Pinterest is an excellent place to curate ideas. But despite having numerous settings, it’s less private than if you do it on your own and make a vision board in Google Slides. You can organize your dreams in multiple ways on the app if you don’t want the social aspect.
Choosing the Right Template in Google Slides
If you already know how you want to format your Google Slides vision board and want full creative control, I suggest starting with a blank template. You can do this on the homepage when you sign in to your account.
If you’re unsure, however, I recommend using a template. I tried finding a decent one online, but unfortunately, many of them didn’t let me customize them properly after opening in Google Slides. Instead, I got creative with a few templates already in the app.
Idea 1: Creating a Showcase Board
Though the Recipe showcase board is mainly intended for food recipes, you can use it for any genre you want. This template is one of the best ways to ensure Google Slides look good.
Start by deleting the recipe slides if you don’t want them. You can keep these if you’re curating recipes or want to explain your visions further, but I don’t think they’re necessary.
Start uploading the pictures you want from your computer. Click on an image in your slide and select Replace image. Choose your preferred upload method; I usually just put them into Google Slides from my computer.
I wanted to create a travel vision board in Google Slides. Below, you can see my final result.
Each slide acts as a different board, as it would in Pinterest. To make new ones, press Duplicate slide and customize as needed.
One important note: you have to add the elements exactly as you want them on the page. I tried dragging and dropping my images with the background, but this didn’t work. I recommend using Canva if you want a more intuitive option. You can even design social media graphics in the app.
Idea 2: Choosing a Different Image Layout
In the example above, I overlapped the pictures on my vision board. This may work for some users, but it isn’t everyone’s style. In this next example, the images look more similar to Pinterest in that they’re standalone. Start by selecting the Photo album template on the Google Slides homepage.
Again, I deleted the slides that didn’t make sense for me to include. I also removed the text boxes, as they weren’t relevant to me.
As in the first example, you can select Replace image and choose your new pictures.
Idea 3: The Yearbook Theme
The Yearbook theme in Google Slides is a little more unconventional, but it’s a great option for Pinterest-style vision boards if you want to be creative. Other than placing your pictures in different positions, you can edit background colors more effectively.
This theme presents pictures in diagonal and circular formats. While some of the pre-designed ones are black and white, you can change them to color by uploading a color image.
I didn’t change the background colors, as I liked them, but you can always select one area and tap the paint icon to edit this.
Creating your own Pinterest vision boards is surprisingly simple. While you’ll struggle to get the specific layout (as I did when trying to find fully customizable templates), you can improvise within Google Slides. But if you just like what you see on Pinterest, if you curate your visions elsewhere, you can still use Pinterest to get new ideas.
Image credit: Unsplash. All screenshots by Danny Maiorca
