Create Google Slides Card

This article provides the instructions to create and configure a Google Slides card, which is ideal for displaying a Google Slides presentation on a TV by simply configuring the link to the file on Google Drive. The card also has the following features:

Improved security via card authentication.
Ability to customize the slide duration.
New custom template and themes.

Note

An improved Google Slides card is made available in May 2019. The Table card is now an Appspace Supported card, which will be periodically updated by Appspace with new templates and features.

Existing Google Slides card templates (prior to this release) which were categorized as Community Cards will be removed from the Appspace console.

The card can be configured with or without Google authentication in place (dependent on your/organization’s privacy settings). A shared private or public link to the Google presentation file is needed to allow the card direct access. A GSuite administrator must configure these settings prior to creating the card.

Important

Please refer to our An Introduction to Cards and Channels guide for an in-depth introduction to the types of cards that are ideal for your signage solutions.
Cards are only supported on devices with the Appspace App. Legacy devices are not supported.

What’s in this article:

Prerequisites

Ensure your device is compatible, please refer to the Supported Card Types section in the Compare device media player capabilities article.
Account Owner, Publisher, or Editor (author) role in Appspace required to configure authentication on Google Slides card.
Google authentication (optional) and a shared private/public link to the Google presentation file, configured by a GSuite administrator.

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Basic Card Tools

Please take note of the following pointers when configuring the card:

The card title is also the name used when saving the card to the Library. Therefore this is a mandatory field.
The text editor is only displayed for each field when you click and type in the field (Title, Headline, Summary). It provides basic text editing capabilities such as font size, font style, text alignment, and text color.
You can add images to the card by browsing the Library for existing content. You can also upload, or drag and drop an image directly into the image placeholder, from a folder in your computer.
However, you may only upload one image to the image placeholder.
The color picker, enables color selection for text and backgrounds in the card.

The first two characters in the Hex color code is the transparency value, while the next six characters are the color values. Please be mindful when including a custom Hex color code.

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Setup

To setup the card, follow the instructions below:

Configure Google Authentication (Optional)
Create a Google Shared Link
Create and Configure Google Slides Card

Configure Google Authentication

Follow the instructions below to configure the Google Slides card for authentication. A Content Administrator or Account Owner role is needed.

Important

You may skip this section if authentication is not required within your organization.

Navigate to System > Cards from the Appspace menu on the left navigation bar, and click the Themes tab.
Select Google Slides from the Filter By drop-down menu, and click the Duplicate icon of the Base Theme.
Enter in a name for the card theme, and click the Authenticate button.
Select or enter in your Google Suite credentials, and click Allow to enable Appspace to access the Google account.
Click Save once the card is authenticated.

Create a Google Shared Link

Follow the instructions below to create a shared link to be inserted in your Google card.

Follow the steps outlined in the Publish a file to the web section, from this Google Help site: https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9308870
Click the Publish button, and close the window.
Once done, follow the Share a single file instructions in the Step 1: Find the file you want to share section, from this Google Help site: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/2494822
In the Step 2: Choose who to share with & how they can use your file section ensure you select one of the following options:
- Share a link to the file – Select this option to get a shareable link to a secured Google file, to be used in an authenticated Google card.
- Share a file publicly – Select this option to get a shareable Google file, to be used in an unauthenticated Google card.
Copy the Google file shareable link to be used in the Google Slides or Google Sheets card

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Create and Configure Google Slides Card

Follow the instructions below to create and configure the card:

Click the QUICK ACTION menu on the top right and select Create Card, and proceed to step 3 below.
Or click Library from the Appspace Menu navigation bar on the left, and proceed to step 2 below.
Select the desired folder in the library, and click the ADD button, and select Create Card.
Select Google Slides from the Filter by template menu, and select a desired card template.
Enter in the Google Slides shareable URL obtained earlier.
Select the interval duration between slides. Default is set to 8 seconds.
If Manual is selected, user input (such as a mouse) is required to switch the slides, use the laser pointer, and jump to a specific slide.
Once customizations have been made, click Next.
In the Save tab, enter in the Title, as this is a mandatory field.
Optionally, you may enter in the Article, Caption, Content Expiry, Content Tags and even upload a custom thumbnail for the content.
Click Save to complete, and you may now proceed to add the card into a playlist channel.

Important

Ensure the Google Slides card duration in the playlist channel is set to match the total duration of the entire Google Slides presentation. Example: If the Google Slides presentation contains 5 slides, with each slide duration is set to 8 secs (default), ensure the playlist channel duration is set to a minimum of 40 secs or more
.