Build a Google Slides deck from a document with Claude

“The summary already exists. Turning it into slides is an hour of work nobody wants to do.”

A structured deck built from the document you already wrote, ready to edit rather than ready to present.

Tools it uses

docs_getslides_createslides_batch_updateslides_get

What it needs

Google Workspace connected
Works with one connected account
The gateway URL in your Claude client

The thinking happened when the document was written. Making slides out of it is not more thinking, it is an hour of copying sentences into text boxes.

The trick worth knowing is that a slide can be created and filled in the same request. The obvious implementation — create the slides, read the deck back to find out what the placeholders are called, then write into them — is a round trip you do not need.

SKILL.md

---
name: document-to-deck
description: Turn a document into a structured Google Slides deck
---

# Document to deck

## Read the source

`docs_get` in `text` mode. You want the prose, not positions.

Find the structure that is already there. A document with headed sections is
a deck with slides; a wall of text is not, and turning one into slides means
inventing structure the author did not write. If there is no structure, say
so rather than fabricating one.

## Create the deck

`slides_create` returns the presentation id and a `placeholder_map` for the
first slide.

**The title slide is not shaped like the others.** It uses `CENTERED_TITLE`
and `SUBTITLE`. Every slide you add with the `TITLE_AND_BODY` layout uses
`TITLE` and `BODY`. Code that assumes `TITLE` everywhere silently skips the
first slide.

## Fill it in ONE pass

`slides_batch_update`, assigning your own ids as you create each slide:

    createSlide {
      objectId: "sIntro",
      slideLayoutReference: { predefinedLayout: "TITLE_AND_BODY" },
      placeholderIdMappings: [
        { layoutPlaceholder: { type: "TITLE", index: 0 }, objectId: "sIntroTitle" },
        { layoutPlaceholder: { type: "BODY",  index: 0 }, objectId: "sIntroBody" }
      ]
    }
    insertText { objectId: "sIntroTitle", text: "..." }
    insertText { objectId: "sIntroBody",  text: "..." }

Because you named the placeholders, you can write into them in the same
batch. No create-then-read-then-write.

Body text takes newlines, so one `insertText` per slide body is enough — you
do not need a request per line.

## Rules

1. **One idea per slide.** A section that needs six bullets is two slides.
2. **The body is the document's sentences, not a summary of them.** You are
   reformatting, not rewriting. If a sentence is too long for a slide, that
   is a signal to split the slide, not to paraphrase the author.
3. **Do not invent a conclusion.** If the document has no recommendation,
   the deck does not get one.
4. **Hand it back as a draft.** This produces something to edit. Say that,
   rather than implying it is ready to present.

## Confirm

`slides_get` returns each slide's objectIds, placeholder types and text,
stripped of layout and styling. Use it to check the deck says what you think
it says before handing it over.

Paste this into your Claude client as a skill, then ask for it by name. It calls your connected accounts through the gateway, and every write asks you first.

Notes from running this

One pass works, and it is the whole efficiency of this. placeholderIdMappings lets you name a new slide's placeholders as you create it, so createSlide and both insertText calls go in a single batch. Built a five-slide deck this way in two calls total — the naive create, read, write loop would have been one round trip per slide.

The first slide's placeholders are named differently. slides_create returned CENTERED_TITLE and SUBTITLE for the title slide, while every TITLE_AND_BODY slide added afterwards used TITLE and BODY. Anything that looks for TITLE on every slide misses the cover.

Batch replies are positional, and mostly empty. createSlide replies carry the objectId; insertText replies come back as empty objects. So you confirm by position in the replies array, or you confirm properly with slides_get. Counting non-empty replies tells you nothing.

Multi-line bodies work in a single insert. Newlines inside one insertText render as separate lines in the body placeholder, so a slide's bullets do not need a request each.

Run it against your own data

Connect Google Workspace, paste the gateway URL into Claude, and this skill works on your accounts.

Get the gateway

Build a Google Slides deck from a document with Claude

Tools it uses

What it needs

Notes from running this

Run it against your own data

Other skills