This article and articles in the "Building Templates" section are intended for Matik administrators looking to create templates for their organizations and configure Matik. If you are looking for our quickstart guide on how to download presentations or content from an existing template, see our Quickstart Guide to Generating Content.
Step 0: Connect to Google Drive
If PowerPoint, proceed to Step 1.
Click on your profile icon in the upper right hand corner > User Profile > click on “Connect to Google." When you generate your first presentation, Matik will automatically create a folder in your Google Drive called “Matik Presentations.” This folder will store all of the presentations you create with Matik.
Based on your Enterprise's G-Suite settings, you may have to authorize Matik as a trusted provider. Contact your G-Suite administrator and see this article on Controlling external access to Google Workspace Data for assistance.
Check out this video to learn more about connecting to Google:
Step 1: Create narrative and upload Template
First, create your first narrative in either PowerPoint or Google Slides. This narrative will be the basis for your ongoing development in Matik.
Next, you can upload your slides to Matik. First, navigate to the Templates tab by clicking on the templates icon in the navigation bar. Then, connect to your template by either uploading a PowerPoint file or connecting to your Google Drive and selecting a Slides document.
Step 2: Connect to Data Source
Once you have created your slides in PowerPoint or Google Slides, navigate to Matik and connect to your first data source:
- Click on Add Data Source in the upper left, then select your data source from the dropdown menu.
- Select your data source from the dropdown menu at the top of the form.
- Enter your credentials to give Matik access to the data source
Jump to Data Sources for more information on this topic.
Step 3: Create Inputs
Inputs in Matik are the options that Matik users select when they generate a presentation. You can add inputs in tandem with Step 4 as needed. To create an input, click on "Inputs" at the top navigation bar and click on "Add Input".
- Fill out Name, Display Name, and Description fields
- Select your Input Source. Input source determines the selection options available to an end user when selecting an input. "User Input" allows a user to select any value. "List" allows you to enter a static list of input options for users to select. Query and API allow you to connect to a data source (added in step 2) to retrieve a list of options to be displayed for the end user to select.
- Select "Configuration Type" to determine how the input will be displayed and its constraints. Example: Single select dropdown, date picker, checkbox, etc.
- Complete the remaining fields based on the selections you made above. Select a data source and enter a query (If applicable), enter your list of values (if applicable), etc.
- Click "Update" or "Save" to save your input.
Inputs can be added as Google Sheet inputs, queries, conditional statements, and more in Matik by entering &: followed by the input name. More on this in Step 4.
See this article for more on creating inputs
Step 4: Create Dynamic Content
After connecting to a data source, navigate to the Dynamic Content tab by clicking on the Dynamic Content icon in the navigation bar at the top of the page.
Create your first piece of dynamic content by using the following steps:
- Click on Add Dynamic Content in the upper left to create a new piece of dynamic content.
- Enter a name for the dynamic content. NOTE: This name will be matched on in the template, so avoid using spaces in the name and make it unique.
- (Optional) Enter a description for the dynamic content.
- (Optional) Add Tags to dynamic content to classify them and make sorting or searching a breeze.
- Choose an output for the dynamic content. The output of the dynamic content can either be a text, chart, table, image, or conditional.
- Select the method that the dynamic content will use to fetch the content. End User input means that the dynamic content will be whatever the user inputs for a given Input. Query means that the content will come from a query-based data source and API means that the content will come from an API-based data source.
- Select the data source you created in step 2 for the method you’ve created
- For query-based dynamic content, you will need to input a SQL query. Within the SQL query, you can add Inputs that will be required to be populated by the End User to customize the query. Click here to learn more about Inputs.
- Once you have a query entered, you can test it using the ‘Test Query’ button
Below is an example of SQL-based, database driven dynamic content for purchased_seats
-- SQL query for purchased seats. `&:` represents a Input in the query
SELECT sum(purchased_seats) as total_seats
FROM postgresql.public.qbr_data
WHERE company_name = &:client_name
and contract_id in &:contract_ids
and quarter = &:qbr_date
and time = 'Quarterly'
Jump to Dynamic Content for more information on this topic.
Step 5: Add Tags
Once you’re ready to tag the dynamic content you created, go back to the template that you originally updated.
If you’re using Google Slides, the first thing you need to do is install the Google Slides Add-on to make tagging easier. Once you install the add-on, it will be found in the Extensions tab on the top of the Google Slides. Below is a quick overview of how to use the add-on to tag your template.
- Once your Matik Google Slide add-on is installed, it can be launched from the Google Slides menu bar by going to Extensions > Matik > Open Matik.
- Click on the Content Library Section. This will display a list of your Dynamic Content
-
- If text, highlight the text you want your Dynamic Content to replace and click "Add" next to the dynamic content in the add-on. Matik will insert a placeholder in the slide {{#}} when your Dynamic Content is added. If added a chart, table, or image select the object you want to replace and click "Add".
- Finally, when you are done tagging Dynamic Content you must sync your template to ensure the changes in the Google Sheet are reflected in Matik. Navigate back to the template's page in Matik and click the refresh button. (Red circle below)
For PowerPoint, you will need to manually add the tag to the alt-text objects of each element by following these steps. For each tag you place onto a slide, you will need to edit the alt text of the object and add the name of the dynamic content. Make sure you edit the description of the alt text, not the title. Right click on the text object > click format shape > click on the size & properties icon > Alt Text)
For the example slide above, the description field in the alt text for the 2 tag is:
{{ 2:purchased_seats }}
Step 6: Test Template
Make sure to re-sync your template in Matik after tagging your content by clicking the sync icon in the template in Matik shown below.
Syncing a template refreshes Matik for any changes to tags and content within your template. However, upon generating a template, Matik will always pull the most recent version of the template from Google Slides. This means that if you are actively updating a template and another user generates a presentation with that template, their presentation will include your incomplete changes. When making changes to an active template, we recommend making changes to a copy of the original template and transferring them over when ready.
If there is a match for every tag, you can test the template before pushing it live to your End Users. Click on the Generate Presentation button in the upper right-hand corner. (If you see a red exclamation point next to a piece of content on the right sidebar, this indicates that Matik could not match your tag to your content.)
The pop-up window below will appear, and you will be asked to input the templates' inputs. Once you enter the Inputs, your presentation will be generated (note that if it does not open a new window, please check your pop-up blocker has been turned off).
Comments
2 comments
Just a heads up. The supposed video in step 0 seems to be an image and not an actual video that one could watch per the instructions in step 0.
Another heads up. Some of the images found in the google marketplace appear to be missing.
https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/matik/1017053672986
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