Google Slides is widely used by people for various purposes that include making presentations, posters, reports, worksheets, and design layouts. It uses horizontal ( landscape ) orientation. For a vertical ( portrait ) layout, you need to change the page setup manually.
Now let me spill the good news.
Making Google Slides vertical is simple once you know where the setting is hidden. In this guide, you learn the process and the common issues users face when switching to portrait mode, and the best alternative for this — MagicSlides.App.
Why Make Google Slides Vertical?
Sure, most presentations work best horizontally, but there are many situations where vertical slides make more sense:
Creating printable documents
Designing worksheets or planners
Making social media graphics
Designing mobile-first presentations
Creating vertical infographics
Making poster-style slides
Preparing academic handouts
Vertical slides also allow better reading flow, especially when your content is heavy on text.
How to Change Google Slides to Vertical Orientation
Google Slides doesn’t offer a one-click “vertical” button. But with the page setup feature, you can change orientation easily.
Step-by-step: Make Your Slides Vertical
Open your Google Slides presentation
Start with a blank deck or an existing file.
Go to File → Page Setup
This option is near the top of the dropdown menu.Click the dropdown beside “Widescreen 16:9”
A small menu will appear with standard sizes.Select “Custom”
This is the key step — only custom sizes allow portrait orientation.Swap width and height values
For standard Letter size: 8.5 x 11 inches
For A4: 21 x 29.7 cm
For mobile style: 9 x 16 inches
Click Apply
Your entire slide deck will instantly switch to vertical mode.
That’s it. You now have Google Slides in portrait orientation!
Formatting Tips After Switching to Vertical
When you change slide orientation, some elements may shift.
Here’s how to fix them:
Reposition Text Boxes
Horizontal templates often contain wide text boxes.
You can adjust them for vertical readability by:Making them narrower
Enlarging line spacing
Increasing margins
Resize Images
Some landscape images may appear stretched. Reinsert or crop them vertically.Update Layout Styles
Clean layouts work best for portrait slides. Consider stacking elements vertically.Check Background Images
If your background was set for landscape, switch to a portrait-oriented background image.
Spending two minutes reorganizing your layout will make the slide look polished and professional.
A Smarter Way: Generate Vertical Slides Automatically with MagicSlides.App
Manually rearranging elements after switching to portrait mode can be time-consuming. That’s where MagicSlides.App, an AI presentation maker tool, becomes a powerful option.
MagicSlides.App allows you to generate ready-made vertical presentations instantly, without any manual editing.
Why Choose MagicSlides.App for Vertical Google Slides?
Generates clean vertical slide layouts automatically
Let's you choose portrait orientation before generating
Creates professional, modern, aesthetic slides
Ensures perfect alignment and spacing
Eliminates formatting issues caused during manual resizing
Let's you choose tone, theme, slide count, and structure
Exports directly to Google Slides within seconds
Instead of resizing every element after changing orientation, MagicSlides.App rebuilds your slides in a clean vertical format, saving hours of effort while maintaining a professional look.
Conclusion
Making Google Slides vertical is easy once you know where the page setup options are. By choosing a custom size and setting portrait dimensions, you can create mobile-friendly slides, worksheets, posters, or printable documents effortlessly. The format is great for text-heavy layouts and professional designs that require a top-to-bottom reading flow.
And if you want to skip the manual resizing and instantly generate polished vertical slides, MagicSlides.App is the best AI-generated presentation maker tool. It builds beautiful portrait-oriented slides automatically which is clean, modern, and presentation-ready.
FAQs
Q1. Can Google Slides be made vertical?
Yes. Use File → Page Setup → Custom and swap the height and width to create a vertical layout.
Q2. Will my existing content shift after changing orientation?
Yes. Some elements may move. For clean, professional vertical slides instantly, MagicSlides can rebuild the layout automatically.
Q3. Can I switch only one slide to vertical?
No. Google Slides only allows orientation changes for the entire presentation and not individual slides.
Q4. Can MagicSlides generate vertical slides directly?
Absolutely. MagicSlides lets you select portrait mode and produces perfectly structured vertical slides without manual editing.
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