Questions & answers

A way to present slides together without sharing your screen. Upload a PDF or PowerPoint and share the link, and everyone sees the same slide, with live cursors, shared control and drawing. Viewers can also browse on their own and jump back to the live slide.

No and no. Anyone can upload or join as a guest and gets a random username they can change. A free account (email, Google or Microsoft) lets you keep more decks and versions and reach them from any device. Creating one keeps everything you've already uploaded in that browser.

Only decks shared with specific people ask viewers to sign in, so we know it's them.

Yes. If we ever add paid features we'll announce it in advance, and nothing you already use will start costing money without your agreement.

PDF and the common presentation formats, such as PowerPoint. Once you're signed in with Google or Microsoft you can also import from Google Drive (including Google Slides) or OneDrive.

Presentations are converted to PDF, so unusual fonts or effects may look a little different. If that matters, export a PDF yourself and upload that.

Yes, a few fair-use limits on file size and on how many decks and versions you can keep. Accounts get more room than guests. The app tells you when you reach one. When a deck reaches its version limit, uploading a new version removes the oldest one.

Each deck has a sharing setting, which you can change any time from Share:

• Public (the default): anyone with the link. Links are random and can't be guessed, but they can be passed on.
• Shared: only you and the people you add by username or email.
• Private: only you.

For anything confidential, use Shared or Private.

Not until you allow it: on a new deck, viewers can only watch. As the owner you decide, for everyone or person by person, who can change the live slide, draw, browse on their own and download the PDF. On your own decks you can always do all of these.

Your username, your cursor and your drawings. They don't see your email address. The only exception is the owner of a deck, who sees the email address of each person they've shared it with.

With Cloudflare, a leading cloud provider whose infrastructure is independently certified to international security standards (such as ISO/IEC 27001 and SOC 2). Your data is encrypted both in transit and at rest.

We take security seriously. Every connection is encrypted, passwords are never stored in readable form, sign-in sessions expire after a period without use, and every request is checked against the deck's sharing setting and permissions. We also protect accounts and the service against abuse. If you find a security problem, please tell us at support@slidebyside.com.

No. We only access stored data when that's needed to keep the service running, to fix a problem you've reported, to investigate abuse, or when the law requires it. We never use your content for advertising or to train AI.

No tracking: no ads, no analytics, no tracking cookies. SlideBySide remembers your sign-in and a few preferences (like your pen color) in your browser. Our hosting provider's security protection may set a cookie, used only to tell people from bots.

Only to confirm your email address when you sign up, and when someone shares slides with you. No newsletters or marketing.

Signing in shares your name, email address and account ID with us. We keep the email address and the ID. If that sign-in creates your account, your first and last name become your username (for example JohnDoe), which you can change in your profile. File access is asked for only when you import. With Google Drive you choose the file in Google's own file picker, and SlideBySide can open only the files you pick there, never the rest of your Drive. With OneDrive we ask for read-only access and use it only to list your presentations and fetch the one you pick. You can revoke this access in your Google or Microsoft account settings at any time. Deleting your SlideBySide account removes it on our side too.

No, we keep only the PDF version, so hold on to your original file.

Open it and choose ⋯ → Delete presentation. It's deleted for everyone, with its versions, drawings and sharing.

Click your name, then Delete account (guests: Delete my guest data). Your decks are deleted for everyone, your drawings on other people's decks are removed, and your account details, including any Google or Microsoft access, are deleted. This can't be undone.

Your guest identity was remembered by that browser, so you can no longer manage those decks. Anyone with a public link can still open them. Write to support@slidebyside.com with the links and we'll delete them. A free account avoids this, and it keeps everything you've already uploaded.

To protect accounts and the service, SlideBySide limits unusually heavy activity. If that happens, wait a little and try again. On a shared network (school, office, VPN), other people's activity can affect you. If you think it's a mistake, write to support@slidebyside.com.

Send its link and what's wrong to support@slidebyside.com. We remove illegal content and abuse; see the Terms of Service.

Check your spam folder. Confirmation links expire after a while. You can ask for a new one from Confirm email at the top of the page, or by trying to sign in.