CE101 Slide Generation Skill

CE101 Slide Generation Skill

Overview

This skill automates the generation of professionally styled PowerPoint presentations from CE101 curriculum content. It handles the complete workflow: markdown → styled PowerPoint → PNG previews.

When to use this skill:

• Updating CE101 curriculum and need to regenerate slides
• Creating new presentation slides from curriculum content
• Previewing slides as PNG images
• Converting markdown presentations to PowerPoint

Quick Start

Generate Complete Slide Deck

# One-command generation (markdown → PowerPoint → PNGs)
./​scripts/​generate-slides.sh

# View slides in browser
./​scripts/​view-slides.sh

Output:

• CE101-Master-Presentation-Styled.pptx - Styled PowerPoint
• workspace/​thumbnails/​slide-*.png - Individual slide images
• workspace/​thumbnails/​index.html - Browsable slide index

File Structure

ce101/
├── 01-core-concepts.md              ← Curriculum modules (source of truth)
├── 02-filesystem-organization.md
├── ...
├── 08-mcp-servers.md
│
├── CE101-Master-Presentation.md     ← Master slide deck (manually curated)
│
├── workspace/
│   ├── generate-presentation.js     ← Slide generator script
│   ├── thumbnails/                  ← Generated PNG previews
│   └── slides-html/                 ← Intermediate HTML files
│
└── scripts/
    ├── generate-slides.sh           ← Main automation
    ├── pptx-to-png.sh              ← PowerPoint → PNG converter
    └── view-slides.sh              ← Browser launcher

Core Workflows

1. Update Curriculum → Generate Slides

Workflow:

1. Edit curriculum modules (01-08.md)
2. Work with Claude to update CE101-Master-Presentation.md:
   • Extract key concepts from updated modules
   • Format as slide-friendly content (max 6-7 bullets per slide)
3. Generate slides:

   ./​scripts/​generate-slides.sh
   

4. Review:

   ./​scripts/​view-slides.sh
   

Example prompt for Claude:

I updated Module 3 (03-multi-tab-orchestration.md) with new content about
agent coordination. Help me extract the key concepts and update the relevant
section in CE101-Master-Presentation.md.

2. View Generated Slides

# Open in browser
./​scripts/​view-slides.sh

# Or directly:
open workspace/​thumbnails/​index.html  # macOS
xdg-open workspace/​thumbnails/​index.html  # Linux

3. Convert Any PowerPoint to PNGs

./​scripts/​pptx-to-png.sh <input.pptx> [output-dir]

# Example:
./​scripts/​pptx-to-png.sh CE101-Master-Presentation-Styled.pptx workspace/​preview

Slide Format Guidelines

Master Markdown Format

The master presentation uses marp-style markdown with --- slide separators:

---
marp: true
theme: default
paginate: true
---

# Slide Title
## Optional Subtitle

Intro text here

- Bullet point 1
- Bullet point 2
- Maximum 6-7 bullets recommended

---

# Next Slide
...

Slide Types

1. Title Slide (first slide):

# Context Engineering 101
## Stop Writing Prompts, Start Engineering Context

A practical guide for SREs and DevOps engineers

• Dark charcoal background with orange accent bar
• Large title text

2. Module Divider (contains "Module" in title):

# Module 1: Core Concepts

• Full orange background (#F96D00)
• Centered white text
• Larger font sizes

3. Content Slide (regular slides):

# Slide Title
## Optional Subtitle

Text content here

- Bullet 1
- Bullet 2

• White background with orange accent bar on left
• Left-aligned content
• Auto-adjusting font sizes

Design Constraints

• Dimensions: 720pt × 405pt (16:9 aspect ratio)
• Margins: Minimum 0.5" (36pt) from all edges
• Bullets: Maximum 6-7 per slide for readability
• Font: Arial (web-safe)
• Auto-sizing: Font reduces from 12pt to 11pt when >10 content lines
• Line spacing: Adjusts from 1.2 to 1.15 for dense content

Color Theme (Little Caesars Orange)

{
  primaryOrange: 'F96D00',   // Main orange
  deepOrange: 'E85D04',      // Darker accent
  charcoal: '222831',        // Dark backgrounds/​text
  coolGray: '546E7A',        // Subtitles
  lightBg: 'F5F5F5',         // Light backgrounds
  white: 'FFFFFF'            // Text on orange
}

Troubleshooting

Error: "Text box ends too close to bottom edge"

Cause: Too much content on one slide Fix: In CE101-Master-Presentation.md, reduce bullets or split into two slides

Example:

# Before (10 bullets - TOO MANY)
- Bullet 1
- Bullet 2
...
- Bullet 10

---

# After (split into two slides)
# Part 1
- Bullet 1
...
- Bullet 5

---

# Part 2
- Bullet 6
...
- Bullet 10

Error: "HTML content overflows body horizontally"

Cause: Title or text too long Fix: Shorten title or text content

Slides look cut off in PNG previews

Cause: May be rendering issue Fix: Check actual PowerPoint file - PNGs are for preview only

Generated PowerPoint won't open

Cause: Malformed markdown or generation error Fix:

1. Check workspace/​slides-html/ for problematic HTML
2. Verify slide separators are --- on their own line
3. Look for unbalanced markdown formatting

Dependencies

Node.js Packages (Global)

• pptxgenjs - PowerPoint generation
• Located at: /​home/​becker/​.nvm/​versions/​node/​v20.19.3/​lib/​node_modules

System Packages

• libreoffice / soffice - PowerPoint → PDF conversion
• pdftoppm (poppler-utils) - PDF → PNG conversion

Check Dependencies

# Node.js and packages
which node
ls /​home/​becker/​.nvm/​versions/​node/​v20.19.3/​lib/​node_modules/​pptxgenjs

# System tools
which soffice
which pdftoppm

Advanced Usage

Modify Slide Styling

Edit workspace/​generate-presentation.js:

// Line 8-17: Color scheme
const colors = {
  primaryOrange: 'F96D00',  // Change these
  deepOrange: 'E85D04',
  // ...
};

// Line 143-182: Slide layout and spacing

After modifying, regenerate:

./​scripts/​generate-slides.sh

Change Theme Colors

Example: Switch to blue theme

1. Edit workspace/​generate-presentation.js lines 10-11:

primaryOrange: '0066CC',  // Blue
deepOrange: '004C99',     // Darker blue

1. Regenerate:

./​scripts/​generate-slides.sh

File Ownership

Source Files (Edit and Commit to Git)

• 01-core-concepts.md through 08-mcp-servers.md
• CE101-Master-Presentation.md
• workspace/​generate-presentation.js
• scripts/​*.sh

Generated Files (Don't Edit, In .gitignore)

• CE101-Master-Presentation-Styled.pptx
• workspace/​thumbnails/
• workspace/​slides-html/

Quick Reference Commands

# Generate everything (PowerPoint + PNGs)
./​scripts/​generate-slides.sh

# View slides in browser
./​scripts/​view-slides.sh

# Convert PowerPoint to PNGs only
./​scripts/​pptx-to-png.sh CE101-Master-Presentation-Styled.pptx

# Check slide count
grep -c "^---$" CE101-Master-Presentation.md

# Clean generated files
rm -rf workspace/​thumbnails workspace/​slides-html CE101-Master-Presentation-Styled.pptx

Common Tasks

Add New Module to Slides

1. Create/​edit curriculum: 09-new-topic.md
2. Ask Claude:

   Extract key concepts from 09-new-topic.md and add a module section
   to CE101-Master-Presentation.md with:
   - Module divider slide
   - 3-5 content slides with main concepts
   - Max 6 bullets per slide
   

3. Generate: ./​scripts/​generate-slides.sh
4. Review: ./​scripts/​view-slides.sh

Fix Overcrowded Slide

Problem: Slide generation fails with "text too close to bottom edge"

Solution:

1. Find the problematic slide number in error message
2. Open CE101-Master-Presentation.md
3. Count --- separators to find the slide
4. Reduce content:
   • Remove less important bullets
   • Split into two slides
   • Shorten text
5. Regenerate: ./​scripts/​generate-slides.sh

Update Slides After Curriculum Changes

Scenario: You improved Module 2 and want slides to reflect changes

Workflow:

1. Edit 02-filesystem-organization.md (curriculum)
2. Ask Claude:

   I updated Module 2 with better examples. Please review the changes
   and update the Module 2 section in CE101-Master-Presentation.md to
   match. Keep it to 5-7 slides maximum.
   

3. Claude updates master presentation
4. Generate: ./​scripts/​generate-slides.sh
5. Review: ./​scripts/​view-slides.sh

Performance Notes

• Markdown → PowerPoint: ~5 seconds for 56 slides
• PowerPoint → PNG: ~10-15 seconds for 56 slides
• Total workflow: ~20 seconds end-to-end
• PNG files: ~150KB each, ~8.5MB for 56 slides

Best Practices

1. Keep curriculum detailed, slides concise

   • Curriculum has full explanations
   • Slides have key points only

2. 6-7 bullets maximum per slide

   • More than this and font sizes shrink
   • Content gets cramped

3. Use module dividers

   • Break up sections with full-orange slides
   • Any slide with "Module" in title becomes a divider

4. Test after edits

   • Run ./​scripts/​generate-slides.sh frequently
   • Catch formatting issues early

5. Review visually

   • Always check PNG previews
   • PowerPoint might render slightly differently

Documentation

• README.md - Project overview and workflow
• SLIDE_WORKFLOW.md - Detailed slide generation guide
• CLAUDE.md - Project-specific guidance for Claude Code

License

Part of Context Engineering 101 curriculum (MIT License)