How to Create a Slide Deck Template

A slide deck template is a repeatable presentation with placeholders for content you will pull in from other sources. It specifies the colors, formatting, and layout you want in the presentation.

Step 1: Identify slide elements for automation

To create a slide deck template, make a copy of a prior version of your report and identify the fields that change from one version to another, such as charts, data tables, metrics, client names, and images. Replace these elements with placeholders that will be filled in from your data sources.

Step 2: Create placeholders

Slideform uses curly braces, {{ }}, to identify placeholders, called "pragmas", that will be replaced in the different versions of the presentation. The other text on the slides will appear the same in the final presentation.

Make a template version of your deck in either Google Slides or PowerPoint. Save it as a regular presentation, not a "template" type. 

Tips for creating placeholders:

• Charts: Create a shape on the slide to hold the chart, then double-click inside the shape and type in the placeholder, like {{chart:name}}.
  
  
  
  
• Images: Create a shape on the slide to hold the image. Note you can use any shape, not just a rectangle and auto-crop the image to the shape. Double-click inside the shape and type in the placeholder, like {{image:name}}.

• Data tables: Just like charts and images, create a shape on the slide to hold the table, then double-click inside the shape and type in the placeholder, like {{data:name}}.

• Text, numbers, KPIs: Create a text placeholder with the font, size, and color that you want in the output.