Step 2 · Structure before design

Before Deck Mode, settle what's on each slide.

This is where most AI presentation workflows die: they design too early. With the text, the order, and the narrative logic still unsettled, every later edit drags the visuals along with it and costs twice as much.

What this step produces

A clean content skeleton. Per slide:

• Slide title
• One-sentence key message
• Supporting points
• A suggested visual element, if one helps
• Whether the slide needs a chart, logo, image, screenshot, or motion

Plus a plain-text HTML preview — each slide's words dropped into a bare layout, so you can review the structure with the design stripped out.

The prompt

I want to build a deck about [TOPIC].

Audience:
[AUDIENCE]

They should understand:
[WHAT THEY MUST GRASP]

They should conclude or decide:
[WHAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE / DECIDE / DO]

Source material:
[PASTE NOTES, TRANSCRIPT, REPORT, OR BULLETS]

Produce the slide-by-slide content plan.

Requirements:
1. Do not design the slides yet.
2. Do not write the final HTML yet.
3. [NUMBER] slides.
4. For each slide give me:
   - Slide title
   - One-sentence key message
   - Supporting points
   - A suggested visual element, if useful
   - Whether it needs a chart, logo, image, screenshot, or motion
5. One idea per slide.
6. Keep the text on each slide light.

After the outline, build a simple HTML preview that drops each slide's
text into a plain layout, so I can review the structure before any
visual design starts.

Why the plain-text preview matters

Because you can't see content problems inside good typography.

When the type is handsome and the spacing is comfortable, an empty sentence reads like a real one. Strip the design and you can finally see what a slide actually says, how it relates to the one before it, and whether it repeats slide 7.

Checkpoint: fix the structure now

This is the cheapest edit in the whole workflow. One step further and the same change drags the visuals with it.

Go through the skeleton:

• [ ] Titles — does each one state a conclusion rather than name a topic?
• [ ] Weak slides — which one could be removed without weakening the argument?
• [ ] Duplicates — are two slides making the same point?
• [ ] The ending — does the last slide state the decision you want?
• [ ] Count — are any slides there only to reach a number?

The title point deserves a line of its own. "Analysis of cost" is a topic. "Costs came in 30% under plan, almost entirely from one line item" is a conclusion. The second tells an audience in three seconds whether to read on.

What a rewrite looks like

Before

Slide 5 · User feedback
- 200 responses collected
- 60% positive, 25% negative, 15% neutral
- Main complaint is response speed

Problem: the title is a topic, the three points are parallel data, and the audience doesn't know what to take away.

After

Slide 5 · They like the coverage. Every complaint is about speed.
Key message: 80% of negative feedback points at one thing — the only
problem phase two needs to solve
- 200 responses, 25% negative
- Of those, 80% say "took too long"; the rest are scattered
- Coverage and accuracy appear in zero negative responses
Visual: horizontal bar chart breaking down the negative responses

What changed: the title became a conclusion, the points went from parallel to cumulative, and the slide now knows what it's leading to.

Which tool for this step

Any AI chat — whatever you already use. Or the OpenDesign chat, if you prefer everything in one place. The output is plain text; the tool doesn't matter.

Where it goes wrong

Trap	How it shows	Fix
Asking for 15 slides from thin material	Filler and repetition	Let the material set the count; eight solid beats fifteen thin
Four or five points per slide	You can't present it and they can't read it	One idea per slide; split the rest
Skipping the plain preview	Structural faults surface after the design	Don't save that thirty seconds
No visual requirements noted	Steps 6 and 7 have nothing to work from	Mark chart needs on every slide

Next

Step 3 · The first editable deck — style settled, content settled, now you can build.