There is a neat little trick for updating Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, especially when there needs to be a massive number of text edits for replacing older, outdated words and text with new ones in both Slides and PowerPoint.You can use the find and replace feature. This is the same idea as the find and replace in Google Docs and Word, though it may look slightly different in the presentation programs. This feature is a huge time saver, especially for global edits or word-specific tweaks. As teachers, we know that using material year over year is a huge time saver, and often essential for meeting state standards and keeping our curriculum consistent across several classes. However, we always want to be sure our lesson content and materials are at their best and up-to-date. The find and replace feature is an essential tool for making this happen quickly and efficiently. 

Here is a quick review of how these are done.

Google Slides:

1. Open a Slides presentation that needs updating
2. You could do one of two things:
   • Click on EDIT—>FIND and REPLACE
   • Press CTRL+H(Windows/Chrome) – or – Command+Shift+H (Mac)
3. This will open the search feature. Type in the word(s)/phrase that needs to be found in the “Find” (1)
4. Type in the new word(s)/phrase that will replace the “Find” in the “Replace with” (2)
   • There are some options you can choose, such as Match Case, which is suitable for replacing with case-need changes. (3)
   • Use Ignore Latin diacritics if you wish to replace letters and words without regards to words having diacritics in them. (3)
5. You will have further options to manually review and replace each occurrence of what was found (4), or you can globally change the word(s)/phrase throughout the entire presentation by choosing “Replace all.” (5)

That’s it! In your Google Slides presentation, all of the irrelevant text was replaced by the needed text. 

For more tips, tricks, and tools for teaching in and out of the classroom, check out more articles on the Teq Talk blog.

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