Learn to use ChatGPT to create PPT presentations (Xiaobai makes PPT in minutes)

Table of contents

It's easy to let ChatGPT be your assistant to help you write emails, because it's known to be very capable of generating text. But you might wonder if it can generate something other than text. In this article, you'll learn about another example of using intermediate language, VBA for PowerPoint. Specifically, you will learn:

How to make ChatGPT generate slide outline
How to Convert Slide Outlines to Actual PowerPoint Files

let's start.

PPT outline

Let's consider a scenario: You are asked to explain to a software team and convince them to switch from Java to Python. You know that Python is powerful, especially with its ecosystem, community support, and online software repositories. But constructing the storyline requires some thought.

You can use ChatGPT to create story feeds. Your prompt should include:

Persona : ChatGPT should sound like an expert
Goal : You want an outline that you can use to build your slideshow
Details : Your storyline should be that Python works better than Java. Depending on the use case, you may need to provide more details about a specific application, such as a REST API system

Therefore, you can try the following tips:

您是Python编程和系统开发方面的专家。

编写幻灯片大纲，向 Java 资深人士介绍 Python 生态系统。
告诉他们 Python 如何能够完成他们使用 Java 所做的所有事情。
关注易于使用、易于开发和易于维护的好处。
特别关注 Python 如何支持构建具有 REST API 支持的可扩展系统。

As expected, ChatGPT can give you a summary like this:

幻灯片：向 Java 资深人士介绍 Python 生态系统

幻灯片 1：简介

欢迎和介绍
目标受众：Java 工程师
目标：展示 Python 如何取代 Java 并提供易用性、开发和维护方面的优势，重点是构建具有 REST API 支持的可扩展系统。
幻灯片 2：Python 概述

Python 作为高级编程语言的简介
Python 的流行及其广泛的生态系统
幻灯片 3：易于使用

与 Java 相比，Python 的简单性和可读性
简洁而富有表现力的语法
减少样板代码
幻灯片 4：易于开发

快速原型设计和更短的开发周期
广泛的内置库和包
大量的社区支持和广泛的文档
幻灯片 5：易于维护

Python强调代码的可读性和可维护性
干净且有组织的代码结构
自动化测试框架可提高代码质量
幻灯片 6：可扩展系统

Python 能够构建具有 REST API 支持的可扩展系统
Django 和 Flask 等 Python 框架概述
支持微服务架构
幻灯片 7：REST API 支持

用于 REST API 开发的 Python 强大库
介绍 Flask-RESTful 和 Django REST 框架等流行库
轻松构建 RESTful API
幻灯片 8：案例研究

重点介绍使用 Python 进行系统开发的成功公司和项目
在现实场景中展示 Python 的可扩展性和性能
幻灯片 9：从 Java 迁移到 Python

讨论将 Java 代码迁移到 Python 的策略
常见挑战以及如何克服它们
平稳过渡的工具和资源
幻灯片 10：结论

回顾一下 Python 相对于 Java 在易用性、开发和维护方面的优势
通过 REST API 支持增强 Python 构建可扩展系统的能力
鼓励Java老手探索Python生态系统
幻灯片 11：问题和讨论

欢迎提问、评论和讨论
幻灯片 12：谢谢

对他们的时间和关注表示感谢
提供联系信息以获得进一步帮助或咨询

You should check out what ChatGPT has to offer you. You can also use the follow-up prompt to ask ChatGPT to modify some slides or add some content. However, once you're happy with your outline, you can ask ChatGPT to create PowerPoint slides.

Since ChatGPT won't return a PowerPoint file to you, you need to find something that can generate a PowerPoint. Just as you learned in the previous article that Mermaid syntax is a way to present sequence diagrams, PowerPoint comes with Visual Basic for Application (VBA) to generate slides using code.

For example, you can use the following follow-up tips to generate VBA code that creates a deck:

现在编写 VBA 代码来创建该幻灯片的 PowerPoint 幻灯片。偶尔添加幽默和异想天开的内容。

The output of ChatGPT is as follows:

certainly! Here's an example of VBA code for creating a PowerPoint slideshow for promotional material with occasional humor and whimsy:
Sub CreatePitchDeck()

    Dim PowerPointApp As PowerPoint.Application
    Dim PowerPointPres As PowerPoint.Presentation
    Dim PowerPointSlide As PowerPoint.Slide
    Dim SlideNum As Integer

...

Run VBA and get the PowerPoint file

VBA is a language that PowerPoint has built-in support for. You can follow the steps below to run the code and get the PowerPoint file.

First, open the PowerPoint application and create a new presentation. You should then find the Visual Basic Editor under the Macro submenu in the Tools menu.

You should see a "VBAProject" window in the Visual Basic Editor. Right click on it to insert a new module.

Then you can copy and paste the VBA code generated by ChatGPT into the module window, as shown in the image below.

Then you can run this VBA code to generate a PowerPoint file. All you have to do is click the "Run" button on the toolbar.

Running this command will create another PowerPoint presentation with content generated by ChatGPT. You can discard the first presentation because it is empty and continue working on this presentation.

Note that the slides are bare, you may need to apply a template to make them more colorful. Instructions for switching templates to existing presentations can be easily found online. Also note that the resulting slideshow is not perfect. For example, there may be some formatting issues. ChatGPT is just to help you get started. It's your job to refine it further.

generate other file formats

You can see above that the general workflow for generating any file format with ChatGPT is provided.

First, you need to know which programming language or markup language is suitable for that particular file format. For example, if instead of Microsoft PowerPoint, there is Google Slides, there is the Google Slides API.

You should then have a concrete idea of what to put in your file. Above, you mentioned the purpose and content that should be included in a PowerPoint presentation. This helps ChatGPT generate content for you. Of course, you can refine the results provided by ChatGPT with follow-up prompts such as "remove the last slide" or "add an agenda slide at the beginning".

After preparing the content, you should ask ChatGPT to generate the code, which in turn produces the final output. Depending on the actual file format, you may need to run the code appropriately. In the example above, you started PowerPoint and ran VBA. If you request a PDF and let ChatGPT generate the LaTeX code for you, you need to run a LaTeX compiler to generate the final output.

summarize

In this article, you learned how to create PowerPoint files. In particular, you learned

How to let ChatGPT create an outline for your presentation
How to convert an outline into VBA code that can generate an actual presentation
How to execute VBA to get final output

This workflow can be used for other file formats.