How to put Google Slides, Docs and Sheets on a digital signage screen

Keep editing in Google and let the screens follow. The Cloud document widget shows a Google Slides deck, Doc or Sheet through Google’s own viewer: a deck advances and loops on its own, and your edits appear on screen without re-uploading anything.

The short version

In Google Slides, choose File → Share → Publish to web and publish, or share the file with Anyone with the link → Viewer. Copy the link. In ScreenTinker, open Content → Google & Microsoft documents, paste it and press Add document. Put the new item in a playlist and assign it to a screen.

How it works

Paste any of these and it works: the link from the address bar of a shared file, the published link, or the whole embed code. ScreenTinker rebuilds it as Google’s embed address, so:

• Slides advance every Seconds per slide (10 by default), loop, and keep themselves up to date.
• Docs and Sheets reload every 5 minutes by default. Set Reload every to change that, or 0 for never. A sheet keeps the tab it was shared on.

Under Widgets → Cloud document you can also set the zoom and the background. Every player shows a cloud document: Android, Fire TV, Raspberry Pi, Windows and Samsung Tizen load Google’s page directly, and the web player (also used on BrightSign and LG webOS) frames it.

Step by step

1. Open the file in Google Slides, Docs or Sheets.
2. Make it viewable without signing in. Choose File → Share → Publish to web and press Publish, or share it with Anyone with the link → Viewer. A screen has nobody to sign in to Google.
3. Copy the link (or the embed code).
4. In ScreenTinker, open Content → Google & Microsoft documents, paste it, and press Add document.
5. Set the timing if you like: seconds per slide for a deck, or how often a Doc or Sheet reloads.
6. Add it to a playlist and assign the playlist to a screen.

The full reference is in docs/cloud-documents.md.

Numbers from a Sheet, not a picture of it

Showing a Sheet as a document is good for a rota or a table people read. To put a single value on a designed slide (a price, a total, today’s count), connect the Sheet as a live data source instead and place the value with a tag like {{ds:menu.latte_price}}. When the cell changes, the slide does. Live data is included on every plan.

Limits

• The file must be viewable without signing in: published, or shared with “anyone with the link”. Anyone who has that link can see it, so don’t share private documents this way.
• Only docs.google.com links are accepted.
• It needs the internet. The screen loads Google’s viewer live, so a cloud document doesn’t play offline. For a deck that must play offline, download it as images or a PDF and upload that; a PDF becomes one slide per page.
• The dashboard preview can’t show it, because the preview is isolated from the dashboard for your security. Use open in a new tab next to the link in the editor to check the document.

Using the Webpage widget instead

A published Slides /pubembed link still works in the general Webpage widget, as it always has. The Cloud document widget is simpler: it accepts the ordinary share link, handles timing and looping for you, and reloads Docs and Sheets on a schedule. The /edit and /present links need a Google sign-in and refuse to be framed, so they don’t work in either.

FAQ

Why won’t my Google Slides link show up on the screen?

The file is probably not viewable without signing in. Publish it with File → Share → Publish to web, or share it with Anyone with the link → Viewer, then paste the link again.

Do viewers need a Google account?

No. A published or link-shared file opens without signing in, which is why it works on an unattended screen.

Can the slides advance automatically and loop?

Yes. The Cloud document widget advances a deck every Seconds per slide, 10 by default, and loops it.

Will the sign update when I edit the file?

Yes. Slides keep themselves up to date, and Docs and Sheets reload every 5 minutes by default, so edits reach the screen without anything changing in ScreenTinker.

Is there a native Google Slides widget?

Yes. The Cloud document widget shows Google Slides, Docs and Sheets, and PowerPoint, Word and Excel files from OneDrive or SharePoint.