Once a presentation is open, it does not receive any further updates from
collaborators. Presentations are usually opened at their latest version that has
been saved in Drive. However, if a script is container-bound to a presentation,
that presentation will be loaded at the same version as the accompanying Slides
editor.
Modifying a presentation
Once a presentation is open, a script can read and modify it. Any changes that
the script makes to the presentation are reflected in subsequent reads and
modifications for the duration of the script execution.
Saving changes
After making changes to a presentation, the changes are saved all at once
when the script execution completes, or when Presentation.saveAndClose() is
called. After changes are saved, they propagate asynchronously to the
user's editor, as if the changes were made by a collaborator.
After a presentation is closed using Presentation.saveAndClose(), it can be
reopened for editing using one of the presentation loading methods.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-28 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThe Slides service allows you to open existing or create new Google Slides presentations for manipulation within Apps Script.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eScripts can modify presentations, with changes reflected immediately within the script but saved and propagated to the editor upon script completion or explicit save.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eSaving changes to a presentation is done automatically at the end of script execution or manually using \u003ccode\u003ePresentation.saveAndClose()\u003c/code\u003e, after which the presentation can be reopened.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# Life cycle of a presentation update\n\nThere are three main phases in the life cycle of a\n[Presentation](/apps-script/reference/slides/presentation) object: opening,\nediting, and saving.\n\nOpening a presentation\n----------------------\n\nWhen using the Slides Service, the first step is to load a presentation. Methods\nlike [SlidesApp.openById()](/apps-script/reference/slides/slides-app#openbyidid)\nand [SlidesApp.getActivePresentation()](/apps-script/reference/slides/slides-app#getactivepresentation)\nload an existing Slides presentation, while\n[SlidesApp.create()](/apps-script/reference/slides/slides-app#createname)\ncreates a new presentation. These methods return a\n[Presentation](/apps-script/reference/slides/presentation) object that\nrepresents the loaded presentation.\n\nOnce a presentation is open, it does not receive any further updates from\ncollaborators. Presentations are usually opened at their latest version that has\nbeen saved in Drive. However, if a script is container-bound to a presentation,\nthat presentation will be loaded at the same version as the accompanying Slides\neditor.\n\nModifying a presentation\n------------------------\n\nOnce a presentation is open, a script can read and modify it. Any changes that\nthe script makes to the presentation are reflected in subsequent reads and\nmodifications for the duration of the script execution.\n\nSaving changes\n--------------\n\nAfter making changes to a presentation, the changes are saved all at once\nwhen the script execution completes, or when [Presentation.saveAndClose()](/apps-script/reference/slides/presentation#saveandclose) is\ncalled. After changes are saved, they propagate asynchronously to the\nuser's editor, as if the changes were made by a collaborator.\n\nAfter a presentation is closed using `Presentation.saveAndClose()`, it can be\nreopened for editing using one of the presentation loading methods."]]
