A GIF in your presentation: how do you do it?

GIFs are everywhere; they’re in your office mail, on Slack, advertisements and yes, even in some company presentations. Depending on the audience you’re presenting to, a GIF can be a funny add-on to your story. Do pay attention to the sort of GIF you’re using though, some are really old and have been used frequently in the past which makes it a bit predictable (and tacky). Also, pay attention to the timing. While some gifs are used at the exact right moment which invokes a ripple of laughter, some can be awkwardly placed in your presentation. If you’re not entirely sure, ask a colleague to have a look at it, a second pair of eyes is always helpful.

So, how do you get your GIF in the presentation? We’ve explained below per tool.

PowerPoint

You can add your GIF as if you’re adding a picture file. You can select the file from your hard drive or from the cloud.

1. Select the slide on which you want to have your GIF.
2. Click insert -> picture -> picture from file
3. Look for the folder where your GIF is stored, then click insert
4. To play the animation, select the slide show menu and then select ‘play from current slide’

Prezi

Unfortunately, in Prezi it’s not possible yet to insert animated GIFs. The good news is that they’re working on it and hopefully this will be possible soon.

Keynote

1. Drag your GIF file into the correct slide, you can scale it just like a picture.
2. If you want the animated GIF to automatically start, click on ‘format’. Switch to the tab ‘movie’ and make sure the box with ‘start movie on click’ is unticked.
3. You can choose if you want your GIF to loop or not, click the ‘repeat’ drop down menu.

Google Slides

1. Drag your downloaded GIF file in the presentation, you can move and resize this how you please.

Want to read also about what works in public speaking and which ones are myths? Read about in the blog post.