When you plan to deliver a time-sensitive pitch, add a timer to your slides to pace the presentation accordingly. A visual time indicator also gives your audience a better idea of the time remaining and improves your pitch impact. Although Google Slides doesn’t have a native countdown timer or clock feature in the web or Android app, there are a few hacks you can use to get the job done.
Whether you want to deliver a presentation to investors or in classrooms or online workshops, a countdown timer can help keep your audience engaged. You can track and finish a presentation with the help of a live clock and save time for conducting a live Q&A session with the audience.
Add a timer using YouTube videos in Google Slides
Google Slides doesn’t have an in-built timer function. However, you’re able to use the option to insert a video, which you can use to add a live timer from YouTube. Let’s check it in action.
When you typeCountdown videoin the YouTube search bar, you may notice dozens of videos in suggestions. If you want to insert a specific video, go to YouTube on the web and find your video.
You can copy the video URL from the address bar at the top and insert it into Google Slides. Now, move to a presentation slide, go toInsert>Video, enter the video URL, and add the countdown clip.
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Video formatting options in Google Slides
There are several video formatting options that you’re able to explore in Google Slides. When you insert a video, click on the thumbnail and expand theVideo playbackmenu.
If you want to be specific about the video thumbnail’s width and height, tweak the size from theSize and rotationmenu.
Use a third-party extension to add a timer to Google Slides
If you don’t want to deal with YouTube videos, use a third-party extension like Slides Timer to add a timer to Google Slides. It’s available via the Chrome Web Store and remains compatible with all Chromium browsers like Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Vivaldi, Opera, and Brave. Here’s what you’ll do.
If the live timer doesn’t work, refresh the tab and clickSlideshowagain. Press thedkey to pause and theekey to reset timers.
Slides Timers extension is free to download and use.
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Benefits of including a timer in Google Slides
Here are the top reasons for using a timer in Google Slides:
Don’t bore your audience with long presentations
Apart from adding a timer, there are other ways to make a strong impact with your presentation. For instance, if you have a pitch with media files,turn on the autoplay functionand keep your PPT file in a loop for your audience.
