/textbook-to-presentation-generator

Presentation Generator

Version: 1.0

Generate a lecture-ready PowerPoint presentation from an intelligent textbook project. The presentation is designed for live delivery — visual, story-driven, with progressive disclosure, audience interaction beats, and speaker notes that script the entire performance.

Core Philosophy: The Medium IS the Message

The presentation doesn't teach about communication or subject-matter frameworks. It is the framework in action. The audience should experience principles before being told about them. Every slide must answer: "Is this slide itself an example of the principle it discusses?"

This means:

• When teaching structure, the presentation IS structured (Pyramid Principle — governing thought in minute 2, not minute 55)
• When teaching brevity, the slide has seven words maximum
• When teaching storytelling, the lecture IS a story (4-act arc)
• When teaching about cognitive load, no slide overloads the audience
• Meta-moments: The speaker reveals "what I just did was [framework name]" AFTER demonstrating it. The audience learns through experience, then gets the vocabulary.

When to Use This Skill

Use when:

• An intelligent textbook exists (MkDocs project with chapters, course-description.md, learning graph)
• The user wants a lecture presentation for live delivery
• The user wants to convert textbook content into a slide deck
• The user says "create a presentation", "make slides", "build a deck", "lecture slides"

Do NOT use when:

• No textbook content exists yet (use course-description-analyzer and chapter generators first)
• The user wants a document, not a presentation (use docx skill)
• The user wants to edit an existing presentation (use the pptx editing workflow)

Prerequisites

• Node.js installed
• npm install pptxgenjs (install locally in the output directory)
• An intelligent textbook project with:
  • docs/course-description.md
  • docs/chapters/ with chapter content
  • CLAUDE.md with project conventions (optional but helpful)

Workflow

Step 1: Read the Textbook

Read these files to understand the content:

1. Course description (docs/course-description.md) — extract title, audience, key topics, learning outcomes
2. CLAUDE.md — extract tone, style, color palette, mascot info
3. Chapter index files — scan docs/chapters/*/index.md for chapter titles, key concepts, and the pedagogical flow
4. Student feedback (if available in input-knowledge/) — what resonated with prior audiences
5. Original lecture notes (if available) — the speaker's natural flow and stories

Step 2: Design the Presentation Structure

Design a 4-act structure following Klein's storytelling model applied to the lecture itself:

Target: 25-35 slides for a 50-60 minute lecture. At ~1.5 min/slide average. Fewer slides = more speaker time per slide = more engaging.

Present the proposed structure to the user for approval before generating.

Step 3: Design the Visual System

Extract or create a color palette from the textbook's CLAUDE.md:

const C = {
  primary: "XXXXXX",      // From CLAUDE.md palette
  primaryDark: "XXXXXX",
  primaryLight: "XXXXXX",
  accent: "XXXXXX",       // Highlight color
  white: "FFFFFF",
  offWhite: "F5F5F5",
  black: "212121",
  gray: "757575",
  red: "C62828",           // For "before" / negative examples
  green: "2E7D32",         // For "after" / positive examples
};

Typography:

• Title font: Georgia (or serif from CLAUDE.md)
• Body font: Calibri (or sans-serif from CLAUDE.md)
• Title size: 32-44pt
• Body size: 14-20pt (never below 13pt)

Layout rules:

• No more than 7 words per line of body text
• One idea per slide
• Dark backgrounds (primary dark) for section dividers, title, close
• Light backgrounds (white) for content slides
• Accent color for emphasis bars, numbers, highlights

Step 4: Generate the Presentation

Create a Node.js script that uses pptxgenjs to generate the .pptx file. Read references/slide-patterns.md for the reusable slide pattern library.

Slide categories and their patterns:

1. Title slide — dark bg, large title, subtitle, author, accent bar
2. Section divider — dark bg, large text, subtitle, accent bar
3. Big number — dark bg, one massive stat (80-120pt), context below
4. Before/After comparison — two columns, red accent (before) vs green (after)
5. Framework visual — shapes/diagrams illustrating a model (pyramid, stages, pillars)
6. Evidence stack — 3 cards with accent bars showing research findings
7. Interactive beat — light bg, challenge prompt in a card, instructions
8. Quote — dark bg, large italic text, attribution
9. Action items — numbered circles with titles and descriptions
10. Resource/CTA — textbook link, QR code placeholder, stats

Step 5: Write Speaker Notes

Every slide gets detailed speaker notes. These are the real script — the slides are just visual anchors. Notes include:

• TIMING: Cumulative minutes (e.g., "TIMING: 15:00")
• SAY: The exact narrative to deliver (2-4 sentences, conversational)
• META-MOMENT: Where the speaker reveals the framework AFTER demonstrating it (e.g., "Notice what I just did? That was Klein's Dilemma stage.")
• TRANSITION: The bridge sentence to the next slide
• AUDIENCE PULSE: When to pause, ask a question, or let silence work

Step 6: Generate and Verify

1. Run the Node.js script to generate the .pptx
2. Verify slide count matches the design
3. Extract text with python -m markitdown output.pptx to confirm content
4. Report the result to the user with slide count and timing estimate

Output

The presentation file should be saved to:

{project-root}/presentation/{kebab-case-title}.pptx

Along with the generation script:

{project-root}/presentation/generate.js

Adapting for Different Subjects

This skill works for ANY intelligent textbook, not just communication. The key adaptations:

• Subject-specific stories: Open with a story from the textbook's domain (engineering, science, business)
• Framework names: Use whatever frameworks the textbook teaches (not just Minto, Klein, etc.)
• Color palette: Derive from the textbook's CLAUDE.md
• Audience: Match the course-description.md target audience
• Interactive beats: Design exercises relevant to the subject matter

The 4-act structure and McLuhan principle remain constant regardless of subject.

References

• references/slide-patterns.md — Reusable pptxgenjs code patterns for each slide type
• references/speaker-notes-guide.md — How to write effective speaker notes

Best Practices

1. Cut aggressively: If a slide doesn't change understanding, delete it. The Dilution Effect applies to slide decks too.
2. Story first, framework second: Always demonstrate a principle through a story or example before naming the framework.
3. One idea per slide: If you need two sentences to explain what a slide is about, split it into two slides.
4. Speaker notes ARE the presentation: The slides are visual anchors. The speaker's narrative, pauses, and meta-moments are where learning happens.
5. Test the McLuhan principle: For every slide, ask "Is this slide itself an example of what it teaches?" If not, redesign it.