Unlike spreadsheets or reports, a task I've always enjoyed is making presentations. Even back in primary school, I was that student who would always volunteer to create the slides, spending hours picking colors, arranging images, and figuring out how to make the presentation the best it could possibly be (despite knowing deep down that no one would look at each slide for more than a few seconds).
Nonetheless, as the years have passed, the number of presentations I find myself working on has increased (no volunteering necessary), while the time and energy I can realistically dedicate to perfecting each one has not. This is precisely why I've decided to completely ditch Microsoft PowerPoint, Canva, and other traditional tools in favor of NotebookLM.
I used NotebookLM to create an end-of-year financial recap, and I didn't expect it to be this good
An unhinged 3 AM NotebookLM moment.
Posts 1
By Mahnoor Faisal
NotebookLM's Slide Decks feature has changed how I approach presentations
Can't imagine creating presentations any other way
For those not in the know, Slide Decks is a feature Google added to NotebookLM in November 2025. As obvious by the feature's name, it lets you convert sources you upload to a NotebookLM notebook into a full-fledged presentation. Currently, you can pick from two Slide Deck formats: Detailed Deck or Presenter Slides. The former is for when you want to create a comprehensive, information-rich presentation that covers all the key information across your sources in depth.
On the other hand, the latter is designed specifically for presenting directly to an audience, striking a sweet balance between clarity and conciseness, so your slides communicate effectively without overwhelming viewers. The feature is powered by Google's AI image model, Nano Banana, and was launched alongside another feature called Infographics.
Now, while AI slide generators have existed far before Google launched this feature, I think NotebookLM's execution of it is the best I've seen. Like all other NotebookLM features, Slide Decks only pulls content from the sources you upload to your notebook. This means you don't need to worry about the presentation you generate, including information from the internet or its training data, or even random assumptions that have nothing to do with your actual sources. The majority of the AI slide generators I tried before NotebookLM worked by asking you for a prompt, and it'd then fill it up with content that often felt generic or disconnected from the material I actually cared about.
The reason I love this feature so much is that I'm not left having to come up with an entire presentation from scratch. And while that might sound like I'm outsourcing my thinking to an AI model, I always come up with my own approach to the presentation. Everything is guided by the prompt I craft (more on that in the section below).
Essentially, NotebookLM handles the execution, and it's absolutely amazing for this kind of work. What used to take me days of effort can now be done within an hour, which means I can spend more time gathering my sources, doing my research, and refining the content.
Prompts are key with Slide Decks
You're stuck with generic decks otherwise
The other biggest differentiator from most AI slide generators, and currently its biggest limitation, is that you can't manually edit the Slide Decks NotebookLM generates. Although the team seems to be working on that (based on posts they've shared on X), the output is currently entirely driven by the prompt you provide upfront. As a result, how specific you are with your prompt plays a much bigger role in shaping the deck that's generated.
Surprisingly, with detailed prompts, you can generate incredibly impressive decks that don't need much tweaking. When I do need to tweak my slides here and there, I simply upload the PDF NotebookLM generates and do some light DIY editing in another tool. That said, when I'm generating Slide Decks in NotebookLM, I make sure to spend some time engineering an incredibly detailed prompt.
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I outline what I want each slide to cover, the tone I'm aiming for, and the level of detail I expect on each one. I even include details about the sort of visuals I want on each slide. For instance, when creating a presentation for a class I was taking last semester, I wanted one of the slides to include a QR code.
So I explicitly included that in my prompt and asked for a placeholder where it should appear. The prompt I use for every Slide Deck I generate varies depending on the type of presentation, the content, audience, and overall goal. However, here's a template structure of one of my go-to prompts (which I recently included in a list of six NotebookLM prompts in an article over at MUO):
I have attached a script for a [X-minute] presentation delivered to [audience type] titled "[Presentation Title]."
Please generate a Slide-by-Slide Outline for this script. For each slide, provide:
Slide Title: Catchy and relevant to the target audience.
Visual Description: Specific instructions on what image, diagram, or screenshot should appear on the slide. (Include placeholders for any interactive elements, like QR codes, if needed.)
On-Screen Text: Maximum 3-5 bullet points. Keep it minimal. Please not paste the whole script. Use keywords or technical terms relevant to the topic.
Design Style: [e.g., Dark mode, minimalist, professional, playful, futuristic -- choose a style that fits your audience].
Optional Guidance on Key Sections: Provide your own headings if you like, but consider including:
Introduction / Hook
Problem / Challenge
Solution / Approach
Interactive Moment / Example
Core Concept / Key Terms
Conclusion / Takeaways
NotebookLM's best feature, hands down
I've been following NotebookLM since the very beginning, and Slide Decks is undoubtedly my favorite feature the tool offers. Once Google rolls out the ability to edit the decks, it's going to make an already incredible feature truly unstoppable.
