the transparent background, and I always opt for the larger size and then shrink it down on my slide if needed.
If you register for a free account, you can also use Flaticon’s editing tool to change the color of monocolor icons. The free account (whether you register or not) also allows you access to thousands of icons, as long as you credit the icon creator. A paid account will allow you access to all icons without needing to credit the icon creator.
There is even a Flaticon Chrome extension so that you can add flat icons to your Google Slides, Docs, Forms, and Sheets without even leaving the page!
Download a FREE flat icon to add to your presentation (just credit the author!)
What other great FREE tools do you use to make visually aesthetic presentations in a snap? Share in the comments below!
