Basic Placeholders

The simplest way to create dynamic PowerPoint templates is by using basic placeholders in your slides. Basic placeholders use the syntax:

{{variable_name}}

When you merge your data, each occurrence of {{variable_name}} is replaced with the corresponding value from your data source.

Example

Suppose your data file contains the following:

{
  "name": "John Doe",
  "company": "Acme Corp"
}

And your PowerPoint slide contains this text:

Welcome {{name}} from {{company}}

After merging, the output slide will show:

Welcome John Doe from Acme Corp

Placeholder Rules

  • Case Sensitive: Placeholder names are case-sensitive. {{Name}} and {{name}} will be replaced with different values.
  • Spaces: Spaces in column headers are preserved. {{First Name}} works if your Excel column is "First Name".
  • Allowed Characters: Use letters, numbers, underscores, and spaces (when matching column headers).
  • Special Syntax: For advanced features, use component syntax:
    • Images: {{type=image data=photo_url}}
    • QR codes: {{type=qr data=contact_info}}
    • Tables: {{type=table data=xlsx.Sheet1!Table1}}
    • Charts: {{type=chart data=xlsx.Sheet1!Table1}}

Supported Locations

Placeholders can be used anywhere text is present in a PowerPoint slide, including:

  • Text boxes
  • Title or content placeholders
  • Table cells
  • Shapes with text
  • Notes

This makes it easy to personalize slides with individual data for each generated presentation.

Tips

  • Make sure placeholder names match your data exactly for successful merging (case-sensitive).
  • If a placeholder is not found in your data source, it will be left blank in the final presentation.
  • For Excel files, you can use column headers ({{name}}) or Excel-style addressing ({{xlsx.Sheet1!A1}}).
  • For JSON files, use dot notation for nested objects ({{user.name}}) and square brackets for arrays ({{items[0]}}).