Pitch Deck Skill

Create professional pitch presentations from scratch -- investor decks, product launches, enterprise sales decks, and business proposals. Output is a single .pptx file with gradient backgrounds, modern charts, styled tables, stat callouts, and speaker notes on every content slide.

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BEFORE YOU START (CRITICAL)

Every time before using officecli, run this check:

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Use When

• - User wants to create an investor pitch deck (seed, Series A/B/C)
• User wants a product launch or feature announcement presentation
• User wants an enterprise sales deck or client-facing pitch
• User wants a business proposal or strategy presentation in slides
• User mentions "pitch deck", "investor deck", "sales deck", "fundraising presentation"

Don't Use When

User Request	Correct Skill
Morph-animated or cinematic presentations	morph-ppt
Edit/modify an existing .pptx

officecli-pptx (editing.md) | | Excel dashboard or data report | officecli-data-dashboard | | Word document | officecli-docx | | Request is primarily about animation/motion effects | morph-ppt |

pitch-deck vs morph-ppt

Aspect	pitch-deck (this skill)	morph-ppt
Core mechanic	Layout diversity + content density	Morph transition + scene actors
Slide construction

Build each slide fresh from scratch | Clone + ghost + modify actors | | Animation | Standard transitions (fade, push) | Morph (shape-matching across slides) | | Naming convention | No special naming | !!actor + #sN-content | | Data visualization | Charts, tables, stat callouts | None (text + shapes only) | | Helper scripts | None needed | morph-helpers.sh required |

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Core Concepts

1. 1. Layout-First Construction -- Select a slide pattern from creating.md Section C, then fill with content. Never manually calculate x/y from scratch.
2. Color Palette Upfront -- Define 5-6 hex colors as shell variables before building. All commands reference $PRIMARY, $SECONDARY, etc.
3. Slide Pattern Library -- 11 pre-tested spatial blueprints with positioning tables. See creating.md Section C.
4. Chart Styling is Non-Negotiable -- Every chart uses the modern recipe: plotFill=none, chartFill=none, subtle gridlines, series.outline.
5. Speaker Notes as Checklist Item -- Add 2+ sentence notes after each content slide is complete.

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Workflow Overview

Phase 1: Understand -- Identify deck type (seed/launch/investor/sales), slide count, data provided, color preference.

Phase 2: Plan -- Select deck structure from creating.md Section A. Define palette as shell variables. Map each slide to a pattern from Section C. Verify no two consecutive slides share the same layout.

Phase 3: Build -- Create file, set metadata. Build slide by slide using batch mode (heredoc syntax for 4+ elements). Apply chart/table recipes from Sections D/E. Add speaker notes after each slide.

Phase 4: QA & Deliver -- Run officecli validate. Check the QA checklist below. Deliver with note about validation exceptions if cell merge was used.

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Quick Start -- 6-Slide Seed Pitch

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QA Checklist

Run before every delivery. See creating.md Section G for the full checklist.

1. 1. officecli validate = 0 errors. Exception: slides with cell merge may report schema warnings that are cosmetic (PowerPoint renders correctly).
2. Every chart is editable (click -> Edit Data appears in PowerPoint)
3. Every table is a native table object (click -> table editing mode)
4. Speaker notes on all content slides (exclude title and closing), >= 2 sentences each
5. No two consecutive slides share the same layout structure

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What This Skill Does NOT Do

• - No morph transitions, clone-slide, or !! naming
• No 3D effects, motion paths, or video embedding
• No template merge ({{key}} patterns)
• No custom SVG geometry or WordArt
• No reading/editing existing .pptx (use officecli-pptx)

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Known Issues

See creating.md Section H for the full list with workarounds. Key issues:

Issue	Impact
INLINECODE12 ignored during chart INLINECODE13	Must apply via separate set command
Cell merge produces validation errors

PowerPoint renders correctly; note in delivery |
| Cell-level color on table cells causes validation errors | Use row-level color instead |
| Custom gradient stops (@) fail on slide backgrounds | Use 2-color or 3-color gradients only |
| Combo chart requires both comboSplit=1 and secondary=2 | Missing either renders incorrectly |
| Dual-axis scale mismatch makes smaller series invisible | HARD RULE: If ranges differ >10x, MUST split into two separate charts. See creating.md D.4 |
| Stat values wrap at 60pt in 7cm width | HARD RULE: Max 4 chars for $X.YM patterns (wide $+. glyphs); max 5 chars for other values. Use 44-48pt or C.2 (3-stat, 9cm) for longer |
| Doughnut chart colors parameter may not apply | CLI accepts without error but PowerPoint renders default colors. No workaround. Verify via screenshot |
| Empty table cell c1="" causes validation error | Use c1=" " (space character) instead of empty string |
| Connector arrows may not all render in batch | Add connectors in separate batch after shapes; if still missing, add one at a time |
| Empty series values (gaps) not supported | Use 0 for missing data points; produces zero-height bars |

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Help System

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