When a slide contains text and images, you may want to wrap the text around those images to improve the readability and overall beauty of the slide. This is what you have to do.
Unlike Google Docs or Microsoft Word, which have built-in text wrapping options, you’ll need to use a small workaround to wrap text around your image in Google Slides. For this to work, you’ll actually have to rearrange the positions of your text boxes.
Related: How to wrap text around images and other illustrations in Microsoft Word
How to wrap text in Google Slides
To get started, open your Google Slides presentation and go to the slide that contains the image and text you’ll be working on. If you haven’t already entered your picture, click Insert > Picture, then choose the location of the picture. If you don’t already have text in your slide, you can add a text box via Insert > TextBox.
When everything is on the slide, it might look like this:
The problem is that all the text to the right of the image is in one text box. In this case, you won’t be able to place the last paragraph of text below the image, giving it the illusion of text wrapping, while it’s still in the same text box. The solution here is to simply add a new text box, copy and paste the bottom paragraph into the new text box, and then position it so it looks like it wraps around the image.
To copy the text to your clipboard, click and drag your cursor over the text to select it, then press Ctrl + C (Command + C on a Mac). Text is highlighted in blue when selected.
Next, insert a new text box by clicking “Insert” in the menu bar and clicking “Text Box” in the drop-down menu.
Once selected, your pointer will turn into a crosshair. Draw the text box on the slide by clicking and dragging the cursor.
Next, press Ctrl + V (Command + V on a Mac) to paste the text. Make sure to delete the text you copied and pasted from the other text box.
Now you might have something like this:
The next step is to adjust the bottom text box to align both the left side of the image and the right side of the right text box. Click the text box to select it, then click and drag the handles to adjust it.
After doing some fine tuning, you’ll be able to make the text wrap around the image, just as if you were using a built-in tool.
While this may seem like an awkward workaround for wrapping text around images, this actually only takes advantage of some basic functionality in Google Slides. Keep learning these basics and you will eventually become an expert in creating professional looking presentations.
Related: The Beginner’s Guide to Google Slides
