Presentations
Convert a PDF to a presentation
A report and a deck are different objects. The report argues in paragraphs and the deck asserts in headlines, so this is not a page for page conversion. The PDF is read for its content and the content is rebuilt as slides.
The file is read before anything is planned
An attached PDF goes through text extraction first. A file exported from a word processor carries a real text layer, so the words come out exactly as written. A scan carries no text layer, so it is read by optical character recognition instead, with the accuracy that implies for tables and small print. The extracted text is cached against the file, which is why attaching one PDF and generating twice does not pay for extraction twice.
Extracted text becomes part of your prompt
The planner receives the file's contents under a heading that tells it to treat this as what the user actually wrote, to quote and paraphrase it, and not to fall back on generic domain knowledge. That instruction matters: without it a model asked for a deck about supply chain resilience writes a deck about supply chain resilience in general rather than about the one in your report.
Six pages does not mean six slides
Report sections vary wildly in weight. A two paragraph introduction and a four page findings chapter are one section each on paper and are not one slide each on screen. The planner counts ideas, not headings, then spreads them across the slide count you set, and is instructed to vary the density deliberately rather than putting the same number of points on three slides in a row.
Tables and figures do not travel as images
Nothing is lifted out of the PDF as a picture. A table in the source can be rebuilt as a real table slot you can edit, and a set of figures can become a chart, but only because the numbers were read as text and rewritten into a data grid. A chart that existed only as artwork in the original is not recovered, so keep the source file if the exact rendering matters.
Say what must not change
One sentence in the prompt does most of the work. Keep the section order. Lead with the numbers. Do not soften the risk section. The planner follows explicit constraints far more reliably than it guesses your intent, and this is where a converted deck goes from approximately right to usable.
How it works, in three steps
Step 1
Attach the PDF
Build from files sits under the prompt box. An exported PDF reads better than a scan of the same pages.
Step 2
Add the framing
Who is in the room, what they have to decide, and anything that must stay in the order it is in.
Step 3
Check the numbers first
Open the slides carrying figures before you touch the wording. That is where an OCR misread shows up.
The full walkthrough with screenshots is in the guide Turn a document into a presentation.
Limits worth knowing
- Attaching a file needs a Starter plan or higher. Five files, 25 MB each.
- Only 50,000 characters are read from each file. A longer report is truncated at that point.
- A scanned PDF is an image, so its text is guessed by OCR rather than read.
- Nothing is copied out of the PDF as artwork. Images and drawn charts in the source are not carried across.
See it on a finished piece
Questions people ask
Does the deck keep the report's exact wording?
It keeps the facts, names and figures. Sentences are rewritten, because slide text is budgeted per box and report prose does not fit those budgets.
How long a PDF can I attach?
Up to 25 MB per file, but only the first 50,000 characters of extracted text are used. For a longer document, attach the section that matters.
Can I attach several PDFs?
Up to five. All of them are extracted and handed to the planner together under the same instruction.
Why did my table come back as bullet points?
Because the layout chosen for that slide had no table slot. Swap the slide to a layout in the same family that does, or drop a table element onto it.
Make your own presentation
The button opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match yours, generate, then edit anything you like.
Create a presentation with OneCraftRelated pages
Export a presentation to PDF
PDF is the export that works everywhere and needs nothing installed, which is why it is the one available on every plan. It is a faithful picture of your deck, and understanding that it is a picture is the difference between using it well and being disappointed by it.
Turn rough notes into a presentation
Notes are written for the person who took them. They skip subjects, use arrows instead of verbs and assume context that lives in your head. Turning them into slides is mostly a job of inferring the argument that the shorthand implies.
Convert a PDF to an editable document
The words in a PDF are already chosen, so this is not a rewrite. The job is to read the structure out of the file and rebuild it as blocks you can edit, restyle and export again.
More finished work of this kind is on the presentation examples hub.