Tags are what you use to mark up the slides in PowerPoint or Google to indicate where dynamic content should be inserted. The syntax for tags are double curly brackets - {{ }}. When you are done tagging a template or have made changes, be sure to sync the template in Matik.
To get an overview of tags, check out the video below.
Tagging Google Slides with the Matik Google Add-On
If your content is in Google Slides, you can use our Google add-on to add tags to your slides. The add-on will automatically add the tags to the slides and will add the name of the dynamic content to the alt text for you. Click on this link to install the Google Slides add-on. Once installed the Google Add-on can be launched from the Google Slides menu bar by going to Extensions > Matik > Open Matik.
To tag content within your slides, the content cannot be grouped. Please ungroup all grouped objects before tagging.
Check out the video below to learn more about how to tag using the Google Slides add-on.
Below are a few things to know about the add-on:
- Authorization: When you click the add-on, you will be prompted to authorize Google access to your Matik account.
- Template Tags: Lists all the tags (dynamic content) currently on each slide within the template (for easy reference, the number of the tag is next to the name of the dynamic content). You will be led to the slide and object by clicking on the name of the dynamic content in the add-on. The object (i.e. chart, text box, table, etc.) will be highlighted.
- Content Library: Click the “add” button for the dynamic content you want to insert into the slide. You can click on the arrow next to the name of the dynamic content to see the type and description. After clicking the add button, the add-on will automatically add the tag in the slide and will insert the object's name in the alt text for you.
- Refresh: If you edit the tags manually within the slide, or you aren’t seeing a piece of dynamic content that you recently added in Matik show up in the add-on, you will need to click on the refresh button at the bottom of the add-on for it to detect the change or new piece of content.
Tagging PowerPoint Slides
Check out the video below to learn more about tagging in PowerPoint.
Formatting
Output values from dynamic content can be formatted to make the values more visually appealing (e.g. 12398 > 1.24K, 12398 > 12,398). Formatting can be applied in Matik or with the Google add-on during tagging.
You can also apply formatting options directly in the alt-text by inserting the pipe operator followed by one of the functions below.
- numberformat: Formats the number to be abbreviated. If the number is below one thousand, the entire number will be displayed. If the number is greater than one thousand, the number will be abbreviated with a “K” (i.e. 1.2K). If the number is greater than one million, a “M” will be used. You can indicate the number of decimal places by inputting parenthesis after numberformat.
- Example syntax:
{{<dynamic content name>|numberformat(2)}} - 12398 > 1.24K
- Example syntax:
- commaformat: Inserts a comma within the number.
- Example syntax:
{{<dynamic content name>|commaformat}} - 12398 > 12,398
- Example syntax:
- datetimeformat: Dates can be also formatted by using
datetimeformat()and specifying the format within the parentheses.- Example syntax:
{{<dynamic content name>|datetimeformat('%m-%d-%Y')}}- 2020-21-12 > 12-21-2020
- See the table below for more date format options.
Format Specifier
Format
Example
%m/%d/%Y mm/dd/yyyy 02/21/2018 %m/%d/%y mm/dd/yy 02/21/18 %d/%m/%Y dd/mm/yyyy 21/02/2018 %d/%m/%y dd/mm/yy 21/02/18 %d-%m-%Y dd-mm-yyyy 21-02-2018 %d-%m-%y dd-mm-yy 21-02-18 %m-%d-%Y mm-dd-yyyy 02-21-2018 %m-%d-%y mm-dd-yy 02-21-18 %Y-%m-%d yyyy-mm-dd 2018-02-21 %f/%e/%Y m/d/yyyy 2/21/2018 %f/%e/%y m/d/yy 2/21/18 %e/%f/%Y d/m/yyyy 21/2/2018 %e/%f/%y d/m/yy 21/2/18 %f-%e-%Y m-d-yyyy 2-21-2018 %f-%e-%y m-d-yy 2-21-18 %e-%f-%Y d-m-yyyy 21-2-2018 %e-%f-%y d-m-yy 21-2-18 %b %e, %Y Mth d, yyyy Feb 21, 2018 %B %e, %Y Month d, yyyy February 21, 2018 %b %d, %Y Mth d, yyyy Feb 21, 2018 %B %d, %Y Month d, yyyy February 21, 2018 %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss 2018-02-21 12:00:00 %H:%M:%S hh:mm:ss 12:00:00 %Y-%m-%d %I:%M:%S %p yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SS tt 2018-10-29 10:02:48 AM %Y-%m-%d %I:%M:%S %p yyyy-mm-dd HH:MM:SS tt 2018-10-29 07:30:20 PM
- Example syntax:
- percentformat: Decimals can be formatted to percentages using
percentformat(). The value in the parentheses will determine how many significant figures show up in the format.
-
- Example syntax:
{{<dynamic content name>|percentformat(0)}} - 0.899 > 90%
- Example syntax:
- listformat: Text dynamic content that is a list can be formatted using
listformat(). It optionally takes two arguments: separator (which defaults to ‘,’) and use_and (which defaults to true).- Example syntax for dynamic content value: [‘test’, ‘hello’, ‘goodbye’]:
- formatted with listformat: test, hello, and goodbye
- formatted with listformat(separator=’- ‘): test - hello - and goodbye
- formatted with listformat(separator=’- ‘, use_and=false): test - hello - goodbye
- Example syntax for dynamic content value: [‘test’, ‘hello’, ‘goodbye’]:
For a list of all of the formatting options see this link: Formatting Options
Tagging in Speaker Notes
Text dynamic content can be tagged in the speaker notes of slides by entering the dynamic content name wrapped in double curly brackets, e.g. {{dynamic_content_name}}. You can also tag speaker note dynamic content using the Matik add-on for Google Slides.
Syncing Templates
When you are done tagging your Google Slides template or have made changes to a template, you need to sync your template with Matik for the changes to be recognized.
To sync, go to the template page and click on the 3 dots dropdown menu in the upper right. Click on "Sync from Google Drive". Your template changes will be reflected within Matik and any changes to dynamic content and associated inputs will update.
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's Google Slide 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.
Best Practices
You can tag content directly in the alt-text of each object in the slide, or you can use the add-on in the side panel to add from the content library after selecting the relevant object in the slide. We recommend the latter so you can clearly see which dynamic content exists on each slide.
Tags in each slide must have a unique alias associated with a piece of dynamic content. Charts and images do not need to have an alias and can be directly referenced in the alt-text of the object (e.g. {{company_logo}}).
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