Writing effective prompts for better slides
The quality of your prompt directly determines the quality of your slides. This article breaks down what makes a great prompt and shows you patterns you can reuse.
The four ingredients of a strong prompt
- Topic — What is this presentation about?
- Audience — Who will be in the room (or reading the deck)?
- Goal — What action or belief do you want the audience to leave with?
- Constraints — Slide count, tone, any must-include sections?
You don't always need all four, but the more you include, the less the AI has to guess.
Example: weak vs. strong prompt
Note
Weak: "Make a presentation about our company."
Tip
Strong: "Create a 12-slide company overview for new enterprise sales reps. Cover: who we are, our core product, the problem we solve, key differentiators, customer case studies (3), pricing tiers, and next steps. Tone: professional and confident. Avoid jargon."
Specifying tone
Tone words the AI understands well: formal, conversational, persuasive, inspirational, data-driven, educational, executive, technical, storytelling, minimalist. Combine them: "data-driven but accessible to a non-technical audience."
Asking for specific slide types
You can name slide types in your prompt and the AI will generate them: "Include a before/after comparison slide," "Add a timeline slide for our roadmap," "Finish with a Q&A / Thank You slide."
Iterating with the chat panel
After generation, use the chat panel to refine. Select a slide, then type a specific instruction. Examples:
- "Make the bullet points shorter — max 8 words each."
- "Replace the generic stats with placeholders I can fill in later."
- "Rewrite this slide to focus on ROI, not features."
- "Add a speaker note explaining the key takeaway for slide 4."
Using context files to improve accuracy
The single biggest improvement you can make to prompt quality is attaching a context file. Upload a product brief, annual report, or research document and the AI uses real data instead of hallucinating numbers or generic statements.