Slides

Slides is where you build presentations (decks) whose numbers can come from your data. Use this page to find your way around the Slides screens and to see which page to read next.

Open Slides

Click Slides in the sidebar. The link returns you to the Slides screen you used most recently: a deck in the editor, or the dashboard.
The Slides page opens. Click a deck card to open it, or click New presentation to start one.

If Slides is missing from the sidebar, your roles do not allow you to view decks. See Slides permissions.

Find your way around the Slides page

The page has two parts.

Part	What it shows
Workspaces panel, on the left	Your workspaces, with their folders and decks.
Dashboard, on the right	Your decks, or your email subscriptions.

Above the list, the toggle on the left switches between Presentations and Subscriptions. The Subscriptions half is omitted entirely if your roles do not allow subscriptions; it is never shown greyed out. See Email subscriptions.

The view is shown in the address: Presentations is ?tab=presentations (the default) and Subscriptions is ?tab=subscriptions. An older subscriptions-all link opens Subscriptions; anyone without subscription access is returned to Presentations.

The Presentations view has three sections:

Recent: up to 12 decks you can open, the most recently changed first.
My decks: the decks in your personal workspace.
Shared with me: the decks you can open that are not in your personal workspace, such as decks published to you and decks in the role workspaces you hold.

Each section shows two rows of cards. The last slot in the second row shows how many decks are hidden; click it to show them all. Show less folds the section again. Folding is switched off while a search is running.

When a section has nothing to show, it says so in one line:

Section	Empty text
Recent	Presentations you open will show up here.
My decks	Nothing in your personal workspace yet. Start with New presentation.
Shared with me	Decks published to you, and everything in the role workspaces you hold.

During a search, every section reads Nothing here matches your search. instead.

Find a deck

Type in Search presentations to filter every section at once. The same text also narrows the Workspaces panel beside it. In the Subscriptions view the box reads Search subscriptions. Search runs on the server and updates as you pause typing.
Click the refresh icon beside the search box to reload the lists. It appears in the Presentations view only. A clear button appears beside the box while you have typed something.
Click a deck card to open it in the editor.

Each card shows a preview of slide 1, the deck title, a workspace badge, and who changed it last (You for your own edits). Point at the time to see the exact timestamp. The overflow button on a card opens the deck menu, and a right click opens the same menu. The button appears only when you can change the deck.

Messages you may see:

While the list loads: Loading presentations.
A search that matches nothing: No results found, with Nothing matches "<query>". or Nothing matches the filters you set.
No decks at all: No presentations yet, with Start from a blank deck, from the built-in template, or from something a colleague published to you. and a New presentation button if you can create decks.
A list that cannot load: a message and a Try again button. The message gives the server's own reason when there is one; otherwise it reads The presentation list could not be loaded.

Start a deck

Click New presentation in the toolbar above the list. The button appears only if your roles include Add Deck. Follow Create your first presentation to choose how the deck starts.

Know what you can open

You can open a deck if it is:

in your personal workspace;
in a role workspace you hold;
published to you, or to a role you hold, with Can view or Can edit;
in someone else's personal workspace, read-only, if your roles include View Everyone's Personal Workspace.

Your roles must also allow the action you take. Changing a deck you created, or a deck in a role workspace you hold, needs Edit Deck. Changing any other deck you can reach needs Edit Others Decks. See Slides permissions for every permission and preset, and Workspaces, folders and your decks for where decks live.

Work in the editor

Opening a deck opens the editor:

The slide rail on the left lists the slides as thumbnails.
The canvas in the middle shows the current slide. See Edit slides and elements.
Properties and the AI panel sit on the right. People who can only view a deck do not see them.
Click Notes in the footer at the bottom to show or hide the notes panel.

The top bar holds the back arrow, the deck title with its save status, Export, Subscribe and Publish. On the right it holds Undo and Redo, Version history and Present.

Subscribe appears only if you can subscribe to decks.
Publish appears only if you can edit the deck, and it is greyed out without Publish Deck. See Publish and share.
Export is greyed out without Export Deck.
Undo and Redo appear only for people who can edit the deck.
If you can only view a deck, a Viewing label shows under its title.

For the full tour of the top bar, rail, canvas and panels, see The deck editor. For every key and gesture, see Editor shortcuts and gestures.

Version history and Present are available to everyone who can open the deck. Present starts the show from the slide you are on. See Present and Saving and version history.

Adjust the Workspaces panel

Setting	What it does	Default
Panel visibility	Hides the panel with the hide button in its header (tooltip Hide panel), or with Alt+1. Click Show panel, or press Alt+1 again, to bring it back. Your choice is remembered in your browser.	Shown
Panel width	Drag the handle at the edge of the panel. The panel cannot be narrower than 350 px or wider than half the window.	474 px on your first visit

While the panel is hidden, its name Workspaces and the Show panel button stand in at the left edge of the content.

Pages in this section

To	Read
Create a deck and present it	Create your first presentation
Tour the editor and its panels	The deck editor
Organise, move, copy and delete decks	Workspaces, folders and your decks
Build slides in the editor	Edit slides and elements
Re-compose a slide onto a layout	Slide layouts
Find every shortcut and gesture	Editor shortcuts and gestures
Set the size, theme, logo and page numbers	Design a deck
Add transitions and motion	Animations and transitions
Show numbers by hand	Charts and tables
Fill elements from SQL	Fill slides from your data
Add pictures, video and audio	Images, video and deck assets
Draft a deck with AI	Write slides with AI
Run a show	Present
Download or import a deck	Export and import
Import a PowerPoint file	Import from PowerPoint
Save and roll back	Saving and version history
Share a deck	Publish and share
Email a deck on a schedule	Email subscriptions
Grant access	Slides permissions
Fix a problem	Slides troubleshooting

For a walkthrough from your data to a presentation, see Put results in front of people.

Questions, answered

Why don't I see Slides in the sidebar?

Your roles do not include View Decks or View Others Decks. Ask your administrator to grant one of them, for example through the Slides Viewer preset. See Roles and permissions.

Where is my own workspace?

Every user gets a personal workspace named My Presentations. Slides creates it the first time you open the Slides page. Decks you create go there unless you choose another workspace, and they appear under My decks.

What does Recent show?

Up to 12 decks you can open, with the most recently changed deck first.

Why do decks I never received appear under Shared with me?

Shared with me lists every deck you can open that is not in your personal workspace. That includes decks in the role workspaces you hold, not only decks published to you.

A section shows fewer decks than I expect. How do I see the rest?

Click the card at the end of the second row. It shows how many decks are hidden and expands the section. Show less folds it again, and folding is switched off while a search is running.

Why does a deck card say Shared with you?

Shared with you is the badge Slides shows when a deck's workspace is not visible to you, such as a deck published to you from a workspace you do not hold. You can still open the deck.

Can I create a presentation from the main Dashboard?

Yes. A quick action on the main Dashboard opens Slides with the New presentation dialog already open. You still need Add Deck to create a deck.

Why is there no New presentation button?

Your roles do not include Add Deck, so Slides hides the button in the toolbar and in the empty state. Ask your administrator for the permission.

Why don't I see the Subscriptions view?

It appears only if your roles include Subscribe to Slides, Subscribe Others to Slides or View Everyone's Slide Subscriptions. See Email subscriptions.

How do I hide the Workspaces panel to get more room?

Click the hide button in the panel header, or press Alt+1. Press Alt+1 again, or click Show panel, to bring the panel back. While it is hidden, the name Workspaces and the Show panel button stay at the left edge.

Is Slides the same as DataPrism?

No. DataPrism builds interactive reports on a semantic model. Slides builds presentations, and its charts and text can fill from live SQL queries. See DataPrism.