Last updated on January 23rd, 2024 at 02:31 am
You may already know that Google Slides is a free service that allows you to create presentation slides.
The main attraction of Google Slides is you don’t have to install any software to use it.
All you need is a Google account to access your work anywhere there’s an Internet connection.
Also, you can export your slides to the PowerPoint format (.ppt) should you want to work with it on the Microsoft application.
Most Google Slides users know that images can be easily added to their presentations. They can’t say the same for video. This is because the add video function is not as prominent in Google slides, as the add image function.
It is well known that you can easily embed a video in a PowerPoint presentation. But can you do so with Google Slides?
Fortunately, you can, just like you can edit MP4 video on Google Drive.
There are two types of videos you can add to your Google Slides. The first is a video already published on YouTube. The other type is embedding a video file in a supported format.
Embedding a YouTube Video
Embedding a video in Google Slides is quite a straightforward process.
Choose the slide in which you want to insert the video by clicking on it.
Then click on Insert and choose Video.
On clicking on Video, you’ll be presented with options. The default option is to search for a YouTube video.
If you already have the URL of the YouTube video, then you can insert the URL in the box.
This would not be the option many would choose. Chances are you already have a particular YouTube video you want to embed.
On entering the URL of your YouTube video, you’ll see a preview of the video you wish to embed.
Proceed to click on the Select button.
Once you hit the select key, your video will be inserted into the slide. You can then drag the edges to choose the position and its size on the slide.
Done with that, you can start exploring the video format options you’re presented with.
Video Format Options
Can you make a video automatically play in Google Slides?
Under the Video playback option, you have the option of having the video play automatically, manually, or on clicking. Choose the Play (automatically) option.
These options apply when you are in the Present mode.
There are also options for size and rotation, not to mention positioning of video on the slide.
How to Embed a YouTube Video in Google Slides at a Certain Time
Another notable option here is you can set the start and end times of a video. This is useful if you just want to show a particular portion of the video.
As you can see, this embed video option works well if you’re going to present your slides directly from Google Slides.
If you save the presentation as a PDF, you’ll have to click on the video thumbnail. It becomes a clickable link that takes you directly to the video on YouTube.
So, you must always be connected to the Internet if you wish to view the embedded video in Google Slides.
How to Insert a Non-YouTube Video in Google Slides
If you already have a video file stored in Google Drive, this is how you’ll go about embedding a video in Google Slides.
Like in the above example, click on the slide you want to embed your video in.
Go to the Insert menu, select Video and then choose Google Drive from the options.
You can’t upload a video directly from your hard disk to a Google slide. You would have to do it through Google Drive.
You’ll be presented with 4 options as shown below.
If you already have the video uploaded to Google Drive, choose the My Drive option.
If you have a video in a shared drive which is also accessible to others, then select.
If someone has shared a video with you through Google Drive, then click on Shared with me .
Otherwise, upload a video to Google Drive and choose the Recent option for your convenience.
How Do I insert an MP4 Video into Google Slides?
The following video formats can be embedded in Google Slides:
- WebM files (Vp8 video codec; Vorbis Audio codec)
- OGG.
- WMV.
- MPEG4, 3GPP, and MOV files (H264 and MPEG4 video codecs; AAC audio codec)
- AVI (MJPEG video codec; PCM audio)
- MPEG (MPEG2 video codec; MP2 audio)
- FLV (Adobe – FLV1 video codec, MP3 audio)
- MTS.
On your Google Drive home page click on + New.
Then choose File Upload and navigate to the folder where your video file is stored.
Navigate to the folder where your MP4 file is located and upload it.
Go back to the Insert Video option and choose Recent.
If your uploaded video doesn’t appear, refresh or reload the page. Then click on the Select button.
Your video will be inserted into the chosen Google Slide and you can make the necessary adjustments.
Follow the steps as for embedding the YouTube video with the Format Options.
If you don’t see the Format Options, right-click on the video and choose Format Options.
When you run your video in Present mode, your video will play according to the option you choose.
So, there are two ways of embedding video in a Google slide – embed a YouTube video or upload a video to Google Drive and embed it.
You can’t embed a video from any video file-sharing site apart from YouTube. To do it, you would have to download the video and upload it to Google Drive first before embedding it in a Google slide.
