Slides, documents and diagrams
From notes to a presentation in minutes — then make it yours.
A ten-slide presentation and one diagram, both edited until you would happily show them.
Lesson 6 of 12 · Part 2: Make things
Slides, documents and diagrams
Making slides is where these tools save the most time for the least risk: you can see at a glance whether the result is good. Gemini’s Canvas makes an editable deck you can send to Google Slides. Gamma makes a polished deck, document or one-page site from a prompt or an uploaded file. Napkin turns a paragraph into a diagram.
The idea
Content first, design second
Ask for the outline first and fix it. Only then ask for slides. A beautiful deck built on a weak outline is still weak.
One idea per slide
Tell it: “no more than 20 words per slide, one picture or diagram each”. Speaker notes are where the detail belongs.
Diagrams explain
A process, a cycle, a comparison — Napkin draws these from your own text. Pick the one that matches how the idea actually works.
Step by step
- 1
Ask Gemini for an outline
Give it the five parts: topic, audience, what they already know, ten slides, the one thing they should remember.
- 2
Fix the outline
Reorder, cut, add the local example only you know.
- 3
Build the deck in Canvas
In Gemini choose Canvas, then: “Make this outline into a presentation.” Edit, then use Export to Slides.
- 4
Or try Gamma
Paste the same outline into Gamma, pick a theme, and compare. It exports to PowerPoint and Google Slides.
- 5
Add one diagram
Paste your trickiest paragraph into Napkin and choose a visual. Put it on the slide that needs it most.
Prompts to copy
Change the parts in [brackets], and the details to fit your own day.
Teacher
Make a 10-slide outline for a parents’ meeting about how our school uses AI with children. Audience: parents with little computer experience. Cover: what children do, what they never do (no accounts, no personal data), how parents can help at home. One key message per slide, plain words.
Teacher
Make this outline into a presentation. Maximum 20 words per slide. Put the detail in speaker notes. Use calm navy and gold colours.
Anyone
Turn these meeting notes into a one-page summary: decisions, who does what, by when. Then a three-line version for WhatsApp.
Try it
Your task
Make a ten-slide deck for something you really have to present this month, with one diagram, and edit it until it sounds like you.
When you are done: A deck that would have taken an evening, in under half an hour — and still yours.
Check yourself
Think of your answer first, then open it. Nothing is marked or saved.
Why fix the outline before asking for slides?Show answer
Design cannot rescue weak content, and it is far quicker to edit ten lines than ten slides.
A slide has a statistic you did not give it. What do you do?Show answer
Check it at its source, or delete it. Slides spread invented numbers very convincingly.
Keep the trust
Check every number and picture on the slide.
Slide tools add figures and images to fill space. If you did not supply a number, find where it came from before you show it.