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Slide templates give your team a reusable visual system for presentations created with Cassidy Slides. A template combines reusable slide layouts, brand assets, and written guidance about how your brand should look and sound. Layouts define the fixed design and the regions where you can replace content for each presentation. Use this guide to choose an existing template, create your own, publish changes, organize access, and select the default for your organization. Creating a presentation? Create and export slides with an Agent →
What you can create, edit, share, or set as the organization default depends on your role and Slide Templates permissions. If an action is unavailable, ask your Cassidy administrator to review your permissions.

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Browse and use templates

1

Open the template library

In an Agent chat, open Tools and select Slide Templates.You can also type / in the message box and select Manage beside Slide Templates.The library includes:
  • All templates for everything you can access
  • Built-in templates developed by Cassidy, when enabled for your organization
  • Team templates shared with your organization
  • Private templates available only to you
  • Shared and private folders created by your team
Built-in templates are ready-to-use designs maintained by Cassidy. You can preview them, use them for presentations, or choose one as your organization default, but you cannot edit or delete them. Create a custom template when you need to change the design or add your own brand assets.If your organization has a default template, it appears first. Other templates are ordered by your recent use.
Slide Templates library showing All templates, Built-in, Team, Private, shared folders, and available template cards
2

Preview a template

Select a template to open its preview.
  • The Template tab shows the example deck and its slide designs.
  • The Guidelines tab explains how the Agent should apply the template, including brand, layout, and typography guidance.
Slide template preview showing the example deck, slide thumbnails, presentation toolbar, and Template and Guidelines tabs
Slide template Guidelines tab showing written direction, intended uses, and visual design guidance
3

Use the template

Click Use template. Cassidy adds the template to your message so the Agent can use it for your next presentation request.The explicit selection overrides the organization default for that request. Learn how to complete the deck in Create and export presentations with Cassidy Slides.

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Create a slide template

You can turn an existing PowerPoint into a reusable template or describe a new design from scratch.
1

Start a new template

Open Tools → Slide Templates, then click Create template.
2

Choose a starting point

Cassidy gives you two ways to begin:
  • Use an existing PowerPoint uploads a .pptx presentation and uses its design and recovered layouts as a reference for your reusable template. Choose this when you already have an approved sales deck, pitch deck, company presentation, or other PowerPoint that represents your brand. You can also upload a PDF or brand guide.
  • Build from scratch starts with a blank request in Chat. Choose this when you do not have an existing presentation, or when you want Cassidy to develop a new visual direction from your description and brand materials.
Create slide template dialog with Use an existing PowerPoint and Build from scratch options
Both options return you to Chat with a template-creation request prepared in the message box. If you chose an existing file, the uploaded file is already attached to the request.
3

Complete and send the request

Add the template’s audience and the types of decks it should support, then send the prepared message. Include as much relevant brand material as possible:
  • Logos and approved imagery
  • Brand colors
  • Typography rules and licensed font files
  • Example presentations or page layouts
  • Guidance for charts, tables, icons, and photography
  • Writing style and tone
  • Required or prohibited design patterns
Attach compatible, licensed font files to the template-creation request when you want Cassidy to use and embed your brand fonts in editable PowerPoint exports.For example:
Build a reusable slide template for customer-facing strategy presentations. Use the attached brand guide and sample deck. Keep layouts spacious and editorial, use our navy and coral palette, and include designs for title slides, section dividers, data charts, comparisons, timelines, quotes, and next steps.
4

Review the generated draft

The Agent builds the template and returns a New Slide Template Draft card. Open the card to review both the example slides and the written guidelines.Continue the conversation if the template needs changes. The draft is not available to other users until you publish it and share it.
New Slide Template Draft open beside Chat with slide thumbnails, a deck preview, and the Publish template button
5

Publish the template

Click Publish template, review the confirmation, and publish the draft.
Publish Slide Template confirmation dialog with Cancel and Publish template buttons
Publishing creates the first live version. Cassidy then shows where the template is currently shared. New custom templates start as Private. Click Share to move the template to Team or a shared folder, or click Done to keep it private.
Published slide template shown in Chat with its presentation preview and published status

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Update a custom template

Built-in templates are read-only. You can update a custom template when you have edit access.
1

Edit written guidelines directly

Open the custom template preview and select Guidelines. Click Edit guidelines, update the Markdown text, then click Review & publish and confirm Publish new version. Publishing makes the updated guidelines available to future presentation requests while preserving the previous version in the template’s history.Use direct editing when only the written brand, layout, typography, or content guidance needs to change. Ask the Agent to edit the template when you also need to change slide designs or assets.
Slide template Guidelines tab in editing mode with the Atlas Markdown guidance and Review and publish action
Publish guideline changes confirmation with Keep editing and Publish new version actions
2

Ask the Agent to edit the template

Open the template’s actions menu and select Edit Template. Cassidy adds the template to Chat with an update request.Describe the change you want. For example:
  • “Add a case study slide with space for a customer quote and three results.”
  • “Use the new logo and update the primary color to the blue in the attached brand guide.”
  • “Make chart labels larger and add guidance for accessible color contrast.”
3

Review the proposed changes

The Agent returns a Draft Slide Template Changes card. Open the review to compare the proposed template with the version your team currently uses.Submitting changes creates a review draft. It does not update the live template automatically.
4

Publish the changes

Click Publish changes after you have reviewed the slides and guidelines. Future presentation requests can then use the updated template.

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Edit the name or description

Open the custom template’s actions menu and select Edit Details. Update the name or description, then save your changes. Use a name that helps teammates recognize the intended purpose, such as “Enterprise sales deck” or “Quarterly business review.”

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Organize and share templates

Custom templates start in Private. Move a template to Team or a folder when other people should use it.
1

Choose where the template belongs

Open the template’s actions menu and select Organize & Share Template. Choose Private, Team, or a folder.Moving a template to Team makes it available according to your organization’s sharing settings. Moving it to a folder applies that folder’s access.
Organize and Share Template dialog showing Team folders, Private, and create folder options
2

Create a folder when needed

Use New Folder under Team or Private to group templates by department, brand, client, region, or presentation type.If you delete a folder, Cassidy moves its templates to Private. The templates themselves are not deleted.
3

Share the folder

Open the folder’s actions menu and select Share. Give access to everyone in the organization or to selected users and groups.
Slide template folder sharing dialog showing organization, user, and group access controls
Folder access controls who can discover and use the templates inside it. Edit access controls who can ask an Agent to change them.Anyone whose role can edit Slide Templates can change templates on Team. To limit who can change them, use a folder shared with Team as Can view and give Can edit only to its maintainers.

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Set the organization default

The organization default is used when someone asks Cassidy to make a presentation without selecting another template. If your organization has not selected a default, administrators see a prompt in the template library to create a branded template or choose an available template as the default.
You need permission to manage organization settings. The template must be published and shared with everyone in the organization with at least view access.
1

Open the template actions

In the template library, open the actions menu for the published template you want your organization to use.
Slide template actions menu showing Preview, Edit Details, Edit Template, Set Organization Default, Organize and Share Template, and Delete Template
2

Set the default

Select Set Organization Default, then confirm.If the template is not yet available to everyone, Cassidy asks you to share it first. Click Organize & share and move the template to Team or an organization-visible folder. Cassidy then returns you to the confirmation so you can finish setting the organization default.
Confirmation dialog for setting Terra as the organization default slide template
3

Verify the default

Return to All templates. The organization default should appear first and display its default indicator.Users can still choose a different template for an individual request.
If a custom default becomes unavailable, Cassidy uses its standard built-in template while Cassidy’s built-in templates are turned on. Restoring access makes the custom default effective again.

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Hide built-in slide templates

Hide built-in templates when everyone in your organization should use your own templates.
You need permission to manage organization settings.
1

Open the template settings

In the Slide Templates library, click Settings.
2

Hide built-in templates

Turn on Hide built-in slide templates, then click Hide templates to confirm.
After you hide them:
  • No one in your organization, including Agents, can use built-in templates for new presentations.
  • Existing presentations made with a built-in template export to PowerPoint without that template’s layouts.
  • A built-in organization default stops applying. Cassidy uses no default until you set a custom one or show built-in templates again.
Turn off Hide built-in slide templates at any time to restore them. A built-in organization default applies again if you have not changed it.

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Delete templates and folders

  • Delete a custom template from its actions menu when it should no longer exist. This permanently deletes the template and its version history.
  • Delete a folder from the folder’s actions menu. Cassidy moves templates from that folder to Private instead of deleting them.
Built-in templates cannot be deleted.

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Troubleshooting

Your role may not include permission to create and edit Slide Templates, or the template may be read-only. Built-in templates cannot be edited. Ask your Cassidy administrator to review your access.
An administrator has hidden Cassidy’s built-in templates for your organization. Ask them to turn off Hide built-in slide templates in the Slide Templates library’s Settings if your team needs them.
Templates receive access through their location. Choose Organize & Share Template, then move the template to Team or a folder you can share. Sharing with the organization, users, or groups may require separate permissions.
The default must be visible to everyone in the organization with at least view access. Move the published template to Team or an organization-visible folder, then select Set Organization Default again.
Another update was published after your work began. Click Update draft with Agent so Cassidy can reconcile your draft with the current template. Review the resulting draft before publishing it.
Confirm that the template includes a compatible static font file and that your organization has permission to embed it. If embedding is unavailable, export with Universal fonts or replace the font with one available to recipients.

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Next steps

Create a presentation

Use a template to create, refine, present, and export a deck through Chat.

Manage roles and groups

Control who can create, edit, and share resources in your organization.

Create files in Cassidy

Compare presentation creation with other Chat and Workflow file-generation options.

Create PowerPoint from template

Build a repeatable Workflow that fills fixed PowerPoint placeholders with data.