R
Rideful Slides

What Layouts Are Available?

Three built-in layouts for any deck, plus custom layouts from imported brand templates with pre-configured positions, colors, and decorative elements.

Layouts define the starting structure of a slide — what placeholders are created (title, body, subtitle) and where they're positioned. You can use built-in layouts for any deck, or template layouts for brand-consistent presentations.

Built-in Layouts

These three layouts are always available, regardless of whether the deck uses a template. They scale automatically to match the canvas size.

builtin-blank — Empty Canvas

  • No placeholders — a completely empty slide
  • Full creative freedom to add custom elements from scratch
  • Use for: slides that need custom layouts, image-heavy slides, diagrams, or anything that doesn't fit the standard title + content pattern

builtin-title-slide — Title + Subtitle

  • Two centered placeholders: title (60pt) and subtitle (32pt)
  • This is the default layout when no layout is specified
  • Use for: cover slides, section dividers, introductions

builtin-title-and-content — Title + Body

  • Two placeholders: title (44pt, left-aligned, top of slide) and body (18pt, left-aligned, below title)
  • The most common layout for content slides
  • Use for: bullet points, paragraphs, key metrics, any slide with a heading and content

Example

slides_bulk_create({
  name: "Quarterly Review",
  slides: [
    {
      layoutId: "builtin-title-slide",
      title: "Q4 Business Review",
      subtitle: "January 2026"
    },
    {
      layoutId: "builtin-title-and-content",
      title: "Revenue Highlights",
      body: "- Total revenue: $4.2M\n- Growth: +18% QoQ\n- New customers: 34"
    },
    {
      layoutId: "builtin-blank",
      elements: [
        // Full creative control — custom shapes, images, etc.
      ]
    }
  ]
})

Template Layouts

When you import a brand template (.potx, .potm, or .pptx), all of its layouts become available for slide creation. Template layouts include pre-configured positions, colors, fonts, and decorative elements from the original file.

What Template Layouts Include

  • Placeholders — title, subtitle, body, picture zones, footer, date, slide number
  • Text styling — font family, size, color, and alignment pre-set per placeholder
  • Background — color and/or background image
  • Decorative elements — shapes, logos, accent bars, and text overlays from the template

Discovering Template Layouts

Use MCP tools to explore available layouts:

// 1. Discover your templates
slides_list_templates()
// → [{ id: "tmpl_abc", name: "Acme Corp", layoutCount: 8 }]

// 2. See available layouts and their descriptions
slides_list_template_layouts({ templateId: "tmpl_abc" })
// → "Title Slide" — "Cover slide with centered title and subtitle"
// → "Content" — "Standard content with title and body area"
// → "Section Divider" — "Dark background with accent bar"
// → "Two Column" — "Side-by-side content areas"
// → ...

// 3. Create slides using template layouts
slides_bulk_create({
  name: "Client Proposal",
  templateId: "tmpl_abc",
  slides: [
    { layoutId: "layout-1" },  // Title Slide
    { layoutId: "layout-2",    // Content
      elements: [
        { type: "text", role: "title",
          text: "Our Approach", ... },
        { type: "text", role: "body",
          text: "- Phase 1: Discovery\n- Phase 2: Build", ... }
      ]
    }
  ]
})

Layout descriptions matter

Each template layout can have a description that tells AI agents when to use it. Without descriptions, the agent guesses based on structure alone. With descriptions, it picks the right layout for each slide's content. Add descriptions on the template detail page — see How do I use brand templates?

Choosing the Right Layout

  • Cover or section divider → builtin-title-slide or a template's title/divider layout
  • Standard content (bullets, text) → builtin-title-and-content or a template's content layout
  • Custom or visual-heavy slide → builtin-blank and add elements manually
  • Brand presentation → use template layouts for automatic brand consistency

Tip: When working with an AI assistant, you don't need to specify layout IDs yourself. Just describe what you want (“add a section divider”, “add a content slide with bullet points”) and the AI picks the appropriate layout.

Common Issues

  • AI picks the wrong template layout: Add descriptions to your template layouts. Without descriptions, the AI has to guess which layout fits each slide's content.
  • No template layouts showing up: Make sure the deck was created with a template. Built-in layouts are always available, but template layouts only appear when a template is linked.
  • Placeholders not matching my content: Use builtin-blank and add elements manually when the standard layouts don't fit your content structure.

Related