Slide Design

Slide Design — Presentation Planning & Orchestration

Entry-point pipeline for creating professional presentations. This skill orchestrates the full workflow from content planning through format-specific generation, programmatically invoking the html-slides or pptx-slides skill for the final output.

Execute the steps below in order. Do NOT skip steps or ask the user to choose which steps to run — the pipeline is sequential.

Step 1: Content Discovery

Gather presentation requirements before generating anything. If $ARGUMENTS was provided, use it as the topic or content source.

1. Topic & purpose — Identify the subject, key message, and call to action
2. Audience — Technical level, interests, expected takeaways
3. Duration & format — Map to the slide count guidelines below
4. Language & tone — Bilingual (e.g., Spanish headings + English terms), formal, playful, meme-driven
5. Existing content — Check for PPTX files to convert, markdown outlines, documents to adapt, or template PDFs to reference

Check for per-project settings that override defaults by reading .claude/slides-ai-plugin.local.md from the user's project directory (if it exists). This file may contain YAML frontmatter with preferences like default format, theme, language, or speaker-notes style.

Produce: slide-outline.md in the working directory with topic, audience, duration, language, and existing content summary.

Immediately continue to Step 2.

Step 2: Structure Planning

Build an outline following the talk-duration-indexed slide count:

Apply the one idea per slide rule. Each slide communicates a single concept with supporting evidence.

Slide Type Vocabulary

Tag each slide in the outline with a type: title, section-divider, content, image-focus, comparison, quote, code, feature-grid, timeline, metrics, meme-gif, diagram, demo-divider, audience-question, closing.

Produce: Updated slide-outline.md with tagged slide outline.

Format Capabilities (Planning Reference)

Use this table when tagging slide types — some types work better in specific formats:

When tagging slides: prefer meme-gif, diagram, timeline with animations for HTML; prefer comparison, feature-grid, metrics with native shapes for PPTX. Both formats handle title, content, quote, code, image-focus equally well.

Immediately continue to Step 3.

Step 3: Style Selection

Present 3 distinct visual directions. For each direction, provide: a one-line mood description, the typography pair, primary + accent colors, and the background recipe.

Read style presets from: ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/style-presets.md

Mixed-background decks: Some presentations use multiple background colors across slide groups. When the user's content suggests distinct sections with different moods, propose a mixed-background approach.

Produce: Updated slide-outline.md with selected style preset.

Immediately continue to Step 4.

Step 4: Format Selection & Generation

Determine which output format to generate:

• HTML — Interactive, animated, browser-based. Best for web sharing, embedded videos, GSAP animations.
• PPTX — Editable PowerPoint. Best for corporate settings, offline sharing, template reuse.
• Both — Generate HTML for presenting and PPTX for sharing/editing.

If the user already specified a format (or both) in the prompt or in $ARGUMENTS, use that — do not ask again.

Single-format generation

Invoke the appropriate generation skill, passing the full slide outline content:

• If HTML: Run /html-slides with the slide outline
• If PPTX: Run /pptx-slides with the slide outline

Pass the full slide outline (content + style + structure) as the argument to the downstream skill. Then proceed to Step 5.

Dual-format generation (Both)

To avoid long-running forks, generate one format at a time:

1. Save the finalized slide-outline.md with all planning context (topic, structure, style, format notes)
2. Run /html-slides with the slide outline — wait for completion, then proceed to Step 5 validation for HTML
3. Run /pptx-slides with the same slide outline — wait for completion, then proceed to Step 5 validation for PPTX
4. Report both output file paths to the user

Step 5: Validation

After generation completes, verify the output:

1. Slide count matches duration guidelines from Step 2
2. Speaker notes present on every content slide
3. For PPTX: Confirm the generation script included h.validateDeck(pptx) before saving
4. For HTML: Verify viewport fitting (100vh/100dvh), prefers-reduced-motion support, and clamp() font sizing
5. Content density respects per-slide limits (see below)
6. Visual consistency across all slides (fonts, colors, spacing)

Report validation results to the user and provide the output file path.

Content Density Limits

For each slide type, enforce maximum content:

Exceeding limits triggers automatic splitting — never cram content.

Auto-Split Logic

When content exceeds the density limits, split intelligently:

• Long bullet lists (>6 items) -> Split into "Part 1/2" slides with consistent heading
• Dense code (>15 lines) -> Extract key snippet for slide, link to full example
• Multiple images -> One image per slide with caption, or a grid slide (max 4)
• Complex diagrams -> Build up incrementally across 2-3 slides (progressive revelation)

Never reduce font size to fit more content. The minimum body text is 18pt — non-negotiable for audience readability.

Design Anti-Patterns

Avoid these common mistakes:

• Font soup — More than 2 font families. Pick one heading + one body font.
• Color rainbow — More than 3 colors. Apply the 60-30-10 rule.
• Wall of text — Distill to keywords and phrases.
• Clip art syndrome — Every visual must earn its place.
• Transition carnival — One entrance animation, used consistently.
• AI slop aesthetics — Purple gradients, Inter/Roboto everywhere, generic card layouts. Each deck deserves a distinct visual identity.

Formatting Goal Protocol

Before generating any slide, define and propagate these design parameters:

• Primary color — Brand or theme accent
• Background style — Solid, gradient, image, pattern, or mixed-per-section
• Typography pair — Heading font + body font (Google Fonts or Fontshare)
• Layout aesthetic — Minimal, bold, editorial, technical, or playful
• Aspect ratio — 16:9 (default) or 4:3
• Atmosphere — Background recipe from ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/references/style-presets.md
• Personality elements — Mascots, emoji density, meme/GIF frequency, decorative illustrations

PPTX Conversion Workflow

To convert an existing PowerPoint to HTML:

1. Run extraction: python ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/html-slides/scripts/extract-pptx.py <input.pptx>
2. Review extracted JSON (slides, images, speaker notes)
3. Let the user curate the outline
4. Select a style preset
5. Generate HTML using the /html-slides skill

Additional Resources

Reference Files

• references/style-presets.md — 12 curated visual style presets with typography, colors, and signature elements
• references/design-principles.md — Typography, color theory, layout, accessibility, and professional polish guidelines

Related Skills

• html-slides — HTML generation with GSAP animations and viewport fitting
• pptx-slides — PowerPoint generation with PptxGenJS and validation