Annotate your Google Slides for better brainstorming and impact with its new pen tool

On the Google Workspace Updates blog yesterday, Google announced that it’s now rolling out a new feature to help you maximize your impact with presentations. Whether you’re in a board meeting or just brainstorming on the screen, sometimes, the keyboard can simply be a barrier to how your thoughts flow.

That won’t be so much an issue anymore though, because Google Slides is getting a new pen tool, allowing you to directly annotate your presentations. Let’s say you’re showing off the quarterly sales report, and instead of just talking through the stats, you circle the standout numbers, underline areas for potential improvement, or even sketch a quick arrow showing growth – all in real-time. Boom, easy. Of course, you’ll probably want to use a stylus instead of your mouse, but it depends on what device you’re using and what orientation it’s in.

To spin up the pen, so to speak, just open your Slide, and switch to ‘slideshow mode’ by hitting the ‘Slideshow’ button up on the top right. Once immersed, hover over the bottom-left corner, click on the little ellipsis icon, and select “Turn on the pen”. If your masterpiece needs a touch of correction, there’s an eraser tool right there in the viewer menu to help you out too along with red, black, blue and green ink.

Anyone with a Rapid Release domain will see this new feature trickling in from August 10, 2023, while those with Scheduled Release domains can catch it starting August 23, 2023. This goes for all Workspace licenses and personal Google Account holders alike!

Let me know down below if you feel this will be useful, and if you can see yourself (shudders) writing on the screen with a mouse instead of a stylus. I kind of wish you could draw on slides outside of slideshow mode, but at least the tool exists now, right?