Wondering how to make your own infographic?
Infographics are a great way to share a lot of information in an accessible and attractive format. Though they may look complex, it turns out they're pretty easy to create with the right tools.
You can create infographics quickly and easily using templates such as those available through Envato Elements or Google Slides.
If you want to create an infographic in PowerPoint instead of Google Slides, you should check out the tutorial How to Use Infographic Templates for PowerPoint Presentations.
In this post, you'll learn how to make an infographic on Google Slides. But first, let's take a look at some of the benefits of using a template to create your infographic.
3 Benefits of Using an Infographic Template
There are several benefits to creating infographics with a template.
First, let's look at what is an infographic presentation? Infographics are graphics containing information, usually based on research. They're proven to increase web traffic and to make people pay attention to content.
1. Better Visualize Your Data
They work well because they can deliver a lot of information in bite-sized chunks. And since they present that information with the help of charts and stats, they're great for helping people visualize the data you want to convey.
2. Infographics Are Easy to Share
Infographics are also very shareable. Research from BuzzSumo shows that authoritative content consistently gets links and shares. Because they're based on research and statistics, infographics definitely fall under that category.
For all these reasons, infographics make an excellent marketing tool for building brand awareness and highlighting your expertise.
However, it can be difficult to know how to create infographics from scratch if you're not a designer. Without design skills, it can be hard to know how to integrate charts, graphs, text and images to make a visually appealing infographic.
3. Infographic Templates Are Quick to Use
That's why infographic templates are so useful for business owners. A simple infographic template will help you create attractive infographics quickly in a hassle-free process.
In fact, if you already have the content and images you want to use (more on that later), using a template to create an infographic presentation in Slides is practically a plug and play process. And you won't need to learn complicated software, either.
When you use a template to create an infographic presentation, you don't need design skills. Infographic templates let everyone make stunning infographics with minimal effort.
And the process is quick. If you need to create an infographic in a hurry, a template is the best way to go to achieve speed without sacrificing good design.
Envato Elements (Design Without Limits)
You can find hundreds of great, professionally designed infographic templates for Google Slides at Envato Elements, an all-you-can-download service with assets including graphics, web templates, and presentation templates.
If you only need a Google Slides infographic template for a single usage, you should consider GraphicRiver, which has a ton of Google Slides presentation templates available for individual download.
Ready to make an infographic with a Google Slides template? There's just one more thing to do before you begin—gather your information.
What You'll Need to Customize Your Infographic Template
Most infographics contain text and images. It's a good idea to have this ready before you start using your template so you can create your infographic quickly.
You'll need:
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A title for the infographic, like most headlines, this needs to draw your audience in and make them want to view the reset of the content
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Sub-headings for each block of data so people can skim to see if they'll find it interesting
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The stats, research and facts you want to present. You can also make a list of your research sources (many infographics include these in small print at the end)
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Images, charts, graphs and icons to illustrate your written content
Here's some good advice on creating compelling infographics from the content marketing specialists at Brafton to help you gather the information you need.
How to Make an Infographic in Google Slides With a Template
In this tutorial, I'm going to show you how to make an infographic with Google Slides using a template. This will help you save time and effort on infographic creation. It'll also give you a professional looking infographic that you can use to promote your business.
Now, let's get to the steps you need to follow to create your infographic with Google Slides using a template.
1. Choose Your Template
As I mentioned earlier, Google Slides is a great choice for creating an infographic presentation. The only trouble is that the app only includes a limited number of templates. There's no guarantee that any of them will suit your business or your brand.
Ideally, you'll want to choose from a wider range of templates to help you market your business effectively. A good place to search is Envato Elements, where you'll find hundreds of Google Slides infographic templates.
To find a Google Slides infographic template on Envato Elements, here's what you do:
Go to the website. Select Presentation Templates to the right of the search box to limit your search to infographic presentation templates. Type "infographics" into the search box. You'll get hundreds of results.
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Use the filter boxes to the left to refine your search by presentation platform. Click Google Slides to see only templates that work with Google Slides. Browse the available options, clicking on any that interest you to enlarge the preview.
When selecting a template, pay attention to the colors and the balance of elements on the page. You'll want to choose a Google Slides infographic templates that matches your branding and will fit the information you've got available. Pay attention to special features, such as if the slide package includes all necessary icons, fonts, and has a range of color options.
2. Download and Unzip the Infographic Template
If you already have an Envato account, add your Google Slides template to a project so it's ready for use. Then click Add & Download to download the zip file.
Click on the file to unzip it, then go to the unzipped folder. Next, go to the Presentation-Files folder.
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You'll see four infographic slide templates in different colors. While they're PowerPoint files, they'll work equally well in Google Slides.
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Choose one to work with. I'm going to use the Colorful infographic presentation slide.
3. Import the Template Into Google Slides
Next, go to Google Drive. If you're logged into your Google account, you can access Drive from the app menu next to the Notifications icon.
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Click on the uploaded file to open it in Google Slides. This should work automatically. If it doesn't, then you can convert the PowerPoint file to Google Slides.
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4. Explore the Template
Before you begin to customize your Google Slides infographic template, take a moment to explore it. The template I'm using includes 62 slides. Some of those slides are full of icons you can use to tweak your infographic.
Check to see where you'll put text and images on each slide. Look at the color scheme, too. You may want to change some colors later to fit with your branding.
Once you're familiar with the template, it's time to start customizing.
One great feature of Google Slides is that you never have to worry about saving manually. That's because the app saves your work automatically. And you can easily undo changes to get back to a previous version if you need to.
Next, let's start customizing the template.
5. Replace Placeholder Text
A good place to start is to replace the placeholder text. Here's how the title slide looks just after it's uploaded.
Double click on the headline text. This will highlight the text in the text box. Replace this with your chosen text.
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If the text doesn't fit neatly, you've got a few options. Either move the text box to a better position:
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Or grab the text box handles to resize it. Remember, you can find these by clicking on the text.
You can also click on the text to select it, then go to the font size box and choose a new size.
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If images cover your text when you move it, go to Arrange > Order and choose Bring Forward or Bring to Front.
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Repeat the process described above to change the rest of the text on the page. Remember to make arrange your text to make sure anything you want to be visible is visible.
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6. Change Icons
The Google infographic presentation slides are pre-populated with icons. However, you can change these if you wish.
Scroll down to one of the sets of icons at the end and select an icon you'd like to put on the slide. Click to highlight it, then go to Edit > Copy.
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Return to the slide you were working on and click Edit > Paste to put it on the slide.
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If you need to resize the icon, click on it to show the image box handles, then drag them to increase the size.
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If you need to remove an item, click on it, then press Edit > Delete to get rid of it.
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To find additional icons to use with your Google Slides infographic, visit GraphicRiver. Click on Graphics > Icons, then use the menu items to refine your search.
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7. Customize the Rest of the Infographic
Follow the process I shared earlier to customize other infographic slides. In addition to changing headlines, text, and icons, you can also change the colors. For example, here's how you change the color of one of the round text boxes.
Click on the box to select it.
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Go to the paint bucket icon and click it to see the available colors. Click the color you want to apply.
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Here's how this looks.
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Follow the process to change any other colors you want to change. This is how the final title slide looks:
8. Proofread and Publish
Before you finalize your infographic, check for any spelling and grammatical errors. Those make your business look less professional, so you definitely want to avoid them.
To make sure, you can always use a proofreading service to check over the content of your infographic. Once you're sure it's correct, then you're ready to publish. You can either publish it on your own website or on one of a number of infographic hosting sites.
I hope you've found this tutorial useful. Now that you know how to make an infographic with Google Slides using a template, it's time for you to create your own. Don't forget that you can get Google Slides templates on GraphicRiver and Envato Elements.5 Quick Google Slides Infographic Design Tips
Customizing Google infographic slides is a breeze as you saw above. It's really as easy as point-and-click to adjust your infographic template in Google Docs.
You already know how to customize Google infographic slides. You might still be looking for inspiration for design ideas. We'll use examples from the Boom template to show top trends and ideas. Let's check out five tips to create eye-catching Google infographics:
1. Use Animation for Impact
Using animations is a balancing act. It's easy to add too many and distract the viewer. But a few well-placed animations bring key objects on the slide with an impact.
Google infographics work well when you use animations for the most important objects. Right-click on an infographic option, then choose Animation. Choose an effect to add it to your slide.
2. Match Infographic Colors to Your Brand
You've already seen that you can customize Google infographic templates. It's important to start with a template, then adjust it.
Most shapes in an infographic are easy to update. With a shape selected, just use the paint bucket dropdown to choose colors that match your palette.
3. Less Is Almost Always More
The world feels like a deluge of information. The hard part is to separate the signal from the noise.
That's why audiences appreciate a "less is more" approach to slide design. Choose infographics placed on simple slides to draw more attention.
4. Borrow Designs From Other Apps
There are plenty of Google Slides templates on the market. As you've seen in this tutorial, pro infographic templates are a favorite resource for pro presenters.
However, sometimes you've got a favorite PowerPoint infographics template that you want to re-use. Instead of redesigning the presentation, it's possible to import your Google Slides presentation.
5. Use Icons for Extra Visual Designs
The reason that infographics are effective is that they're visual. They skip using too many words and show ideas with images.
Templates like Boom include icons that enhance slides. You can combine those icons with infographics. Look for opportunities to reduce text, add icons, and create easy understanding.
5 Top Google Slides Infographic Slide Design Types
Every infographic template for Google Docs is slightly different. But, many of the top Google infographic templates share slides with the same underlying ideas. Let's look at five top designs you'll find in many templates:
1. The Timeline Slide
Timelines are one of the most popular infographic designs. This type of slide links up events. You can use a timeline Google infographic to explain past events or even give a peek at the future.
See 25 of the best Google infographic template options for timelines in this article:
2. The Gears Slide
We all know that complex systems run the world. Sometimes, it's hard to imagine everything that's got to go right in our everyday lives!
A great analogy for this is all of the gears that fit together in a machine. Everything turning in unison keeps the world turning. Use a slide like this to show how your gears fit together.
3. The Calendar Slide
With a bit of creativity, a calendar can serve as an infographic. Sure, basic calendars are flat and contain simple date information.
But what if you knew how to customize calendars? You could combine them with information as an overlay to add extra detail. The tutorial below will help you master customizing Google Slides calendar templates to create pseudo infographics.
4. The Talking Heads Slide
How about using a people-focused slide? Many infographic Google Slides templates have people icons to show what I call a "talking heads" slide.
This is a great way to share user feedback or an employee survey, for example. Using icon representations of a person is a great way to anonymize the data and keep the presentation focused on the feedback instead of the individual.
5. The Map Slide
When you think about it, one of the most classic examples of an infographic is a map. Most of them include locations plus something extra for context. You could use one to list office locations or sales data across a geographic area.
Learn how to work with Google infographics in the form of a map in this tutorial:
Discover More Great Google Slides Templates for 2020
This tutorial has shown you a few options for Google infographic templates, but don't think that you've seen everything.
In fact, there are plenty more templates to create every Google Slides infographic presentation. There's truly a Slides template for every occasion. See more in these articles below:
Google Slides25 Best Infographic Google Slides Themes for 2020
Google Slides20 Top Professional Google Slides Templates for Corporate Presentations 2020
Google Slides20 Free Minimalist Google Slides Themes (Designs to Download for 2020)
Learn More About Using Google Slides
Becoming a master presenter is a journey. Using infographic templates for Google Docs is part of that journey, but there's always more to learn.
On Envato Tuts+, we've built a truly comprehensive resource of tutorials that have helped many presenters master the app. We've compiled them in a powerful single resource, How to Use Google Slides (Ultimate Tutorial Guide.)
Learn more about Google Slides in these tutorials:
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Google SlidesGoogle Slides: How to Quickly Find the Best Add-ons
Google Slides30+ Cool Google Slides Themes (To Make Presentations in 2019)
Google SlidesHow to Add and Delete Google Slides in 60 Seconds
Add an Infographic Slide to Your Next Presentation
You now know how to make an infographic slide with Google Slides using templates such as those available through Envato Elements or GraphicRiver. We've also shared some additional resources to help you learn more about both infographics and Google Slides. Why not add an infographic to the next presentation you create?
Editorial Note: This post was originally published on February 20, 2019. It's been comprehensively updated with special assistance from Andrew Childress.
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