paper-to-slides

Cursor skill — PPTX template + paper PDF → editable slides.

template.pptx  +  paper.pdf  →  Cursor chat  →  deck-editable.pptx

Supports papers in English and Korean.

• Overview
• Installation
• Quick start (3 steps)
• User manual
  • 1. Register a PPT template
  • 2. Convert in Cursor
  • 3. Output files
  • 4. Build from the terminal
  • 5. Editing
  • 6. Images and tables
  • 7. In-text citations
  • 8. Title slide & HTML preview
  • 9. Fonts (OS-installed)
• Built-in templates
• Create a custom template
• Output format comparison
• Sample test
• Project structure
• Additional docs
• Cursor Marketplace
• FAQ

This is not a Python app. A Cursor agent reads the paper and writes slides following template rules.

git clone https://github.com/dschloe/paper2ppt.git
cp -r paper2ppt ~/.cursor/skills/paper-to-slides
cd ~/.cursor/skills/paper-to-slides && npm install

For HTML preview (optional):

npm install -g @marp-team/marp-cli

Restart Cursor or open a new chat — the skill is picked up automatically.

node scripts/import_pptx_template.mjs ~/my-template.pptx --name my-style

Skip this if you only use built-in templates — start with academic.

Make a 7-slide deck from this paper using the my-style template.

Attach a PDF, paste a file path, or paste an arXiv link.

The agent produces deck-editable.pptx. Open it in PowerPoint and edit directly.

If you have a company or school PPT format, register it:

node scripts/import_pptx_template.mjs ~/Downloads/my-format.pptx --name my-style

Created folder:

templates/my-style/
├── template.pptx   # your template (copy)
├── pptx.json       # colors & fonts (auto-extracted)
└── template.yaml   # slide structure (7 slides by default)

Then ask in chat: using the my-style template ...

To pin a default template for a project, create .paper2slides at the repo root:

template: my-style

English examples

Summarize this PDF as slides using the academic template.

Make a 7-slide deck from this arXiv paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.xxxxx

Korean paper, English slides

Make slides from this Korean paper in English using the academic template.

The agent will:

1. Read the paper PDF
2. Write deck.md (title → problem → method → results → limitations → conclusion)
3. Render deck-editable.pptx

To render deck.md the agent wrote:

# Editable PPTX (recommended)
scripts/build_deck.sh path/to/deck.md path/to/output/deck \
  --template my-style --editable-pptx

# HTML only
scripts/build_deck.sh path/to/deck.md path/to/output/deck --template academic

# Marp image PPTX (not editable)
scripts/build_deck.sh path/to/deck.md path/to/output/deck --template academic --pptx

Output: output/deck-editable.pptx, output/deck.html, output/assets/ (images for HTML)

After large content changes: edit deck.md → re-run --editable-pptx.

You can place tables and figures from the paper on slides.

Table — markdown table in deck.md (good for results slides):

# Key Results

| Method | Accuracy |
|---|---|
| Baseline | 71.2% |
| **Ours** | **78.9%** |

Image — extract from PDF, then reference in the deck:

# requires poppler: brew install poppler
scripts/extract_pdf_figures.sh paper.pdf samples/runs/my-run/assets/

deck.md example:

<!-- layout: figure -->
# Method Overview

![Figure 2](assets/fig-002.png)

*Source: paper Figure 2*

Table + image side by side:

<!-- layout: image-table -->
# Experiment Results

| Method | Score |
|---|---|
| Ours | 78.9% |

![width:380px](assets/fig-chart.png)

In Cursor: "Add paper Figure 2 and Table 3 to the deck."

Syntax details: references/marp-syntax.md

Cite theories, prior work, and statistics with (Author, Year) at the end of bullets:

- **RAG** reduces hallucinations (Patrick Lewis et al., 2021)
- Spence (1973) treats education as a labor-market signal
- Graduate employment rate 70.3% in 2023 (Ministry of Education, 2023)

• Presenting authors: full names — Anum Afzal, Alexander Kowsik, Rajna Fani, & Florian Matthes, not Afzal et al.
• Figures/tables from the current paper: *Source: Anum Afzal, Alexander Kowsik, Rajna Fani, & Florian Matthes (2024), Figure 2*
• Optional final slide: condensed reference list (5–8 sources)
• In Cursor: "Add in-text citations."

Recommended title slide (deck.md):

---
marp: true
paginate: true
footer: 'https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.05925 · https://aclanthology.org/2024.dash-1.2/'
---

<!-- _class: lead -->

# Towards Optimizing and Evaluating a Retrieval Augmented QA Chatbot using LLMs with Human-in-the-Loop (2024)

## Anum Afzal, Alexander Kowsik, Rajna Fani, Florian Matthes

ACL DaSH 2024 · Human-in-the-Loop on industrial HR data

• # title: full paper title + (year) — not a shortened alias
• ## authors: full names on a separate line below the title
• footer: in frontmatter: paper ref links on every slide (HTML + editable PPTX)
• PPTX also shows page numbers bottom-right on every slide

HTML preview (open deck.html in Chrome):

Use a hard refresh (Cmd+Shift+R) when reopening output/deck.html.

Specify fonts by installed font name, not file path (macOS / Windows).

Default my-style:

• Title: S-Core Dream 5 Medium
• Body: S-Core Dream 4 Regular

Use the exact name from Font Book (Mac) or Font settings (Windows). Other machines need the same fonts installed for matching PPTX/HTML.

In Cursor: "Use S-Core Medium for titles and S-Core Regular for body text."

Use without a custom template:

Make slides from this paper using the academic template.

# 1) Copy the example folder
cp -r templates/_example templates/my-style

# 2) Replace my-style/template.pptx with your format

# 3) Import (extract colors/fonts + generate template.yaml)
node scripts/import_pptx_template.mjs templates/my-style/template.pptx --name my-style

# 4) Adjust slide titles and count in template.yaml if needed

Template spec: references/template-system.md

Test with the sample paper in the repo:

# English paper, 30 slides (my-style, Afzal et al. 2024 HR RAG)
scripts/build_deck.sh \
  samples/runs/my-style-afzal-30/deck.md \
  samples/runs/my-style-afzal-30/output/deck \
  --template my-style --editable-pptx

# English paper, 7 slides (academic)
scripts/build_deck.sh \
  samples/runs/academic-afzal-hr-rag/deck.md \
  samples/runs/academic-afzal-hr-rag/output/deck \
  --template academic --editable-pptx

Extract figures from PDF (optional):

brew install poppler   # once
scripts/extract_pdf_figures.sh \
  "samples/papers/Afzal et al. - 2024 - Towards Optimizing and Evaluating a Retrieval Augmented QA Chatbot using LLMs with Human-in-the-Loop.pdf" \
  samples/runs/my-style-afzal-30/assets/

Sample layout:

samples/
├── papers/              # test PDFs (gitignored)
└── runs/<name>/
    ├── source.md        # paper metadata & arXiv link
    ├── deck.md          # slide source
    ├── assets/          # fig-*.png extracted from PDF
    └── output/
        ├── deck.html
        ├── deck-editable.pptx
        └── assets/      # copied for HTML preview on build

More: samples/README.md

paper-to-slides/
├── SKILL.md                    # Cursor agent workflow
├── README.md                   # this file (user manual)
├── MARKETPLACE.md              # marketplace submission guide
├── .cursor-plugin/             # Cursor marketplace manifest
├── assets/logo.svg             # marketplace icon
├── templates/
│   ├── academic/               # default template
│   ├── seminar/
│   ├── my-style/               # S-Core fonts, 20–30 slide structure
│   ├── _example/               # custom template starter
│   └── <your-name>/            # created by import
│       ├── template.pptx
│       ├── pptx.json
│       └── template.yaml
├── scripts/
│   ├── import_pptx_template.mjs
│   ├── build_editable_pptx.mjs
│   └── build_deck.sh
├── references/
│   ├── quickstart.md           # README summary
│   ├── template-system.md
│   └── marp-syntax.md
└── samples/                    # test examples

1. Push this repo to GitHub (https://github.com/dschloe/paper2ppt)
2. Submit the repo URL at cursor.com/marketplace/publish
3. After approval, install via Customize → Marketplace

Local test & checklist: MARKETPLACE.md

Q. Do I need Python?
No. Node.js is enough (npm install).

Q. My paper is in Korean — can slides be in English?
Yes. Ask in chat: "Make the slides in English."

Q. Can I edit text directly in the PPTX?
Yes with deck-editable.pptx. deck.pptx (Marp) is image-based and hard to edit.

Q. Can I use my company PPT template as-is?
Partially. The skill does not copy slides from your PowerPoint file; it reads colors and fonts from the template and builds new slides in that tone.

1. Register — import your company .pptx:

   node scripts/import_pptx_template.mjs ~/company-template.pptx --name company

2. Auto-extracted — font, title/body colors, accent, table header colors → templates/company/pptx.json. Original file kept at templates/company/template.pptx.
3. Generated — paper content is laid out per template.yaml into deck-editable.pptx with editable text boxes.
4. Not replicated — logo placement, slide master shapes, background images, exact margins/box positions. (Future: fill slides directly from template.pptx.)
5. Tweaks — edit templates/company/pptx.json or fix the source pptx and re-import.

Summary: brand colors & fonts yes; layout = skill structure + editable PPTX. For pixel-perfect masters, adjust logo/master manually in PowerPoint after generation.

Q. Is an arXiv link enough?
Yes. Paste the link in chat and ask for conversion.

Q. How do I change the slide count?
Ask for "30 slides" or edit chapters in template.yaml. deck.md can exceed the template default (7 or 20 slides).

Q. Images don't show in HTML.
output/assets/ must sit next to deck.html. Re-run build_deck.sh — it copies assets automatically. Chrome loads from output/assets/, not the run folder's assets/.

Q. Authors overlap the title on the title slide.
Long titles wrap to multiple lines. my-style adds spacing between title and authors. If needed, adjust section.lead h1 margin-bottom in theme.css or leadTitleSize in PPTX theme.

Q. How do I show paper links on every slide?
Add footer: with arXiv/ACL URLs in deck.md frontmatter — see Title slide & HTML preview.