It really depends on how many slides will need to be converted to the new template and what size they are. Both are 16:9 widescreen ratio, but 7.5 x 13.33 makes it easier to switch between 4:3 and 16:9 ratios. Since 2013, PowerPoint’s default slide size has been 7.5 x 13.33. Of course I will continue to create them for my clients, because even Google Slides users deserve a good starting point! Slide size But I do admit to often feeling hamstrung when creating presentation templates in Google Slides. That doesn’t always make them bad! It just makes them different. They’re essentially features that work differently in GSlides than in PowerPoint. So here is my list of things I want to keep track of when creating GSlides templates. In fact, I actually ended up answering some of the questions I saw there! For that, I’m sent to the GDocs help, where they don’t really separate Docs from Slides from Sheets, and where there aren’t many answers anyway – at least on the subjects I searched. It’s also unfortunate that I can’t seem to find any help! There are many fantastic resources for Google Slides functionality (shoutout to BrightCarbon and SlideRabbit), but there’s not very much information about template-specific features. So yeah, I’m comparing GSlides (online) to PowerPoint (desktop) for template creation. I kind of feel bad comparing GSlides to PowerPoint for template creation, because, to be completely up-front, PowerPoint Online doesn’t even let you open slide master view, much less create a template.

And let me tell you, creating a template (not just a presentation) in GSlides can be frustrating and fiddly and inflexible and often makes me feel like I’m working in PowerPoint 2003.

I understand the appeal of easy collaboration with Google Slides (really, I do!), but I’m still not a fan of working in GSlides. I think that a lot of this information isn’t readily available, so this is an attempt to publish template-specific information about Google Slides in one place. There are differences between PowerPoint and Google Slides that affect certain graphics and features. I’ve been building Google Slides templates for clients for quite a few years, but I seem to be getting more requests for them lately.

Google slides templates