Templates are the base presentations tagged with Dynamic Content and downloaded by users. Templates are created by uploading/connecting a Google Slides or PowerPoint presentation. To create or edit a template, go to the "Templates" tab in the navbar. Click on "+ New Template" and input a name and description for the template. Then, upload the PowerPoint file or connect to the Google Slide document. Check out the video below to learn more about uploading a template.
Once you click "Add template," Matik will scan the slides for any tags that you’ve already added and will match them with a piece of dynamic content (the name in alt text is matched to the name of dynamic content). To learn more about how to add tags, navigate to the section on Tags.
Click on the template you just added and the page below will appear.
Template Setup View
When you are on the template view, there are several options to manage your template:
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Share Settings - Click on the people icons
to manage share settings
- Test Presentation - Click to generate a full test presentation
- Additional options can be accessed by clicking on the 3 dot dropdown menu:
- Open in Google Slides/ Office 365 - View the Google Slides/ Powerpoint template
- Sync from Google Drive/ Office 365 - Refreshes any changes made to the underlying template and brings them into Matik
- Archive Template - Move template to the archive section
- Generation Settings - Additional folder settings. Specify a custom folder for all users generations of this template to be saved. Configure a custom naming structure for generated templates. Set Conditions under which to prevent generation.
Click on a slide to select it and view additional options:
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Test Slide(s) - generate a single slide or selection of slides only.
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Manage Conditions - Manage Slide Conditions.
Select or deselect multiple slides by holding the ‘Command’ key (Mac) or ‘Control’ key (Windows) and clicking on a slide. Select a range of slides by selecting the first slide and holding ‘Shift’ as you select the last slide in the range.
Single Slide View
Double-click on a slide to see the full view of that slide. Within Single Slide view you can add and manage the dynamic content on a slide by selecting dynamic content from the left hand side bar or clicking on the dynamic content on the slide.
To return to the full slides grid view, click on the Grid View Icon at the bottom right of the screen.
Editing Dynamic Content in Single Slide View
Within Single Slide view you can manage dynamic content on a slide. Click on the dynamic content icon to edit your existing dynamic content.
In the sidebar on the left, you can swap the dynamic content or create new, identify the subcontent to be used, and add any formatting. Click on the dropdown to select new dynamic content or the pencil icon to create new dynamic content. When adding formatting, only include the formatting tag in the Format box. For more on formatting see this article. Be sure to click save when you have completed editing you dynamic content.
Adding Dynamic Content to your Template in Single Slide View
You can add dynamic content to a template in Single Slide View hovering over and object (Chart, table, or graph) in the slide preview and clicking the + icon that appears. If you dynamic content is Text type, highlight the text on the slide and click the resulting + icon. In the left menu that appears specify any subcontent and formatting information (leave blank if none) and click on Save.
Dynamic Content and Input Sidebar
On this page, you will see all the dynamic content and associated Inputs incorporated in the slides. If Matik is not able to match a tag with a piece of dynamic content, there will be a red (!) icon on the slide and the dynamic content. Reasons for the red (!) include:
- Dynamic content not created: The dynamic content of the tag in the slide does not exist. Create dynamic content to match the tag.
- Dynamic content typo: The name of the dynamic content in the alt-text of the slide's tag does not match the name of the dynamic content in the Matik platform.
Template Generate View
To generate presentations with your template switch the toggle at the top center of the screen to Generate.
The lefthand menu will change so you can now input values for your presentations to generate or schedule a presentation generation. See the Generating Content section of the help center for more!
Additional Template Features
See the support articles below for additional features of dynamic content.
- Conditional Slides: Dynamically keep or remove slides based on specified criteria
- Slide Looping: Bulk generate slides within templates
- Slide Libraries: Enable slides to be added to other templates when generating a presentation
- Default File Naming for Generated Presentations: How to set a default file name for generated presentations
- Sub-Templates: Save modified templates with added or deleted slides for future use
- Scheduling Presentations: Create a recurring schedule to generate presentations
- Generation Conditions: Ensure all presentations are meeting defined metrics or criteria when generated.
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Adding Search Tags: You can add tags to templates so it's easier for end-users to find templates. To add a tag, navigate to the template you want to tag and click the i icon next to the template name. Add your tags to the "Select Tags" box and click "Save". Note that this tagging is not related to tagging dynamic content.
Template Best Practices
Best Practices for Creating Templates
We recommend having the design and narrative of the templates completed before uploading to Matik. Future dynamic content should contain mock data or placeholder text to be later replaced with tags. By having the template near complete before onboarding, minimal design changes will need to be done after tagging. The producers will also have a clear understanding of what data sources need to be connected and what dynamic content needs to be created.
We also recommend speaker notes, which can contain dynamic content, so the end users can easily understand how to best present each slide. To insert dynamic content in speaker notes insert the dynamic content name in curly brackets {{}}, e.g. {{account_name}}.
It’s also important that users have read access to the template’s location. If you’re using Google Slides, we recommend following these steps:
- Create a Matik Templates folder
- Create Production and Staging sub-folders
- Give all end users “View” access
Best Practices for Testing and Releasing Templates
Make Changes To a Copy When Editing an Active 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.
Stress Test
- Stress test and evaluate dynamic content performance.
- Review presentation output for formatting.
- Ensure Inputs are end-user friendly.
Pilot with Champions
- Start with a select few end users available for testing and feedback (1+ week).
- Evaluate qualitative and quantitative (what they like, how often they are using).
Train End Users
- Setup End User trainings or documentation on how to use Matik and present the presentations.
Establish Feedback Channels
- Establish standard feedback channels (e-mail, JIRA, office hours) which will create a better end user experience and improve the feedback loop.
Set SLAs and Expectations
- Set expectations on what they can and cannot expect using your Matik template (i.e., what’s automated and not, how should certain slides be presented).
- Set SLAs on when to respond to data-related bugs.
Experiment and Continually Improve
- Continually improve pieces (dynamic content, narrative, template design) based on end user feedback.
- Continue to use Matik to scale known high-impact narratives, analyses or metrics to more people in your organization.
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