PC Doctor September 8, 2022

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Dear PC Doctor:

I’ve been asked to give a talk about an art project I’m working on. I have a bunch of photos and I think I know what I want to say. I thought I’d create a Power Point presentation but the computer I borrowed does not have Microsoft Office installed and I don’t have a Microsoft account to use their online versions. I’ve kind of already committed. I could just project my photos and speak off the cuff, but I’d like to do something a little more formal; are there other options?

Thank you,
Spence

Dear Spence:

You write to me with a Gmail address so I am assuming you have a google account. Have you ever used Google Slides? It is a tool that is quite similar to Power Point and it is free for you to use. With Slides you work in the cloud, where all the changes you make will be saved. You will be able to access and edit your Slides presentation from any device, as long as you know your log in credentials.

First, log into your Google account. In the upper right hand corner of your screen, you should see a square made of nine dots. Click the yellow icon labeled Slides. You’ll see prompts to either choose a presentation template or to begin a new one.

If you’ve used Power Point before, Google Slides should be pretty easy to get used to. Essentially, you create a new slide, insert the picture you want on that slide (Slides will prompt you to select the image from your computer, flash drive, or google drive), add any text you like, and move on to the next slide.

If you want to do something fancier, there are many tutorials for Google Slide on YouTube.

I hope this helps!
Until next time,
Happy Computing!
PC Doctor

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