Slides widget

The Slides widget puts a PlexiiSlides deck on a desk, with the slide editor inside it. Use it when a presentation belongs to a piece of work: build the deck next to the notes, research and figures it draws on, instead of switching back and forth between the desk and Office.

The deck itself is kept in PlexiiOffice. The widget shows that deck, so the same slides open in PlexiiSlides, and every change you make on the desk is saved to the deck.

More about this widget Coming soon

Before you start

• The Slides widget is on every plan.
• You need a desk open. The Add widget button is in the header while a desk is open.
• To start from a PowerPoint file, have the .pptx file on your computer.
• The AI features need AI to be set up: PlexiDesk credits while you are signed in, or your own Anthropic key. See AI credits and where your AI runs Coming soon.

Add a Slides widget

1. Open the desk you want the deck on.
2. Click Add widget in the centre of the header.
3. Click Slides. The Add slides window opens.
4. Choose how to start: Create new, Import a file, or a deck under Place an existing one. Each is described below.

The widget appears on the desk at 900 × 600, beside the widget you last worked on or in the middle of your view.

The Add widget menu groups widgets into columns by what they are for. Slides is in the Files & documents column, with Gallery, File or link, Drive (folder) and Document. You can also type slides in the search box at the top of the menu and press Enter to open the Add slides window.

Create new

Click Create new. PlexiDesk makes a new deck called "Untitled slides", with one slide titled "Title slide", and puts it on the desk.

Import a PowerPoint file

1. Click Import a file.
2. In the Import PowerPoint window, choose a .pptx file and open it.

PlexiDesk makes a new deck named after the file and puts it on the desk. The file on your computer stays as it is.

The import brings in each slide's text, speaker notes, pictures and tables, and the data behind its charts. The first paragraph of text on each slide becomes the slide's title and the rest becomes a bulleted list, set out in the Plexii theme. The deck takes on a PlexiiSlides look rather than the file's own design, so choose a theme afterwards if you want a different one. See Themes and backgrounds Coming soon.

If PlexiDesk cannot read the file, the window says why and nothing is added.

Place an existing deck

Under Place an existing one, click a deck. The list holds every deck you have, including the ones you made in Office. Type in the search box above the list to narrow it down by title.

The deck goes on the desk as it is. Nothing is copied: the widget and Office show the same deck. See Put a document, spreadsheet or deck on a desk Coming soon.

To close the window without adding anything, click × or click outside it.

Other ways to add one

• Right-click the desk. Right-click an empty part of the desk, point to Add object, then Files, and click Slides. The same Add slides window opens, and the widget lands where you right-clicked.
• Use the command palette. Press ⌘ K on a Mac or Ctrl K on Windows, type slides and choose Add Slides. This skips the window and puts a new, blank deck called "Slides" on the desk.

Slides has no single-key shortcut, because it asks how you want to start. See Add widgets with a single key.

What you see

The widget holds the PlexiiSlides editor. From top to bottom and left to right:

• Title bar: the deck's name and the widget's buttons.
• Menu bar: File, Edit, View, Insert, Slide, Format and Help.
• Toolbar: Undo and Redo, Text, Image, Shape, Templates and Layout on the left; the folder button for importing and exporting, AI and Present on the right.
• Slide rail: a numbered thumbnail of every slide, with + at the bottom.
• The slide you are working on, with a Speaker notes box under it.
• Inspector: settings for the element you have selected, or for the slide when nothing is selected.
• Side panel: Ask your workspace, the AI Assistant, and the Slide and Layout tabs.

Work on your slides

This is a short tour. Each part links to the full PlexiiSlides guide.

Add, move and remove slides

• Click a thumbnail in the rail to work on that slide.
• Slide > New slide adds a blank slide straight after the one you are on.
• Templates in the toolbar, or + at the bottom of the rail, offers starter slides such as Cover, Agenda, Big number and Quote, drawn in your deck's theme.
• Rest the pointer on a thumbnail to see its small Move up, Move down and Delete buttons. The Slide menu has the same commands: Move slide up, Move slide down and Delete slide. A deck always keeps at least one slide.

See Add, reorder and lay out slides Coming soon.

Layouts, themes and transitions

• Layout in the toolbar sets out the current slide as Title, Title + content, Two content, Section, Image + caption or Blank. The Layout tab in the side panel has the same choices.
• With nothing selected, the inspector shows Slide transition, the slide's Background colour and the deck's Theme: Plexii, Midnight, Editorial, Bold or Mono. The Layout tab lists the themes too.

See Themes and backgrounds Coming soon and Animations and transitions Coming soon.

Add text, shapes, pictures and more

Use the toolbar or the Insert menu:

• Text (Text box on the Insert menu) adds a text box. Double-click a text box to type in it.
• Image asks you for a picture file and places it in the middle of the slide at its own proportions.
• Shape adds a Rectangle, Rounded, Ellipse or Triangle shape, or a Line / arrow. On the Insert menu these are under Shape, where the rounded one is called Rounded rectangle, and Line is listed on its own.
• Insert > Table adds a table of three columns and three rows, with a header row.
• Insert > Chart adds a bar chart that starts on sample figures, labelled as sample data, until you link it to a spreadsheet. See Charts linked to a spreadsheet Coming soon.
• Insert > Widget from a desk shows a widget from any of your desks on the slide, as a live card that keeps up with the widget. See Embed desk widgets and other files in a document Coming soon.

See Text, shapes, images and tables on slides Coming soon.

Format and arrange

• Click an element to select it. The inspector then shows Position & size, Rotation & opacity, settings for that kind of element, Entrance animation, and Arrange: bring forward, send back, duplicate and delete.
• To select several elements, hold Shift, ⌘ or Ctrl as you click, or drag across an empty part of the slide. A bar above the slide shows how many are selected, with buttons to align them, to distribute three or more evenly, and to group them.
• Format > Align lines elements up by their Left, Center, Right, Top, Middle or Bottom. Format > Group and Ungroup join elements together or split them apart.

See Format elements with the inspector Coming soon and Align, distribute and group Coming soon.

Before you share a deck, View > Check accessibility looks for pictures without alt text and slides with no title. See Check a file for accessibility Coming soon.

Speaker notes

Type what you want to say in the Speaker notes box under the slide. The Notes box on the side panel's Slide tab holds the same notes. Notes travel with the deck when you export it to PowerPoint. See Speaker notes and presenting Coming soon.

Keyboard shortcuts

These work in the widget while you are not typing in a box.

The Undo and Redo arrows at the left of the toolbar, and the Edit menu, do the same. See Keyboard shortcuts in Office Coming soon.

AI in the Slides widget

Build or redesign slides with AI

Click AI in the toolbar to open the AI slides panel above the slide. It has three modes:

• New deck builds a whole themed deck from a description, such as a short pitch or a training session.
• Append adds new slides to the end of the deck.
• Redesign reworks the slide you are on. When the slide already has text, Make this slide beautiful in the theme redesigns it in one click.

1. Choose a mode.
2. Describe what you want.
3. Click Generate, or press ⌘ Enter on a Mac or Ctrl Enter on Windows.
4. Look over the preview. Nothing in your deck changes yet.
5. Click Use deck for a new deck, Add … slides to append them (the button shows how many), or Apply redesign. To try again, click Regenerate.

Use deck replaces the whole deck with the new one, and Undo brings the old one back.

The AI Assistant in the side panel

The AI Assistant works on the text of the slide you are on:

• Improve slide, Rewrite content and Shorten text rework the slide's wording.
• Design upgrade suggests which of the five themes fits the slide.
• Add speaker notes drafts what to say for the slide.
• More ideas shows two more options: Generate or redesign a whole deck, which opens the AI slides panel, and a box where you type your own instruction and click Run (or press ⌘ Enter on a Mac, Ctrl Enter on Windows).

The result appears in the panel. Click Apply to put the new text on the slide, Insert notes to put drafted notes in the slide's speaker notes, or Apply theme to switch the deck to the suggested theme. Copy copies the result instead. If a slide has no text yet, add a text box first so the assistant has something to work on.

Above the AI Assistant, Ask your workspace answers questions from your documents, sheets and notes across your desks. See Ask your workspace from a spreadsheet, deck or design Coming soon.

See AI in PlexiiSlides Coming soon. If AI is not set up yet, the panel tells you so; see AI settings.

The AI button in the title bar

The title bar starts with an AI button (the sparkle). The Slides widget does its writing with the editor's own AI described above, so this button brings in Plexii instead: it opens the Plexii panel with the Slides widget attached to your conversation. Plexii can read the text and speaker notes on each slide, so you can ask it questions about the deck, such as what it covers. See Use a widget's AI button.

Import, export and present

Replace the deck with a PowerPoint file

Choose File > Import (.pptx), or click the folder button in the toolbar and choose Import .pptx, then pick the file. The slides from the file replace every slide in this deck, so use this on a new or spare deck. Undo brings the previous slides back. To keep the deck and start a separate one from a file, add another Slides widget and choose Import a file instead.

Download as PowerPoint or PDF

1. Choose File > Download > PowerPoint (.pptx) or PDF document (.pdf). The folder button in the toolbar has the same choices as Export .pptx and Export PDF.
2. Choose where to save the file. The deck's title is filled in as the file name.

A line above the slide shows Saved and where the file went.

• The .pptx file has your text, pictures, shapes, lines, tables, charts and speaker notes.
• The PDF has one page for each slide.

A widget you showed on a slide with Widget from a desk is live, so in both files it becomes a labelled box that says Embedded desk widget.

See Import and export PowerPoint and PDF Coming soon.

Present the deck

To present, open the deck in PlexiiSlides and click Present there. The next section shows how to open it. See Speaker notes and presenting Coming soon.

Share the deck

To share the deck with other people, see Share a widget, document or file Coming soon. To send a copy, download it as a .pptx or PDF and send the file.

The same deck in Office

The widget shows a deck kept in Office, so you can open it in PlexiiSlides at any time:

1. Open Office. If you have not used it yet, see PlexiiOffice: your office suite Coming soon.
2. Click Recent in the Office menu.
3. Click the deck. It opens in PlexiiSlides.

If it is not among your latest files, see Find, star and pin your Office files Coming soon.

Do these in PlexiiSlides rather than in the widget, because they concern the file itself:

• Give the deck a new title with File > Rename.
• Make a separate copy with File > Make a copy.
• Go back to an earlier version with File > Version history. See Version history Coming soon.
• Delete the deck with File > Move to trash. See Delete and restore Office files Coming soon.

You can put the same deck on more than one desk with Place an existing one. Every copy of the widget shows the same deck.

The title bar

The title bar's buttons appear when you rest the pointer on the widget. The ones you are most likely to use with Slides are:

• Rename (the pencil), or double-click the name, to give the widget its own name on the desk. Until you do, it shows the deck's title. Renaming the widget does not change the deck's title in Office.
• The plus and minus buttons make the widget larger or smaller.
• Expand for Larger on desk, or Focus mode to open the widget in a large pane of its own.
• × takes the widget off the desk. PlexiDesk asks Remove from the desk? first. The deck stays in Office, and you can put it back on any desk with Place an existing one.

Right-click the title bar for the menu every widget shares. See The controls on every widget and Right-click menus.

Good uses

• A pitch beside its research. Keep the deck next to a Browser, a Page of notes and the figures it draws on, so everything you need is in one view.
• A weekly update. Link a chart on a slide to the spreadsheet it reports on, and refresh it each week. See Charts linked to a spreadsheet Coming soon.
• A deck someone sent you. Import their .pptx, then give it a theme and tidy it on the desk where the project lives.
• A talk you need to rehearse. Draft speaker notes with Add speaker notes, then edit them into your own words.
• One deck, several projects. Place the same deck on each desk that needs it, so every desk shows the latest slides.

Common questions

How do I present a deck that is on a desk? Open the deck in PlexiiSlides, as described under The same deck in Office above, and click Present.

I removed the widget. Is my deck gone? No. Removing the widget only takes it off the desk. The deck is still in Office, and Place an existing one puts it back on a desk.

Why does the title bar show a different name from the deck? You have given the widget a name of its own. The widget's name and the deck's title are separate. To rename the deck itself, open it in PlexiiSlides and choose File > Rename.

Does importing keep my PowerPoint design? The import keeps the content: text, speaker notes, pictures, tables and chart data. The slides are set out again in a PlexiiSlides layout and theme, so pick a theme and adjust the layout afterwards.

Where did my exported file go? To the folder you chose in the save window. The line above the slide shows Saved and the full location.

The AI panel says AI is not set up. AI needs to be set up first: PlexiDesk credits while you are signed in, or your own Anthropic key. See AI settings and Add your own API keys.

Can I see the slides bigger while I work? Yes. Use the plus button or Expand > Larger on desk, choose Expand > Focus mode, or open the deck in PlexiiSlides.

Related tasks

• Files and documents widgets
• PlexiiSlides overview Coming soon
• Put a document, spreadsheet or deck on a desk Coming soon
• Document widget
• AI in PlexiiSlides Coming soon
• Import and export PowerPoint and PDF Coming soon
• Add a widget to a desk
• The controls on every widget