Create a Slide

This page describes how to add slides to an existing Google Slides presentation.

Slides

Each individual page of a Slides presentation is a slide.

To add a slide to the presentation, you need the presentation ID. You can find the presentation's ID by opening the presentation in Slides and looking at its URL:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/presentationID/edit

To add a slide, use the batchUpdate() method with the presentation ID and include a CreateSlideRequest in the request body. The ID of the new slide is returned in the response body.

Example

The following example shows how to add a slide to a presentation. All the fields for CreateSlideRequest are optional. This example creates the slide as the second slide, with TITLE_AND_TWO_COLUMNS layout, and an explicit object ID.

Be careful when explicitly setting object IDs. These must be unique across all objects in the presentation. Use a UUID rather than a plain string as shown in the example, or omit the parameter and let the Slides API generate the ID.

Apps Script

slides/api/Snippets.gs

View on GitHub

/**
 * Creates a slide
 * @param {string} presentationId
 * @param {string} pageId
 * @returns {*}
 */
function createSlide(presentationId, pageId) {
  // See Presentation.insertSlide(...) to learn how to add a slide using SlidesApp.
  // http://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/slides/presentation#appendslidelayout
  const requests = [{
    createSlide: {
      objectId: pageId,
      insertionIndex: '1',
      slideLayoutReference: {
        predefinedLayout: 'TITLE_AND_TWO_COLUMNS'
      }
    }
  }];

  // If you wish to populate the slide with elements, add element create requests here,
  // using the pageId.

  // Execute the request.
  try {
    const createSlideResponse = Slides.Presentations.batchUpdate({
      requests: requests
    }, presentationId);
    console.log('Created slide with ID: %s', createSlideResponse.replies[0].createSlide.objectId);
    return createSlideResponse;
  } catch (err) {
    // TODO (Developer) - Handle exception
    console.log('Failed with error: %s', err.error);
  }
};

Go

slides/snippets/presentations.go

View on GitHub

// Add a slide at index 1 using the predefined "TITLE_AND_TWO_COLUMNS" layout
// and the ID "MyNewSlide_001".
slideId := "MyNewSlide_001"
requests := []*slides.Request{{
	CreateSlide: &slides.CreateSlideRequest{
		ObjectId:       slideId,
		InsertionIndex: 1,
		SlideLayoutReference: &slides.LayoutReference{
			PredefinedLayout: "TITLE_AND_TWO_COLUMNS",
		},
	},
}}

// If you wish to populate the slide with elements, add create requests here,
// using the slide ID specified above.

// Execute the request.
body := &slides.BatchUpdatePresentationRequest{
	Requests: requests,
}
response, err := slidesService.Presentations.BatchUpdate(presentationId, body).Do()
if err != nil {
	log.Fatalf("Unable to create slide. %v", err)
}
fmt.Printf("Created slide with ID: %s", response.Replies[0].CreateSlide.ObjectId)

Java

slides/snippets/src/main/java/CreateSlide.java

View on GitHub

import com.google.api.client.googleapis.json.GoogleJsonResponseException;
import com.google.api.client.googleapis.json.GoogleJsonError;
import com.google.api.client.http.HttpRequestInitializer;
import com.google.api.client.http.javanet.NetHttpTransport;
import com.google.api.client.json.gson.GsonFactory;
import com.google.api.services.slides.v1.Slides;
import com.google.api.services.slides.v1.SlidesScopes;
import com.google.api.services.slides.v1.model.BatchUpdatePresentationRequest;
import com.google.api.services.slides.v1.model.BatchUpdatePresentationResponse;
import com.google.api.services.slides.v1.model.CreateSlideRequest;
import com.google.api.services.slides.v1.model.CreateSlideResponse;
import com.google.api.services.slides.v1.model.LayoutReference;
import com.google.api.services.slides.v1.model.Request;
import com.google.auth.http.HttpCredentialsAdapter;
import com.google.auth.oauth2.GoogleCredentials;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.List;

/* Class to demonstrate the use of Create Slides API */
public class CreateSlide {
  /**
   * Creates a new slide.
   *
   * @param presentationId - id of the presentation.
   * @return slide id
   * @throws IOException - if credentials file not found.
   */
  public static BatchUpdatePresentationResponse createSlide(String presentationId)
      throws IOException {
        /* Load pre-authorized user credentials from the environment.
           TODO(developer) - See https://developers.google.com/identity for
            guides on implementing OAuth2 for your application. */
    GoogleCredentials credentials = GoogleCredentials.getApplicationDefault()
        .createScoped(Collections.singleton(SlidesScopes.PRESENTATIONS));
    HttpRequestInitializer requestInitializer = new HttpCredentialsAdapter(
        credentials);

    // Create the slides API client
    Slides service = new Slides.Builder(new NetHttpTransport(),
        GsonFactory.getDefaultInstance(),
        requestInitializer)
        .setApplicationName("Slides samples")
        .build();

    // Add a slide at index 1 using the predefined "TITLE_AND_TWO_COLUMNS" layout
    List<Request> requests = new ArrayList<>();
    String slideId = "MyNewSlide_001";
    BatchUpdatePresentationResponse response = null;
    try {
      requests.add(new Request()
          .setCreateSlide(new CreateSlideRequest()
              .setObjectId(slideId)
              .setInsertionIndex(1)
              .setSlideLayoutReference(new LayoutReference()
                  .setPredefinedLayout("TITLE_AND_TWO_COLUMNS"))));

      // If you wish to populate the slide with elements, add create requests here,
      // using the slide ID specified above.

      // Execute the request.
      BatchUpdatePresentationRequest body =
          new BatchUpdatePresentationRequest().setRequests(requests);
      response = service.presentations().batchUpdate(presentationId, body).execute();
      CreateSlideResponse createSlideResponse = response.getReplies().get(0).getCreateSlide();
      // Prints the slide id.
      System.out.println("Created slide with ID: " + createSlideResponse.getObjectId());
    } catch (GoogleJsonResponseException e) {
      // TODO(developer) - handle error appropriately
      GoogleJsonError error = e.getDetails();
      if (error.getCode() == 400) {
        System.out.printf(" Id '%s' should be unique among all pages and page elements.\n",
            presentationId);
      } else if (error.getCode() == 404) {
        System.out.printf("Presentation not found with id '%s'.\n", presentationId);
      } else {
        throw e;
      }
    }
    return response;
  }
}

JavaScript

slides/snippets/slides_create_slide.js

View on GitHub

function createSlide(presentationId, pageId, callback) {
  const requests = [
    {
      createSlide: {
        objectId: pageId,
        insertionIndex: '1',
        slideLayoutReference: {
          predefinedLayout: 'TITLE_AND_TWO_COLUMNS',
        },
      },
    },
  ];
  // If you wish to populate the slide with elements, add element create requests here,
  // using the pageId.
  // Execute the request.
  try {
    gapi.client.slides.presentations
        .batchUpdate({
          presentationId: presentationId,
          requests: requests,
        })
        .then((createSlideResponse) => {
          const objectId =
          createSlideResponse.result.replies[0].createSlide.objectId;
          console.log(`Created slide with ID: ${objectId}`);
          if (callback) callback(createSlideResponse);
        });
  } catch (err) {
    document.getElementById('content').innerText = err.message;
    return;
  }
}

Node.js

slides/snippets/slides_create_slide.js

View on GitHub

/**
 * Creates a new slide in a presentation.
 * @param {string} presentationId The presentation ID.
 * @param {string} pageId The object ID for the new slide.
 */
async function createSlide(presentationId, pageId) {
  const {GoogleAuth} = require('google-auth-library');
  const {google} = require('googleapis');

  const auth = new GoogleAuth({
    scopes: 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/presentations',
  });

  const service = google.slides({version: 'v1', auth});
  const requests = [
    {
      createSlide: {
        objectId: pageId,
        insertionIndex: '1',
        slideLayoutReference: {
          predefinedLayout: 'TITLE_AND_TWO_COLUMNS',
        },
      },
    },
  ];
  // If you wish to populate the slide with elements, add element create requests here,
  // using the pageId.

  // Execute the request.
  try {
    const res = await service.presentations.batchUpdate({
      presentationId,
      resource: {
        requests,
      },
    });
    console.log(
        `Created slide with ID: ${res.data.replies[0].createSlide.objectId}`,
    );
    return res;
  } catch (err) {
    // TODO (developer) - handle exception
    throw err;
  }
}

PHP

slides/snippets/src/SlidesCreateSlide.php

View on GitHub

use Google\Client;
use Google\Service\Drive;
use Google\Service\Slides\Request;
use Google\Service\Slides\BatchUpdatePresentationRequest;

function createSlide($presentationId, $pageId)
{
    /* Load pre-authorized user credentials from the environment.
   TODO(developer) - See https://developers.google.com/identity for
    guides on implementing OAuth2 for your application. */
    $client = new Google\Client();
    $client->useApplicationDefaultCredentials();
    $client->addScope(Google\Service\Drive::DRIVE);
    $slidesService = new Google_Service_Slides($client);
    try {
        $requests = array();
        $requests[] = new Google_Service_Slides_Request(array(
            'createSlide' => array(
                'objectId' => $pageId,
                'insertionIndex' => 1,
                'slideLayoutReference' => array(
                    'predefinedLayout' => 'TITLE_AND_TWO_COLUMNS'
                )
            )
        ));
        $batchUpdateRequest = new Google_Service_Slides_BatchUpdatePresentationRequest(array(
            'requests' => $requests
        ));

        //execute the request 
        $response = $slidesService->presentations->batchUpdate($presentationId, $batchUpdateRequest);
        $createSlideResponse = $response->getReplies()[0]->getCreateSlide();
        printf("Created slide with ID: %s\n", $createSlideResponse->getObjectId());
        return $response;
    } catch (Exception $e) {
        echo 'Message: ' . $e->getMessage();
    }
}

Python

slides/snippets/slides_create_slide.py

View on GitHub

import google.auth
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from googleapiclient.errors import HttpError


def create_slide(presentation_id, page_id):
  """
  Creates the Presentation the user has access to.
  Load pre-authorized user credentials from the environment.
  TODO(developer) - See https://developers.google.com/identity
  for guides on implementing OAuth2 for the application.\n
  """
  creds, _ = google.auth.default()
  # pylint: disable=maybe-no-member
  try:
    service = build("slides", "v1", credentials=creds)
    # Add a slide at index 1 using the predefined
    # 'TITLE_AND_TWO_COLUMNS' layout and the ID page_id.
    requests = [
        {
            "createSlide": {
                "objectId": page_id,
                "insertionIndex": "1",
                "slideLayoutReference": {
                    "predefinedLayout": "TITLE_AND_TWO_COLUMNS"
                },
            }
        }
    ]

    # If you wish to populate the slide with elements,
    # add element create requests here, using the page_id.

    # Execute the request.
    body = {"requests": requests}
    response = (
        service.presentations()
        .batchUpdate(presentationId=presentation_id, body=body)
        .execute()
    )
    create_slide_response = response.get("replies")[0].get("createSlide")
    print(f"Created slide with ID:{(create_slide_response.get('objectId'))}")
  except HttpError as error:
    print(f"An error occurred: {error}")
    print("Slides not created")
    return error

  return response


if __name__ == "__main__":
  # Put the presentation_id, Page_id of slides whose list needs
  # to be submitted.
  create_slide("12SQU9Ik-ShXecJoMtT-LlNwEPiFR7AadnxV2KiBXCnE", "My4ndpage")

Ruby

slides/snippets/lib/file_snippets.rb

View on GitHub

body = Google::Apis::SlidesV1::Presentation.new
requests = [{
  create_slide: {
    object_id_prop:         page_id,
    insertion_index:        '1',
    slide_layout_reference: {
      predefined_layout: 'TITLE_AND_TWO_COLUMNS'
    }
  }
}]

# If you wish to populate the slide with elements, add element create requests here,
# using the page_id.

# Execute the request.
req = Google::Apis::SlidesV1::BatchUpdatePresentationRequest.new(requests: requests)
response = slides_service.batch_update_presentation(presentation_id, req)
create_slide_response = response.replies[0].create_slide
puts "Created slide with ID: #{create_slide_response.object_id}"

After you create the slide, you can add text and shapes to it.

Fill in placeholders

Layouts normally have placeholder shapes that are copied to the slide when it's created. CreateSlideRequest lets you specify the object IDs used for these copied placeholders through the placeholderIdMappings field. This lets you modify the copied placeholders in the same batchUpdate request, which improves performance and saves quota. For more information, see the CreateSlideRequest sample.