Document Agent presentation template best practices

This article explains best practices for the presentation (PowerPoint) template used for Templafy's Document Agents in order to get desired outputs. 

Universal Document Agent utilizes AI models to generate presentations from scratch. To do this in a way that is compliant and aligns with brand standards, the document agent will follow the guidance of a defined presentation template. To ensure the AI model uses the slide layouts and placeholders of this template appropriately, follow the steps and best practices below.

Selecting the template

Use the default presentation template as the foundation for the Universal Document Agent template to help maintain brand consistency. This approach also ensures that slides are properly formatted when added from the library.

The template should meet the same requirements as the default presentation template. Limited use of Dynamics is permitted.  

Editing the template

To achieve strong results with any prompt, it is important to remove unnecessary slide layouts and include visually engaging slide layouts.

Remove

• Slide layouts with excessive decorative graphics.
• Slide layouts with (large) pictures.
• Slide layouts without content placeholders (e.g. empty, title only).
• Variants of slide layouts (e.g. dividers in different colors).
• Complex slide layouts.

Keep and add

Keep at least:

• 1 title/cover.
• 1 divider/breaker.
• 1 end slide.

Add layouts of slides that are frequently used and support use cases, like case study, Customer Success story, customer testimonial/quote, KPI/ROI, and conclusion/key takeaways.

Example

Example of slide layouts in a Document Agents presentation template:

• Cover/title.
• Agenda (differentiated by number of items it can hold).
• Divider/breaker.
• Content (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 columns).
• Timeline/process.
• Executive summary.
• Use case specific (case study, Customer Success story, customer testimonial/quote, KPI/ROI, conclusion/key takeaways).
• Closing/thank you.

Optimizing the template for AI compatibility

AI systems rely on contextual clues to understand where to place content.

• Use clear and descriptive names for your layouts, such as "cover", "conclusion", or "team with four members".
•  Apply the same approach to placeholders in these layouts, like "title", "subtitle", "KPI1", or "team member role 1". 
• Also, ensure the text within placeholders is specific, for example, "role description 1". This makes your content easier to understand and use. 
• For number placeholders use realistic sample values within the placeholder, like "98%", "$ 5.4 million", "1.0", rather than "XX" or "00". Prefer to use symbol based units (%, $, €) over spelled-out units.
• Use systematic numbering for placeholders to keep everything organized. Avoid duplicate names.
• Apply a consistent naming format to all layouts and placeholders, e.g. start with content type, element type, then number.
  
• Review and update names to achieve better results.
• Title placeholders should provide sufficient space for longer text. Design larger placeholders with text aligned to the bottom.