How to add audio to Google Slides
A presentation is an audio/visual tool. With most presentations, the emphasis is usually on visually communicating ideas and presenting information. Audio, while not used often, is as effective a tool to add to a presentation.
Audio in Google Slides
Google Slides is Google’s presentation tool. It comes with themes, support for graphs, and you can insert audio and/or video files to it. When inserted, the audio file can be played directly from the slide i.e., you do not have to navigate to an audio player or to a website to play it.
Add audio in Google Slides
Before you can add audio to Google Slides, you need to first upload the file you want to use to your Google Drive account. Make sure you use the same account to create a presentation in Google Slides.
Once the audio file has been uploaded, follow these steps to add audio to a Google Slides presentation.
- Open a presentation in Google Slides.
- Go to Insert>Audio.
- In the window that opens, select the audio file you want to add (use the search bar to search your Google Drive for the file).
- The audio file will be added to the presentation.
- Select the icon that represents the file and you will see controls and options for customizing when the audio plays.
Playing audio in Google Slides
Google Slides is not an offline tool. You can work on it offline but not all features will be available. Likewise, if you want to present from a Google Slides presentation, you must be online.
The audio file will remain in your Google Drive and you can play it directly from Google Slides but, you need an internet connection for it to work. During the presentation, you can click the audio icon to play the audio. If you hover with the cursor over the audio icon, controls for playing it will appear.
Conclusion
Audio playback during a presentation will depend on the quality of the connection that you have. If the connection is slow, or unstable, you will likely get poor or choppy playback. Unfortunately, there is no solution to this. You may have to use a desktop presentation tool like PowerPoint which allows you to add the audio file to the presentation. As for supported formats, you can use popular audio formats however, if you think a particular format may not play, upload and play it in Google Drive first. If Google Drive is able to play the file, you will likewise be able to play it in Google Slides.
