If there’s one conclusion you’ll reach after reading this article, it’s that Google Slides has some tricks up its sleeve.

Jenny Lee is a graphic designer at BetterCloud and the artist behind the 2016 State of Cloud IT presentation. She shared her top tricks in Google Slides that she used while building the 2016 State of Cloud IT presentation.

More than 35,000 people have viewed the presentation in SlideShare, which has proven to be a successful method to share a comprehensive slide presentation. From keyboard shortcuts to masking images, Google Slides has an impressive set of tools for all end users to learn to become a Google Slides artist.

1. Zoom In and Out of Your Slides

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To zoom in and out of a slide, select the slide itself. Make sure that no objects on the slide are selected. On your Mac keyboard, hit the keys Command , Alt Option, and + or – to zoom in and out on the slide. On a PC, select CTRL, Shift, and + or -.

2. Master All Slides with the Slide Master

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When you’re working with a template and working with many slides, the Slide Master can be your saving grace. To access the Slide Master, click Slide > Edit Master. This will take you to a new screen where you can make edits to every slide in the presentation. In this video, we decided to change the background color for all slides.

3. Pull a Stealth Move, Apply a Mask to Your Image

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Masking an image allows you to show or hide parts of an object according to a mask shape. In the above demonstration, we chose a circle as the mask shape. You can resize the mask shape and the image to fit your design needs.

To mask an image, select the image and then click the Crop tool. Under the Crop menu, select Shapes and then select a mask shape. Your image is now in the shape of your mask shape. To adjust the mask shape, double click the image. To adjust the original image, select the outline of the image.

4. No Blurred Lines Here

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Lines in Slides are a great tool to for many use cases in Slides. Here we’ve demonstrated how to use them for a timeline. There are several types of lines you can work with that include straight lines, curved lines, scribble lines, and polylines.

5. Adjust the Size of Your Font with this Keyboard Shortcut

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To quickly increase or decrease the font size on your slides, select the text you want to adjust, and hit the keys on a Mac, Command, Shift, and < (to decrease), > (to increase font size). On a PC, hit the keys CTRL, Shift, and  < or >.

6. Duplicate an Object in One Step

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When you want to duplicate an object on your slide, you can do that in one step. Select the object you want to duplicate, and hit Alt on a Mac or CTRL on a PC. While holding down that key, drag the image and you will see that another image peels off of the original.

7. Pick a Color, Any Color

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Need to exactly match something to the specific color of your company logo? Fear no more. Find the hex value you want to use, click the paint bucket icon to adjust the color of a selected object, select custom, and type in your hex value. Click OK and your object will change color.

For more awesome tips and tricks for Google Slides, check out this episode of The Apps Show from our friends at Google for Work. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EooLYqDefd4