Turning the Google NotebookLM Slide Show Into a Narrated Video

I'm hoping that Google NotebookLM returns access to their Infographics and Slide Show feature soon, rather than later or never, for free users.  If we lose the free option to create a limited numbver of slide shows each day, I may have to subscribe to Google One in order to create more Slide Shoiws in NotebookLM.

I shared one of my silent Slide Show in the ABC Biography of Elijah Pickrell McKnew (1836-1912) and Jane (Whittle) McKnew (1847-1921) Family of San Francisco, California post and also in the Google NotebookLM Biography, Infographic and Slide Show for Elijah Pickrell McKnew and Jane (Whittle) McKnew post.

In the meantime, I explored how to turn the Slide Show into a narrated video presentation.  Diane Henriks was the first to do this (on the Facebook Genealogy and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Group), I think. I know several other users have done the same task now.  I wanted to create a narratede video, so I 

The process I used to turn the 14 image silent slide show in a PDF format into a narrated video presentation was:

• Captured the image of each slide in the PDF using the Windows Snipping Tool and saving it as a JPG file. Renamed the image files.

• Opened Google Slides and created a new presentation by adding the 14 renamed image slides into the presentation. I added a 15th slide with the photograph of the McKnew family on the street in 1906. Saved the file on my Google Drive with an appropriate file name.

• Opened Google Vids (I had no idea what that was!), and selected the "Convert Slides" option. Selected my Google Slides presentation file, and selected the "Include Voiceover, Script, and Background Music" option, and then clicked on the blue "Import" button. 

• The Google Vids screen said "...it will take about a minute" but in this case it took about 15 seconds. 

• Here is a screen capture of the Google Vids screen at completion:

The narrated video is 3 minutes, 2.6 seconds long with variable times on each slide based on the narration script.  There are options on the right-hand margin of the screen for Voiceover, Image, Record, Uploads, Stock, Text, Templates and Shapes. In addition to the Google Drive menu items above the image, there are buttons to "Play" and to "Share." Oblivious to all of those options, I chose "File" to "Download" the narrated video.

Here is the Narrated Video (In an MP4 format), created by Google Vids:

That turned very well, although there are some minor graphical and narration errors.  There is a "placeholder" on the "Trial by Fire and Shake" slide. I will try to add the photograph to that slide.  The photograph at the end is from family files, and I need to make the time on this slide longer somehow (perhaps by adding more words to the slide?); perhaps there is a way to do it in Google Vids that I haven't found yet.

==============================================

Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page. Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.

Copyright (c) 2025, Randall J. Seaver

The URL for this post is:  

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. Please note that all comments are moderated, and may not appear immediately.

Subscribe to receive a free daily email from Genea-Musings using www.Blogtrottr.com.