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Here we’ll look at the power of links and how something so simple can allow you to make your slides more interactive.
We’ll cover:
- Inserting a link to a webpage
- From a text box
- From an image
- Inserting links to different slides to create:
- Quiz
- Adventure comic story
- Business decision game
Inserting a text link to a webpage
The first thing to know, is that you can’t just insert a link by itself. The way you do it in Slides is to connect a link to an object. So, when someone clicks on that object, it opens the link. Links can be added to any kind of object, for example, a text box, an image, a shape, a line.
Let’s start by adding a link to a text box. Click on the text box (not inside it, as you don’t want to edit the text box).
The toolbar will change and you’ll see a link icon. Click on that to insert a link.
This opens the link box. Click inside the Link box, where it says “Paste a link”.
And paste in your link (with Ctrl V). Then click “Apply”.
Now you’ve added a link to the text box. To open the link (with your slides in edit mode), click on the blue address that appears below the text box.
That opens the link in a new tab.
If you have your slides in present mode, when you hover the cursor over the text box, it will change to a little hand, to show you that it’s a link that can be clicked on.
Adding a link to an image
Sometimes we don’t want the link to be words, but we want to add the link to an image. The process is the same. Click on your image in Slides.
Click on “Insert link”.
Paste your link in and click “Apply”.
Clicking on the image will now open the link.
You can change a link or remove it, by clicking on “Change” or “Remove”.
Inserting links to different slides – Making a quiz
Slides also has the wonderful ability of navigating around your slides by using internal links. This is similar to above but this time you state which slide number you want it to go to.
Let’s create a simple quiz as an example, and in this quiz, the student will choose from two options. If they get the answer right, they get a confirmation of the correct answer, then move on to the next question. If however, they get an answer wrong, they are taken to a page with the correct answer but also a brief explanation of the grammar point.
Before adding the links, set up the slides you want. The pattern is:
Slide A – Question
Slide B – Correct answer
Slide C – Incorrect answer
Slide D – Next question
And so on…
Slide 1: the first question with two options
Slide 2: The “correct” slide – It shows confirmation of the correct answer and also, has a continue arrow to move to the next question.
Slide 3: The “incorrect” slide – This shows correct answer and the continue arrow as above, but also includes some information for the student about the grammar point.
Then I repeat the process for the next 3 slides, which cover question 2. For quickness and continuity between all the slides, use Duplicate slides to create the new ones.
Adding the internal links
Once you’ve created your slides, now it’s time to add the interactive part via the internal links.
On slide 1, click on the text box for answer (a).
Click on the click on “Insert link” on the toolbar.
This time, click on the “Slides in this presentation” drop-down menu.
Here you’ll have a choice of the next or last slide, a specific slide number.
As answer (a) is the correct answer, I choose Slide 2. Then I click “Apply”.
Clicking on that text box shows me that it is linked to “Slide 2”.
I then do the same for answer (b) but this time select Slide 3 as it’s the incorrect answer.
On the correct and incorrect slide, we’ll need to add a link from the continue arrow to the next question. Click on the arrow, insert link.
Then select Slide 4 as this is the next question.
Repeat the same process for each set of question.
Tip: Once you’ve made one quiz, make a master copy of it, which you can use to create other ones. Then all you need to do is edit the questions, saving lots of time!
Making an adventure story and a business decision game
We can use the same idea to make an adventure story or a decision game, where the students decide what the characters are going to do and where they end up is all based on their decisions.
I’ve also used this in a business game where the students decide what to do in each situation then see the consequences of their actions.
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eBooks available on Drive, Forms, Sheets, Docs, Slides, and Sheet Functions:
- “Beginner’s Guide to Google Drive” – iBooks store / Kindle store
- “Beginner’s Guide to Google Forms” – iBooks store / Kindle store
- “Beginner’s Guide to Google Sheets” – iBooks store / Kindle store
- “Beginner’s Guide to Google Docs” – iBooks Store / Kindle store
- “Beginner’s Guide to Google Slides” – iBooks Store / Kindle store
- “Google Sheet Functions – A step-by-step guide” – iBooks Store / Kindle Store
Baz Roberts (Google+ / Flipboard / Twitter)
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