Google has just announced a valuable new update for Slides that will help make your presentations more engaging and impactful. The company has added a pen tool that allows you to add annotations to your slides when presenting. You can underline or circle a word or phrase to emphasize the content, draw arrows to visualize key connections between two parts of a slide, or make quick notes directly on top of your presentation in real time.
These annotations can instantly improve your presentations. While Google Slides already lets you highlight key content using a virtual laser pointer when presenting, the new pen tool makes presentations more interactive and engaging. The only problem is that adding annotations by dragging a mouse pointer can be a little inconvenient on the desktop web version of Slides. This tool would work best with a stylus pen on touchscreen displays.
Nonetheless, it’s a useful feature that most Slides users may use frequently once rolled out to them. Google says there’s no admin control for the pen tool, so it will be available to you as soon as the company pushes it to your account. As far as eligibility is concerned, all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google accounts will get it. In other words, the pen tool will be available to all Slides users.
Google is now rolling out the new pen tool in Slides
The rollout has already begun for users on Rapid Release domains. Google expects to gradually cover them all by the end of next week. Users on Scheduled Release domains will start receiving the new pen tool in Slides starting on Wednesday, August 23. According to the company’s estimates, the feature should reach everyone around the world by the first week of September.
To annotate your Slides presentation, click the “Slideshow” button in the app bar and go to “Slideshow mode.” Now, move your mouse pointer over the bottom-left side of the viewer and click on the ellipsis icon (three vertical dots). You should now see a pill-shaped tray containing the pen and eraser tools. Turn on the pen tool, pick a color for annotations (between red, black, green, and blue), and you’re all set.
You can now add annotations to your presentation using the pen tool. If you wrongly add an annotation, use the eraser tool to erase it. Note that any annotations you add to your presentations while presenting will not stay after you end the slideshow. However, the pen tool still does a better job of highlighting key content than the virtual laser pointer, which is even more temporary.