If you want to take your Google Slides presentation from “good” to “awesome,” you can turn to these helpful multimedia tricks. Here are a few great ways to spice up your Google Slides with photos and music.

Add a faded/transparent background image

Faded images work very well as background images because they provide visual interest, yet aren’t so overwhelming that they distract your audience and overshadow your text.
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• First, insert an image that you want as the background of your slide by going to Insert > Image.
• Next, resize the image so that it fills up the whole slide.
• Right-click on the image, and choose image options.
• Slide the transparency slider until you’re happy with how faded the image becomes, making the perfect background for a slide.

Another way to do this is create a transparent image in another program, then click on Background at the top of your screen, and upload the image. This will apply it to all slides in the project rather than just to a single slide, so use whichever method fits your needs best.

Move images pixel by pixel for precise placement

You might have found that placing images in Google Slides using the mouse or keyboard arrows can be somewhat clumsy and imprecise at times, because you can’t get the position quite right. Try this quick trick instead:

• Select your picture, and then hold down the shift key on the keyboard.
• Use the arrow keys to move the image pixel by pixel around the page, allowing you to be as precise as you want with your placement.

Add music to your presentation

The right music can enhance almost any presentation. There is no official support for music in Google Slides, but there are a few ways to work around this. In our video tutorial, we’ll show you our favorite way, but keep in mind there are other ways to do this.

• Copy the link to the music track you’d like to include (we used a SoundCloud file), and head back to your presentation.
• Insert a shape or text box. Highlight your shape, right-click it, and insert the link to your music track.
• Now, when you present the slideshow, you can just click on your shape to open the music track in another tab.

Create interactive images that link to other slides

• First, you’ll have to have an image that you want to make interactive. Make it your background by clicking on Background at the top of your screen and inserting the image.
• Next, you want to create a shape. You can use whatever shape you want. Resize it to fit over a logical part of your image that you want to be interactive.
• Make your shape transparent by clicking on the paint can icon > Transparent, and remove the outline of the shape by going to Line Color > Transparent.
• Next, select your shape, right-click, insert a link, and then choose to link to another slide in the presentation.

Click here to watch this video on YouTube.