Use Bulk Mode to create a new slide deck for each row in a sheet or for different filter values on a dashboard
This tutorial shows how to generate a batch of presentations from a dashboard. Each presentation version has a different filter value applied on the dashboard.
To create multiple copies of a full presentation using data from a spreadsheet, check this example.
This example is a sales report where I want to generate a separate report for each product category. The dashboard has a filter for product category that will be applied for each report.
1. Set up your project following the standard process
Follow the Quick-start Guide to 1) connect your dashboard, 2) upload a slide deck template, and 3) match data to the template. It is a good idea to run the automation a few times to ensure that the output is as desired.
Here is a simple template for my sales report. The year and category fields correspond to filters on the dashboard. Once the data are filtered, the charts and data tables will be filled into the placeholders shown in gray boxes.
2. Set the Output Folder
In Bulk Mode, since you are making multiple presentations at once, you must specify where the new presentations will be sent. You can set either a Google Drive Folder (for Google Slides content) or a One Drive folder (for PPTX format). Go to the project's Configure Data screen and visit the Settings tab. Under Output Preferences, select the Upload folder or enter the URL manually. Then Save the Settings at the bottom of the screen.
3. Set up a spreadsheet with filter values to be applied
To run Bulk Mode, the different filter values for each presentation should be set in a Google Sheet or Excel file.
⇒ To get started: create a spreadsheet with a column for each filter and a row for each presentation. The header row must match the filter names and the rows should contain the filter values to be applied.
Here is my bulk mode file to create two different versions of the Superstore Customer analysis. For example, row 3 will create a presentation for year = 2022 and category = Office Supplies.
4. Generate Slides in Bulk Mode
Once you have a functioning automation project and a corresponding data sheet, go to the project and click the Bulk Mode button.
The Bulk Mode page walks you through several steps.
1. Do you want the generated slides to be grouped into a single presentation? In this example, I want to create separate slide decks for each filter value, so I will keep the "single presentation" toggle OFF.
2. Select how to run this job. Defaults to Run jobs sequentially, but if you want to speed things up, you can Run the jobs in parallel.
3. Enter the bulk file. Choose the bulk data file from your list of saved data sources or from your Google Drive. You can also upload an Excel file.
The data will be read into Slideform and then additional configuration options will be shown as below.
4. Data mapping
Select the sheet that contains the bulk data: If your spreadsheet has only one sheet, it will be auto-populated, otherwise, select the appropriate sheet.
Data Filtering: You may want to create slides for only some of the rows in your data sheet. You can include or exclude rows based on a field in your data sheet using the filter option.
Column Mapping: Match each column in the data sheet to the appropriate placeholder (pragma) in the slide template. You may also set the data format in the third column. If a spreadsheet column is not used in the slide deck, just leave the pragma section blank.
In this example, there are only two columns in the spreadsheet and they are mapped to the two filter pragmas in my template.
5. Optional Settings
Specify which slides will repeat. This option does not apply since we are replicating the entire slide deck for each filter value.
Specify a header row, start, and end rows. You can create presentations for a subset of the data sheet by setting a starting and ending row.
If your header row is not row 1, enter the row number corresponding to the header row. All rows above this number will be ignored.
6. Create Presentations. Click Create Presentations to generate your output. The results will be sent to the output folder. If you set up notifications, you will receive an email when the presentations are complete.
7. Saving the Bulk Mode Submission for future use. Click Save Submission and enter a name for this job. Saving the submission allows you to pull in the same data sheet and settings when you want to run this bulk job again. Note that you can edit the bulk data sheet (i.e. to set different filter values) and re-run the bulk job to create different versions at any time.