presentation-prep

name	presentation-prep
description	Use when organizing raw content into slide-ready format, or when the user says "prepare slides", "structure this for a presentation", "brief for pptx".

Presentation Prep

Transforms raw content into slide-ready structure using David Phillips' 5 cognitive principles ("How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint").

The 5 Principles

1. One message per slide

Each slide = one idea. Two messages → two slides. Human attention hijacks toward the familiar (a name, a number) and loses the rest.

2. No text-voice redundancy

• Slide: image + few keywords that reinforce the speech
• Speaker notes: the full text that would be spoken
• Rule: if it's written on the slide, don't say it — if you're going to say it, don't write it

3. Size = importance

The visually largest element captures eyes automatically. Most templates make the title the largest element — wrong.

• Shrink the title
• Enlarge the most important element on the slide
• Only one element should stand out by size

4. Contrast guides attention

• Dark background: the presenter becomes the highest-contrast object in the room; the slide is visual support
• White background: the slide competes with the presenter
• List build technique (progressive reveal): reveal bullet items one at a time using animation builds
  • Current item: full brightness (white on dark background)
  • Previous items: dimmed to ~40% opacity / gray — visible for context but no longer competing for attention
  • Never show the full list at once; each item gets its moment as the sole high-contrast element
  • David Phillips: "I show the first topic, then I remove it with contrast"

5. Maximum 6 objects per slide

Above 6 objects, the brain is forced to count instead of see — 500% more cognitive effort; audience disengages.

• Objects include: logos, icons, table rows, list items, text boxes, shapes, page numbers
• More slides with fewer objects > fewer crowded slides
• Remove page numbers, repeated corporate logos, footer text from every slide

Workflow when receiving content for slides

1. Identify key messages — how many are there? Each becomes a slide
2. Separate what goes on the slide vs. in speaker notes
3. Define visual hierarchy — largest element = most important message (not the title)
4. Count objects per slide — ≤ 6; split if exceeded

Default patterns

Progressive reveal is the default. Almost every content slide should split into multiple reveals — animations: none is the exception, reserved for opening/closing slides.

Standard slide types

• Opening: title alone → title + subtitle
• Topic with detail: keyword bright → keyword dimmed + body content
• Topic list (per-section): each topic as its own progressive item (no body — just one keyword per reveal)
• Flow diagram: keyword + nodes revealed one per reveal (each node becomes active; previous nodes dim; keyword bright on first reveal, dimmed on subsequent)
• Numbered list of steps: one item per reveal; previous items dimmed

Topics, not sentences

The body of a content slide is a keyword phrase (2–4 words), not a complete sentence. Descriptive sentences belong in notes. If you find yourself writing "Well-defined issues take time…" on a slide, that's prose — extract the keyword ("Repetitive work") and move the sentence to notes.

Icons: off by default

Do not add icons unless the user explicitly asks. When the user requests icons:

• Monochromatic (white on dark background)
• Simple outline style (e.g. Phosphor Icons Light, Heroicons outline)
• Same family throughout the deck — never mix Phosphor with Font Awesome

Vertical spacing for progressive lists

Ensure footer clearance with an explicit calculation:

N items × (itemH + gap) ≤ (footerY - listTop)

Example: a 5-item list between y=1.1 and y=5.1 → itemH + gap = 0.80 (e.g. itemH=0.68, gap=0.12).

Reference assets

File	Purpose
assets/reference-presentation.odp	18-slide neutral reference (dark theme): opening/closing slides, pill labels, dominant keywords, progressive-build sequences, warning tables, flow diagrams. Use as visual spec when implementing from scratch.
assets/animation-example.odp	Minimal working example of progressive reveal animations in LibreOffice/Impress format.

For ODP animation XML and implementation details, see references/odp-animations.md.

Expected output for pptx skill

Deliver as YAML:

Field definitions:

Field	What goes here
message	The ONE idea this slide communicates — one sentence max
visual	The dominant visual element(s): image, icon, keyword, code snippet, table, or diagram. Describe what appears — not layout, not size, not position. Size follows Principle 3 automatically. Forbidden: size words (large, small), position words (centered, left, right, horizontal, side by side, top, bottom), the "Small title: '...'" pattern, and animation descriptions (those belong in animations).
notes	Everything the presenter would speak — text that must NOT appear on the slide (Principle 2)
animations	progressive-build (default) or none (opening/closing only). In pptxgenjs (no native animation support): implement as duplicate slides — one per reveal. Active: full brightness, bold. Previous: dimmed (DIM from validated palette). Future: hidden. Title and section labels persist on every duplicate. Arrows: full brightness toward active item; dimmed between already-shown items. For ODP native animations, see references/odp-animations.md.
objects	Count every visible element: title, keywords, icons, list items, images, table rows

deck:
  title: "Presentation Title"
  filename: "presentation-title.pptx"
  background: dark  # dark recommended; light only if explicitly requested
  transition: fade  # uniform across all slides

slides:
  - id: 1
    type: opening  # title slide with presentation theme
    message: "..."
    visual: "Icon or thematic image + presentation name as dominant keyword"
    notes: "..."
    animations: none
    objects: 2

  - id: 2
    message: "..."
    visual: "Keyword or diagram that anchors the message — no layout instructions"
    notes: "Full spoken text — nothing from here should appear on the slide"
    animations: none  # or: progressive-build (dim previous items to ~40% opacity as each bullet is revealed)
    objects: 4

  - id: N
    type: closing  # thank-you + contact info; omit if context doesn't call for it
    message: "..."
    visual: "..."
    notes: "..."
    animations: none
    objects: 2

Validated dark palette

Token	Hex	Use
BG	0A0E1A	Slide background
WHITE	FFFFFF	Active keyword, label
BODY	C0D2E4	Body text (high contrast on BG)
DIM	6B7A8D	Previous-reveal items, dimmed keyword (validated for projector; avoid 565E6B — too dark)
ACCENT	4A9EF4	Footer rule, flow-diagram borders

Section label: 10pt, bold, white, charSpacing: 3, uppercase. Footer: thin horizontal line at y=5.2 in ACCENT with transparency: 60 — anchors the bottom of every content slide.

Visual QA (required before delivery)

After generating the .pptx, convert to images (soffice --convert-to pdf + pdftoppm -jpeg -r 150) and dispatch a subagent for visual inspection. The subagent catches problems the generator cannot see: overflow, dead space, invisible icons, last item clipping the footer, insufficient dimming for projector, vertical position inconsistencies across slides in the same section.

Iterate until zero critical issues remain.