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How to Collaborate on Google Slides in Real Time

Google Slides lets a whole team build the same deck at once instead of emailing versions back and forth.

  1. Click Share in the top-right corner

    Open your presentation and click Share, then enter the email addresses of the people you want to collaborate with.

  2. Set each person's permission level

    Choose Viewer, Commenter, or Editor for each person you invite, depending on whether they should only view the deck, leave feedback, or make direct changes.

  3. Edit simultaneously in real time

    Once someone opens the shared file, their profile icon appears at the top of the screen, and each collaborator's cursor and name show up in a different color as they edit.

  4. Leave feedback with comments

    Select text or an object and click Add comment to leave notes on a specific part of the deck; others can reply to the thread or mark it resolved.

  5. Mention someone to notify them

    Type @ followed by an email address inside a comment to send that person a direct email notification asking for their input.

  6. Review and restore previous versions

    Go to File > Version history > See version history to preview earlier states of the deck, and restore an older version if you need to.

Why real-time collaboration beats emailing files back and forth

Emailing a deck around invariably produces conflicting versions and a scramble to figure out which one is current. Editing the same live file avoids that entirely β€” everyone works from a single source of truth, and changes appear for the whole team the moment they're made.

Choosing the right permission level for each collaborator

Viewer access works well for stakeholders who just need to stay informed, Commenter suits reviewers who should be able to flag issues without risking accidental edits, and Editor should generally be reserved for people actively building the deck β€” it's easy to grant broader access later, but harder to undo an accidental change made by someone who only needed to comment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I revoke someone's access after sharing the deck?

Yes β€” open the Share dialog at any time to change or remove any collaborator's permission level, even after they've already opened the file.

If I restore an older version, will I lose the comments people left?

Restoring a version changes the slide content back to that earlier state, but comments are generally tracked separately from version history, so existing comment threads are typically preserved rather than deleted.