Present slides with captions

You can use your voice to type and edit your speaker notes and show captions in Google Slides.

This feature works with the latest versions of:

Chrome
Edge
Safari

When you turn on voice typing or captions, your web browser controls the speech-to-text service. It determines how your speech is processed and then sends the text to Google Slides.

Tip: If this feature is not enabled in your organization, it may have been turned off by your administrator.

Recommended browser & screen readers

Docs Editors recommends Chrome and:

NVDA or JAWS on Windows
ChromeVox on ChromeOS
VoiceOver on macOS

Step 1: Set up your microphone

To use captions with Google Slides, your computer microphone needs to be on and working.

Devices and microphones vary, so check your computer manual for instructions. Microphone settings are typically in the System Preferences on a Mac, or the Control Panel on a PC.

Google Slides uses the computer’s microphone or an external microphone paired with the computer.

Step 2: Present with captions

Connect to the Internet.
Open your presentation in Google Slides.
To start presenting, click Present or press the shortcut for your browser:
- Chrome OS: Ctrl + Search + 5
- Windows: Ctrl + F5
- Mac: ⌘ + Shift + Enter
At the bottom left of the Present screen, click More options Captions preferences Toggle captions or press the shortcut for your browser:
- Chrome OS or Windows: Ctrl + Shift + c
- Mac: ⌘ + Shift + c
As you speak, captions appear at the bottom of the screen. Captions don't include punctuation.
To change text position or size, next to “CC” click the drop-down menu .
To turn off captions, click CC or press the shortcut for your browser.
- Chrome OS or Windows: Ctrl + Shift + c
- Mac: ⌘ + Shift + c

Tip: Captions are not stored.

Tips for using captions

If you present slides over video conferencing software (such as Google Meet), captions show up on the shared screen. To set expectations for your audience, it's a good idea to tell them that captions are from Google Slides, not the video conferencing software, and that only the speaker's voice is captioned.
Some people find captions distracting, so you might want to ask your audience before turning on captions.
Captions and your microphone automatically turn off if there's no activity on your computer for 30 minutes.

Troubleshoot captions

If captions aren't working, try these tips:

Reduce background noise or move to a quieter room.
In your system and browser preferences, check your microphone settings.
Plug in an external microphone.
Check that your microphone is plugged in and isn't being used by another application.
Change the input volume on your microphone.
Restart your computer.
Clear your browser’s cache.

Tip: Caption text is powered by machine learning. It depends on audio input from the speaker, including the speaker's accent, voice modulation, and intonation. As language understanding models use billions of common phrases and sentences to automatically transcribe spoken words, they can also reflect human cognitive biases. As a result, captions might not be a complete and accurate transcription of the speaker's words. Google is committed to making products that work well for everyone, and we're actively researching unintended bias, mitigation strategies, and ways to improve quality.