Skills / Slide deck
Slide deck
Turn their presentation into a deck that doesn't look templated. Restructured, restyled, presenter notes, exported. Use when they say "help with my slides", "my presentation looks bad", or a talk is coming up.
Use this skill. Nothing to install.
Don't have an agent? · Raw file: skills/slide-deck.md
Watch the first two minutes
This is how a session goes, including the part where nineteen slides become eight. Click through it.
Scripted example of a real session.
Won't my slides look empty without the text?
They will look confident, which is different. The paragraphs were never for the audience; they were a safety net for you, and they cost you the audience's attention, because people read faster than you talk and then wait for you to catch up. The skill moves the safety net to where it works: presenter notes in your own speaking voice, with the first line of each note being that slide's opener. The slide itself keeps one headline that states its point as a sentence. You stay covered, and the room listens to you instead of reading past you.
What you end up with
A deck you could present from in five minutes, plus the structure that got it there. Here is the slide list for the eight-minute talk above.
- The one thing is written first. It shapes every cut and becomes the closing slide, so the talk ends on the point instead of on "questions?".
- Headlines are sentences. "Every sample had microplastic fibers" makes the point even for someone who looks up once. "Results" makes no point at all.
- Notes carry the speaking. First line is the opener, in the presenter's own voice. The deck and the script stop competing for the same rectangle.
- The cuts are listed too. Eleven slides died on the list, where cutting is cheap. Real numbers stayed; the slide whose number didn't exist was cut rather than faked.
Anatomy of a slide that works
The skill builds every content slide to this shape:
- A The headline states the point as a sentence. A reader who glances up once still gets it.
- B One chart or image, only when it carries the point. Its takeaway is the headline above it.
- C Presenter notes hold the sentences you plan to say. They never appear on the slide.
- D The empty space is deliberate. One point per slide means the next point gets its own slide.
Questions people actually ask
Is this free?
The skill is free, no account, no catch. The agent you paste it into may or may not be: Gemini has the widest free tier, Copilot's free tier is enough to try it, ChatGPT and Claude free plans can also run it in a chat.
What tool does it build the deck in?
Whatever you will actually present from: Google Slides or PowerPoint if you have them, otherwise an HTML deck printed to PDF. Either way you end with a PDF export that survives any projector, the editable source in your account or repo, and notes attached to the slides or as a printable one-pager.
I don't have real numbers for a chart. Can it make the chart anyway?
No. The skill's rule is real numbers only: if you don't have the number, the slide gets cut rather than faked. A talk with six honest slides beats one padded to twelve with invented data someone might ask about.
How many slides should I have?
Roughly one per minute of your slot, and fewer is fine. The budget is set on the slide list before styling, so trimming happens where it costs one line instead of one finished slide.
Can it just restyle the deck I already have?
It will restructure first, because that is where most of the improvement is: every slide has to state its point in one line or merge with one that does. After that, the styling is deliberately plain: one font, two sizes, two colors plus an accent, or your brand kit applied exactly if you have one.
Where to go from here
Sharpen the deck further:
Talks come from projects. Get one worth presenting:
Curious? Read the full skill — the exact instructions your agent gets
---
name: slide-deck
category: design
description: Turn their presentation into a deck that doesn't look templated. Restructured, restyled, presenter notes, exported. Use when they say "help with my slides", "my presentation looks bad", or a talk is coming up.
---
# slide-deck
Rebuild a deck with someone who has a real presentation
coming up — a class talk, club pitch, or project demo. Start from
what they actually have to say, not from a theme. Most bad decks are
a template stuffed with paragraphs; the fix is structure first, then
a restrained style applied evenly.
## Structure before style
1. Ask: who is the audience, how long is the slot, and what is the
one thing the audience should remember. Write that sentence down;
it becomes the closing slide.
2. Get their existing slides or outline. Reduce it to a slide list —
one line per slide stating the point that slide makes. Merge or remove a
slide that has no distinct point before styling.
3. Budget: roughly one slide per minute of slot, fewer is fine.
Reordering happens on the list, where it is cheap.
## The slide rules
Apply these while building, explaining each once, the first time it
bites:
- One point per slide. The headline states the point as a sentence
("Signups doubled after the redesign"), never a label ("Results").
- Almost no body text. The deck is not the document; sentences they
plan to say go in presenter notes, not on the slide.
- One font, two sizes, two colors plus an accent. If they have a
brand kit, use it exactly.
- Data gets one chart per slide with the takeaway as the headline.
Real numbers only — if they don't have the number, cut the slide
rather than fake it.
- Images only when they carry the point. No decorative stock
photos, no clip art.
Their taste decides between options you propose; give the trade-off
in one line and move on.
## Notes and rehearsal
Write presenter notes for every slide: 2–4 short lines in their
speaking voice, first line is the opener for that slide. Then do one
pass as a fake audience — have them talk through the deck once, and
tighten any slide where they had to say "and also". Time it against
the slot.
## Export
Build in whatever they will actually present from: Google Slides or
PowerPoint if they have it, otherwise an HTML deck printed to PDF.
Whatever the tool, end with:
- The deck exported as PDF (survives any projector)
- The editable source in their account or repo
- Notes attached to the slides, or as a separate one-pager they can
print
## Done
- The editable deck and a PDF export open correctly
- Every slide has one stated point, all numbers and sources are checked, and
presenter notes are complete
- One timed rehearsal fits the actual slot on the presentation device or a
realistic substitute
If the talk is part of a bigger project, suggest
design-critique later on the deck itself.