The useful result
Produce a slide plan in which every slide carries one message, a short headline and at most three short bullets.
- Produce a slide plan in which every slide carries one message, a short headline and at most three short bullets.
You paste an outline into a slide tool and get twelve slides, each with six bullets and a paragraph. Slides full of text pull attention away from the speaker and are hard to read from the back of a room. The default behaviour of many tools is to put everything on the slide because you gave it everything.
The cure is to decide the point of each slide before you let AI near the layout, then give strict limits on headline and bullet length and push the detail into speaker notes. Google’s prompting guide recommends specifying constraints and breaking complex tasks into steps, which is exactly what you do here.
The examples below are illustrative exercises, not recorded results from any tool. Sources were checked on 24 October 2026; menus, limits and prices change, so confirm details on the linked pages.
Before you start
- An outline or notes for a talk
- A slide tool of your choice
- Someone to do a thirty-second squint test
Review evidence
Documentation-based review · 2026-10-24
Primary documentation and official guidance checked on 24 October 2026. Examples, checks and exercises are original illustrations, not recorded tool tests. Cover artwork is a conceptual illustration.
Write one message per slide as a full sentence
Turn your outline into a list of claims, one sentence per slide, such as “Most refunds are caused by unclear delivery dates”. If a slide needs two sentences, it needs two slides. Putting the message in words first stops the tool inventing a layout around a vague topic.
Check your result
Each slide has exactly one sentence stating its message.
Give strict limits and send detail to speaker notes
Ask for a headline of at most ten words, at most three bullets of at most seven words each, a suggested visual and the detail in speaker notes. Tell it not to add facts that are not in your notes, so numbers and claims stay yours.
Turn these slide messages into a slide plan. For each slide give: a headline of at most 10 words, at most 3 bullets of at most 7 words each, one suggested visual (describe it), and speaker notes with the detail. Use only facts from my notes; do not add statistics. Messages:
[paste your one-sentence messages]
Notes:
[paste notes]Example / expected result
Illustrative example; not a recorded model result.
Headline “Unclear dates cause most refunds”. Bullets: “Show the date at checkout”, “Repeat it in the email”. Visual: a calendar with a circled date.
Check your result
Every slide fits the limits, and the detail appears only in the speaker notes.
Run a squint test and a headlines-only read
Show each slide for three seconds and ask a colleague what it said. Then read only the headlines in order: they should tell the whole story. Cut or merge any slide whose message was missed or repeated.
Check your result
A colleague can state each slide’s point after three seconds, and the headlines read as a complete story.
When it goes wrong
Charts need a clear title and a source. Do not let AI invent numbers to fill a slide. Fonts below about 24 points are hard to read in a room. A beautiful template cannot rescue a slide with two messages.
Make it your own
Take a five-slide talk you have given or will give. Rewrite each message as one sentence, build the slide plan, and run the squint test on two colleagues.
Useful next resources
Sources and review
Last checked Oct 24, 2026. Features and account limits can change. Verify important results against your original material.
Did this help you complete your task?
Tell us what needs improving. No account or private output required.
Report incorrect information or a broken linkGenius Forges Editorial
Practical AI lessons with checked sources, labelled examples and human verification.
