Custom templates (beta)

This is a beta feature and may be buggy.

Custom templates are only available in Google Slides for now and require a Team plan.

What are custom templates?

When you import a custom template, we convert it into a format that can be used by Plus AI — including when generating a presentation, inserting a single slide, and remixing slides.

We will use the slides in your template as-is — Plus AI will not redesign your slides or add new slide types.

This article will walk you through how to prepare your template before importing.

Requirements

Google Slides only

• Your template must be a Google Slides presentation in your Google Drive

• You must log into Plus with the Google account that has access to that Google Drive file

• PowerPoint support is coming soon

Supported slides — These elements can be updated by AI

• Text-only slides

• Text and image slides

Unsupported elements — These will be imported as static elements and cannot be updated by AI

• See below

• If you need to use these types of slides with AI, contact us about Enterprise solutions.

Limits

• Each template has a maximum of 25 slides, including title, agenda, and dividers

• You can import up to 5 custom templates

Preparing a template for import

Sample template

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1msBcDg5AIWG4q8k7PORFniDy_D0Shoe85d5q6QYZZ6Y/

To edit this file, save a copy to your own Google Drive first! File > Make a copy > Entire Presentation

Template prep checklist

1

Make sure it's in your Google Drive

• Your template must be a Google Slides file in your Google Drive.

• If you're adapting our example template or an official company template, make a copy first.

• Give it a unique name that you can easily find later, like "Template - Copy for PlusAI".

2

Set up the slide master / "theme builder"

• Set up theme colors and fonts

• Add company logo(s)

3

Move footers into the slide master / "theme builder"

• Move any repeating, static text — disclaimer, copyright, company name — into the theme builder slides. Otherwise, AI will rewrite this text!

4

Select the slides you want to import

• Maximum of 25 slides, including titles, agendas, dividers

• Keep exactly one copy of each template slide — delete any duplicates

• Remove extraneous slides that are not part of the template itself

  • instructions

  • brand guidelines

• Remove slides that won't work well, including

  • tables, charts, diagrams

  • assets that come from a specific library (e.g., custom icons)

• Remove static slides that are not meant to be updated — you can copy/paste these into the presentation afterward

  • thank you slide, legal disclaimers

  • mission statement, pricing chart, team page

  • ⚠️ If you import these, AI will rewrite them!

5

Add placeholder text

• Make sure your slides don't have any placeholder (empty) text elements

• For best results, provide specific example text — AI will try to match it, for example

  • length — fill in the entire text box, don't leave it at 1 example bullet

  • content — If it's a generic slide, lorem ipsum is fine, but if it's a case study, write an actual example.

• Custom templates don't work well with inline formatting within the same text element — Each distinctly formatted piece of text should be in its own text box.

  • For example, a header should be in a separate text box from the supporting content.

6

Optimize images

• Our AI importer will do its best to distinguish the content-related images — which will be updated with relevant AI-generated imagery when you use your template — from decorative elements.

• We recommend moving decorative images (including background images) into the slide master.

• Alternatively, you can set the slide background to the image — just make sure you can't click to select the background image on the slide.

• For best results, avoid overlapping images.

• You can add up to 10 images per slide.

Slides to avoid

These slides won't work well with Plus AI and we recommend removing them from your template before importing.

Support for all of these slides are available on PlusAI Enterprise — send us your template to get a quote.

Charts

• We don't support native charts and graphs with custom templates yet — even though you can generate charts with our public templates.
• If you import a slide with a chart, PlusAI can fill in the text elements, but the chart will not be updated.

Example chart slide — ❌ AI can update the slide text, but won't be able to update the chart

Tables (native element)

• Tables are not yet supported by PlusAI

• If your table always has the same number of rows and columns, convert it into individual text boxes before importing the template

Example of a "table" made with individual text boxes — ✅ works with PlusAI

Example of a native table in Google Slides — ❌ not compatible with PlusAI

Diagrams, gantt charts, comparison matrices

• Currently, you can use custom templates to generate basic text and image slides — PlusAI does not understand how to fill out a complicated diagram.

• Examples: Gantt charts, matrices with repeating symbols

Example matrix — ❌ AI can fill out the text elements, but can't swap out the RACI icons

Example Gantt — ❌ AI can fill out tasks and dates, but can't update the bars or add/remove rows

Static / library slides that are not meant to be rewritten

• If you import these slides, PlusAI will overwrite the text when generating your slides

• We recommend copy/pasting these into your deck after generating with AI, or using insert to add individual slides to customize your existing presentation.
• Examples: Mission statement, About us, Feature comparisons, Thank you

Example team slide from HomeCooks pitch deck — ❌ remove before import

Example mission statement from Smalls pitch deck — ❌ remove before import

Instructions, brand guidelines, icon/image libraries

• Remember to remove any slides that are not part of the template before importing

• Examples: Instructions, brand guidelines, sample icon/images

Example of a Brand Guideline slide from Zapier — ❌ remove before import

Example of a sample icon slide from Zapier — ❌ remove before import

Import a custom template

After preparing your template, you're ready to import it into Plus.

Launch Plus AI > New Presentation. Then click on Custom templates.

Import a custom template: Launch Plus AI > New Presentation > Custom templates

Importing

1. Name your template. Remember that your template will be visible to everyone on your team

2. If you'd like, add a description to give your teammates more context — e.g., "Only use this for internal meetings". This is visible when someone clicks on the template preview

3. Select your template file in Google Drive

4. Click import

5. Wait your template to process — This can take a minute or two. In the meantime, you can use other PlusAI features or close the add-on.

How it works

When you import a template, we automatically make a copy of your presentation before converting it into a format that is usable by PlusAI.

Therefore, any changes you make to your original template later will NOT be reflected in Plus. This also means you can safely delete and move your original file without affecting your new custom template.

Managing custom templates

Custom templates are shared across your team. Each team can have a maximum of 5 custom templates.

Editing your templates

Currently, you cannot edit a template once it's been imported. Delete the template and reimport it to make changes.

Deleting your template

Click on the 3-dot (...) menu to delete a custom template.

Using custom templates

You can use custom templates when generating a presentation, inserting a single slide, and remixing slides.