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Design Inspiration

Unleash the Power of Your Story with Slide Variations

Jordan Turner
 | 
September 17, 2024
 | 
5
 min read
Unleash the Power of Your Story with Slide VariationsUnleash the Power of Your Story with Slide Variations
Table of Contents

If you’re sitting down to create a presentation, you probably already have a story that needs to be told. You know what needs to go in the deck, but maybe you don’t know how to say it or where to add it in. That point of frustration is what we like to call blank slide syndrome. And we have a solution. 

Beautiful.ai’s Smart Slides are inspired, ready-to-use slide templates so you never have to stare at a blank slide again. 

Smart Slides handle the heavy lifting of design for you so that you can focus on your message. As you plug in your content, the text boxes and visual elements will resize and auto-align themselves to ensure a professional design, everytime. These design guardrails, and intentional limitations, help you think outside the box and structure your story in a way that you may not have thought to try in traditional presentation software like PowerPoint.

Even with the templates, sometimes you need a little creative nudge to get your slides over the finish line. Let us introduce you to slide variations in Beautiful.ai. 

What are slide variations?

Slide variations is a feature in Beautiful.ai that allows you to see your content in different layouts, without having to commit to a brand new slide. Let’s say you choose the Pie Chart Smart Slide template, add in your content, and realize it doesn’t look quite right— something’s missing. Instead of adding a new slide, and inputting in your data again, you can choose the “Variations” light bulb icon on the left side panel. A tab will open which will show you different layouts, or slide variations, that might also work with the content you already have. Here you can toggle between Pie Chart, Line Chart, Columns, and more, to see which slide best fits your story. If you don’t like it, you can always go back to your original slide choice without losing any content (or time). 

Reimagine your story with different variations

It’s not uncommon to get stuck in a pattern of familiarity in presentation design. If you’re creating several presentations a quarter, you may favor 2-3 slides that get the job done— but you’re leaving ideas on the table. With over 60 Smart Slide templates to choose from, you’re limiting the potential of your story by recycling the same 3 templates every time.  

Slide variations is a low-stakes way to reimagine your story in just a few clicks. 

The intentional limitations of Smart Slides might force you to structure your slide in a new way because your content doesn’t fit within the design perimeters. The technology may prompt you to resize your text, trim down your content, or position your photos in a different order. After you make the necessary adjustments, the slide may lose the initial appeal it had when you selected it. 

With slide variations, you can play around with different ideas, layouts, and slide options to find the best way to share your story. It’s like trying on five different jackets with your outfit until you find the one that looks the best. This makes a variety of design choices more easily accessible to people without professional design skills, so they can get the best presentation results in the least amount of time. 

Not only does this unlock new slides you might have otherwise overlooked, but the new creative direction can in turn inspire a refreshed message. 

Try it for free today!

Jordan Turner

Jordan Turner

Jordan is a Bay Area writer, social media manager, and content strategist.