scientific-slides_skill

Overview

This skill builds slide decks and presentations optimized for scientific talks, conferences, seminars, and thesis defenses. It generates slide structure, design templates, timing guidance, and visual validation, and supports export to PDF, PowerPoint (PPTX) and LaTeX Beamer. The workflow emphasizes visually engaging slides, clear narrative flow, and reproducible citations for research rigor.

How this skill works

Plan each slide with a brief description, title, key points, visuals, and citation hints. Use the generator to produce full-slide images (PDF workflow) or visual assets only (PPTX workflow), attach existing figures for results or diagrams, and combine outputs into a final PDF or a PPTX built from generated images plus editable text. A formatting-consistency protocol ensures uniform colors, typography, and layout across the deck.

When to use it

• Preparing short conference talks (5–20 minutes)
• Building longer seminars or lectures (45–60 minutes)
• Assembling thesis or dissertation defense slides
• Designing grant pitches and lab meeting presentations
• Creating journal-club or methods tutorial slides

Best practices

• Start with a clear narrative arc: motivation → methods → results → conclusions
• Define a Formatting Goal (colors, typography, visual style) and include it in every slide prompt
• Attach existing figures or diagrams for results slides so visuals remain accurate and reproducible
• Keep slides visual and text-minimal; use bullets as speaking prompts, not transcripts
• Number and name slide files for ordering (e.g., 01_title.png) and include citations on slides that reference literature

Example use cases

• Generate a 12-slide conference deck: title, introduction, methods, key results with attached charts, comparison, conclusions, and acknowledgements
• Produce high-quality figure images for embedding into a PPTX and then build an editable PowerPoint with separate text layers
• Create a Beamer-ready PDF by generating full-slide images and combining them into a single PDF for printing or sharing
• Make a thesis defense deck that includes institutional title slide, methodology diagrams, and multiple result slides with precise citations and attached plots
• Prepare a tutorial talk with stepwise architecture diagrams and annotated results visuals