This article and other articles in the "Building Templates" section are intended for Matik administrators that need to create templates for their organizations and configure Matik. If you are looking for information on how to download presentations or content from an existing template, see our Generating Content section.
Welcome to Matik! Matik enables you to provide end users with an on-demand platform to generate customized data-driven presentations and other content on demand. This guide will help you, the Matik admin, get your organization set up by teaching you how to connect data sources, upload templates or presentations, and configure inputs that your end users will select to customize their presentations.
If you are already familiar with how Matik works, feel free to jump to our Quickstart Guide. Otherwise, read the sections below and then use the Quickstart Guide as a quick reference for getting started.
Matik Terms and Overview
First, we want to make sure you are aware of our common terms and the basics of how Matik works.
Templates are Google Slides or PowerPoint presentations that contain elements Matik can alter.
Tags within your template indicate what content should be inserted by Matik. Tags are represented by a number inside of double curly brackets {{ }} — see below for an example. Matik will replace the brackets upon generating a presentation.
Inputs are the parameters users select when generating a presentation from a template to determine how Matik will customize that presentation. Below is an example of the input screen for generating a presentation from the slide above.
Dynamic Content is the heart of Matik that ties your data, inputs, and tags together. Dynamic Content can either be text, chart, table, image, or a condition. The output of Dynamic Content is what gets inserted into the tags that you have placed on the slide. Dynamic Content can be as simple as a static text string or as complex as a complicated query/API call. The slide below was generated with the inputs and templates above.
Other Useful Terms
| Admins | Admins are users who create templates on the Matik platform and publish them to end users. |
| End Users | End users are the ones who access templates published by admins. |
| Data Source | A data source is a connection from Matik to your data. Data sources connect to Inputs and Dynamic Content. A data source can be a spreadsheet, data warehouse, CRM, or API connection, a BI Tool, or many others. |
Matik Template Creation Process
The following process illuminates our recommended template creation process. This is a great place to start if you are new to Matik. Feel free to adjust this process to your organization's specific needs.
Step 1: Create a Data-Driven Narrative
Matik is ultimately a tool for storytelling with data. The best place to start is to create your narrative in either PowerPoint or Google Slides. This includes your design and the story you are trying to tell. Identify all metrics, charts, information, pictures, and other information you want Matik to insert. You can also leave this information blank in your slides for now or insert placeholder text. If you already have a data-driven narrative that has been manually created, you can use that too.
Step 2: Connect to Data Source(s)
Once you have identified all of the data needs for your presentation, you will need to configure Matik so it can connect to the data sources needed to pull that data.
See this article for more on connecting to Data Sources
Step 3: Create Dynamic Content
Dynamic Content is where specific information is calculated and inserted into your presentation. Create Dynamic Content for each unique piece of content you want Matik to insert into your narrative.
See this article for more on creating Dynamic Content
Step 4: Add Inputs
While creating your Dynamic Content, you will create inputs. Inputs are the values end users select to be fed into Dynamic Content.
See this article for more on creating inputs
Step 5: Add Tags to Your Template
Add tags to your template to indicate what and where Dynamic Content should be inserted. Once you have successfully marked up the template with tags, upload the template to Matik. Whenever you make changes to a template, be sure to sync the template within Matik to pull in the newest version.
See this article for more on adding Tags to presentations
Step 6: Test Your Template
Test the template to ensure all the data is properly inserted into the slides.
Step 7: Share your template with end users
Share your templates with specific users or groups once you are ready to publish the template. If your end users are new to Matik or the template's end narrative, it is also a good idea to walk them through how to use these new templates and tools.
See this section on Best Practices for Testing and Releasing Templates for more
Next Steps
Check out the Quickstart Guide as a quick reference for getting started, or view the rest of the Building Templates resources for more specific information.
Questions or Need Support?
Reach out to our Support team using the chat function on the bottom right of any Matik webpage, or email us at Support@matik.io!
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