Phase 5: Slide Generation & Interactive Iteration — Detail

Build the .pptx deck from the finalized outline.

General Design Principles

This phase generates concrete slides from the outline. Every slide should respect the design principles in slide-design-spec.md Section 11, including:

• Signal-to-Noise Ratio — remove anything that does not encode information
• The Big Four — Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity
• Picture Superiority Effect — pictures beat words for retention; replace decorative text with concrete imagery when possible
• Empty space is active — default to asymmetric layouts; don't fill margins with logos or templated decoration
• Rule of thirds — anchor primary subjects on the 3×3 grid intersections, not dead-center
• Faces and eye-gaze — orient face-direction toward the focal text/chart, never away from it
• Full-bleed images — default to images that bleed off all four edges
• 2D for 2D data — never apply 3D effects to flat data
• Logo discipline — first and last slide only (this aligns with the speaker's existing footer convention; the footer is not a logo)
• Minimum font size — body text ~24pt or larger at 16:9 conference resolution
• Visual relationships — when an outline slide contains bulleted content, identify which of five relationships the bullets express (flow / structure / cluster / radiate / influence) and convert the bullets into a diagram form rather than a list. Bullets are the fallback only when none of the five relationships fit. See slide-design-spec.md §11.13.
• Image juxtaposition — when content is comparison-shaped (any of the contrast types from sparkline's middle), prefer paired-image slides over single-image slides. Place two images side-by-side at equal weight, or use before/after with a transition arrow. See slide-design-spec.md §11.14.
• Numerical narrative — for data slides, choose one of three framing techniques: Scale (anchor against familiar magnitude), Compare (cross-domain comparison), or Context (annotate why the chart's bumps and trends look the way they do). Raw numbers without one of these framings are forgettable. See the "Numerical Narrative — Making Numbers Land" subsection in patterns/build/vacation-photos.md.

Speaker-style data in slide-design-spec.md Sections 1–10 (extracted from the speaker's actual deck corpus) takes precedence where it exists. The principles in Sections 11.1–11.14 are the default for layout decisions where the corpus is silent.

Step 5.1: Create the Deck

Read the template path from speaker-profile.json → infrastructure.template_pptx_path. Strip demo slides from template, keep layouts only.

Note: The template stripping, slide deletion, and slide reordering code below uses undocumented python-pptx internals (slides._sldIdLst, part.drop_rel()). These work reliably as of python-pptx 0.6.x but could break on a major update. If python-pptx adds public APIs for slide deletion/reordering in the future, prefer those instead.

python3 scripts/strip-template.py '{template_pptx_path}' '{output_path}'

Then open the clean deck with the MCP: open_presentation(file_path=...).

Step 5.1b: Illustrations (when illustration strategy is defined)

If the outline includes an Illustration Style Anchor section, illustration generation, build generation, and deck application are owned by the illustrations skill. Build the deck structure first (Steps 5.2–5.4), then delegate:

Skill(skill: "illustrations")

The skill generates missing illustrations, generates build sequences for any slide with a - Builds: block, and runs apply-illustrations-to-deck.py to swap images into the deck, reposition titles into Safe zones, position IMG+TXT image+text columns, and insert build sequences. Returns control here once images are approved and applied.

For non-illustrated slides and EXCEPTION-format slides, handle inline as normal — the [IMAGE NN] placeholder resolves to a real asset that presentation-creator inserts during the slide walk.

Template Layout Map

Read the layout map from speaker-profile.json → infrastructure.template_layouts[].

Each layout entry has: index, name, placeholders[], and use_for.

Layout Selection Logic (generic mapping)

Illustrated slides (FULL / IMG+TXT): the illustrations skill owns layout choice and positioning — this skill leaves the slide structure with a title + empty body and the illustrations skill applies the image post-walk. See the illustrations skill's skills/illustrations/references/generation.md and skills/illustrations/references/builds.md for the format vocabulary, geometry, and build-insertion rules.

EXCEPTION format: real assets only — pick the layout per content type (bullet list, comparison, etc.) and resolve the image source from the [IMAGE NN] placeholder, not from illustrations/.

Also review the template catalog in slide-design-spec.md Section 7 for rich patterns (SWOT, timelines, funnels, competitor matrices, etc.) that may be available in the speaker's template.

Step 5.2: Walk the Outline — Slide Generation Workflow

For each slide in the outline:

1. Add slide with the right layout (index from profile template_layouts):

   add_slide(layout_index=N, title="Slide Title")

2. Populate placeholders — title first, then body:

   populate_placeholder(slide_index=N, placeholder_idx=0, text="Title")
   populate_placeholder(slide_index=N, placeholder_idx=1, text="Body text")

3. Or use bullet points for list content:

   add_bullet_points(slide_index=N, placeholder_idx=1, bullet_points=[...])

4. For image/meme slides — use title-only or blank layout, add image:

   manage_image(slide_index=N, operation="add", image_source="path/to/image.png",
                left=1, top=1.5, width=8, height=5)

4b. For illustrated slides (Format: FULL or IMG+TXT):

Build the slide structure (layout + title + footer) and skip image insertion. The illustrations skill applies the image after this walk completes — see Step 5.1b.

For EXCEPTION format:

• Use appropriate layout for the content type (bullet list, comparison, etc.)
• Image source comes from the [IMAGE NN] placeholder, not from illustrations/

5. For non-placeholder text (captions, annotations):

   manage_text(slide_index=N, operation="add", text="Caption",
               left=1, top=6, width=8, height=0.5,
               font_size=14, color=[255,255,255])

6. For shapes (dividers, accent boxes):

   add_shape(slide_index=N, shape_type="RECTANGLE",
             left=0, top=0, width=10, height=0.3,
             fill_color=[0,188,212])

Background Colors

Read design_rules.background_color_strategy from the speaker profile. Apply the strategy when adding slides. Common strategies:

• random_non_repeating — pick a random saturated color, never repeat on adjacent slides
• theme_sequence — follow the template's built-in color rotation

Read design_rules.white_black_reserved_for to know when white/black backgrounds are appropriate (typically full-bleed image/meme slides only).

Footer

Read design_rules.footer from the speaker profile for exact position, font, size, and color adaptation rules. Add footer to EVERY slide using manage_text. The footer pattern template is in footer.pattern — substitute conference-specific values.

Text Overflow Prevention

Template placeholders have fixed sizes. To avoid overflow:

• Titles: Max ~60 characters. If longer, use manage_text with auto_fit=True.
• Body bullets: Max 6-7 items per placeholder. For more, split across two slides.
• Bullet text: Keep individual bullets under ~80 characters.
• Use optimize_slide_text after populating to auto-resize if needed:

  optimize_slide_text(slide_index=N, min_font_size=12, max_font_size=28)

Step 5.3: Inject Speaker Notes (python-pptx) — SEPARATE STEP

IMPORTANT: Speaker notes MUST be injected as a separate batch pass AFTER all slides exist — never inline during slide creation. The MCP PPT server does not support notes, so use python-pptx in a dedicated second pass.

Save the notes map as JSON ({"0": "", "1": "Brief intro.", ...}), then run:

python3 scripts/inject-speaker-notes.py path/to/deck.pptx notes.json

Run this AFTER MCP slide generation is complete, and BEFORE presenting to the author.

Keynote compatibility: The script automatically post-processes the .pptx to add a <p:notesMasterIdLst> element to ppt/presentation.xml. python-pptx writes the notesMaster relationship but omits this element, which PowerPoint tolerates but Keynote rejects as "invalid format". The patch is idempotent and only runs when a notesMaster relationship is present, so speakers who never open Keynote pay zero cost.

Step 5.4: Present to Author

Save and present a generation report with slide count, layouts used, and placeholders needing author content.

Step 5.5: Iteration Loop

Free-form conversation. The author gives feedback in whatever format is natural.

Slide-specific changes

Author says: "Slide 12 — make the title shorter" → populate_placeholder(slide_index=11, placeholder_idx=0, text="New shorter title")

Author says: "Slide 5 — change to two columns" → Cannot change layout of existing slide via MCP. Instead:

1. Note content of slide 5
2. Generate a replacement slide with the new layout (appended at end)
3. Use python-pptx to delete the old slide 5 and reorder the new one into position
4. Re-open the deck with MCP open_presentation

Batch changes

Read design_rules.slide_numbers from the speaker profile. If "never", decline requests to add slide numbers and explain it's a design rule.

Content delivery

Author provides an image for a placeholder slide: → manage_image(slide_index=N, operation="add", image_source="/path/to/image.png", ...)

Structural changes (python-pptx)

The MCP PPT server cannot delete or reorder slides. Use python-pptx:

Delete slides:

python3 scripts/delete-slides.py path/to/deck.pptx 5 12 15   # 0-based indices

Reorder slides:

python3 scripts/reorder-slides.py path/to/deck.pptx --from 5 --to 2

After any python-pptx structural operation, re-open the deck with MCP (open_presentation) to continue editing.

Step 5.6: Final Save

Save the .pptx. Export and publishing happen in Phase 6.

MCP Tool Quick Reference

PDF Export (Final Step)

After the author declares done, export the .pptx to PDF. The method depends on the speaker's publishing_process.export_method and platform.

Run the export script — it auto-detects PowerPoint (macOS AppleScript) or LibreOffice:

python3 scripts/export-pdf.py path/to/deck.pptx [path/to/output.pdf]

If output.pdf is omitted, uses the same name with .pdf extension.

The script prefers PowerPoint AppleScript on macOS (if installed), falls back to LibreOffice CLI. Read publishing_process.export_method from the speaker profile to know which is expected.

Illustration Workflow

When the outline has an Illustration Style Anchor, illustration generation, build generation, and deck application are owned by the illustrations skill. See skills/illustrations/references/generation.md, skills/illustrations/references/builds.md, and skills/illustrations/references/title-placement.md for setup, edit/fix workflow, build chaining, and Safe-zone composition.

File Locations

Read infrastructure.presentation_file_convention from the speaker profile for the directory structure. Typical convention:

{presentations-dir}/{conference}/{year}/{talk-slug}/
├── {talk-slug}.pptx              ← the deck (Phase 5 output)
├── {talk-slug}.pdf               ← PDF export (Phase 5 final step)
├── presentation-spec.md           ← the spec: slug, mode, duration (Phase 1 output)
├── presentation-outline.md        ← the outline (Phase 3/4 output)
├── assets/                        ← images, memes, screenshots (author provides)
└── illustrations/                 ← generated illustrations (Phase 5 Step 5.1b)
    ├── slide-01.jpg               ← one file per illustrated slide
    ├── slide-02.png
    ├── slide-05-v2.jpg            ← versioned iterations (--fix / --edit / -v)
    ├── builds/                    ← progressive reveal build steps (Phase 5 Step 5.1c)
    │   ├── slide-05-build-00.jpg  ← empty frame
    │   ├── slide-05-build-01.jpg  ← first element revealed
    │   └── slide-05-build-02.jpg  ← second element (full = copy of slide-05)
    └── model-comparison/          ← --compare output (Phase 2 model selection)

The speaker's template is read-only — never modify it.