# Generating placeholder slides for your presentation

#### Yolanda Zhou ([`yolandazzz13`])

#### 2026-01-12

## Overview

This vignette shows how to add placeholder slides, including title slides and section headers, to a PowerPoint presentation using `autoslider.core`.

The main function for this is `append_all_slides`, which takes in a structured `page_list` as input to define the slides you want to add. This approach is ideal for quickly building a standardized presentation from scratch.

## Generating a Deck with `append_all_slides`

The `append_all_slides` function automates adding multiple slides by reading a `page_list` you provide. Each item in this list defines a single slide’s properties.

Each slide definition in the `page_list` must be a list containing:

`type`: The kind of slide to add (“`title`” or “`section`”).

`to_page`: The page number where the slide should be inserted.

Content parameters:

For`type = "title"`, you need to provide a `study_id.`

For `type = "section"`, you need to provide a `section_title.`

## Example: Generating placeholder slides

Here’s a complete example. We’ll start with an empty presentation, define a `page_list` for our slides, and then call `append_all_slides` to generate the final deck and save it to a file.

    library(officer)
    library(tools)

    # 1. Define a initial presentation file
    input <- "My_Presentation.pptx"
    read_pptx() %>% print(target = input)

    expected_output_file <- file.path(
      dirname(input),
      paste0(file_path_sans_ext(basename(input)), "_final.pptx")
    )

    # 2. Define the presentation structure with a page_list
    my_page_list <- list(
      list(type = "title", to_page = 1, study_id = "Project No.1"),
      list(type = "section", to_page = 2, section_title = "Introduction"),
      list(type = "section", to_page = 3, section_title = "Methodology")
    )

    # 3. Call append_all_slides to generate the deck
    # Set save_file = TRUE to write the result to a new file.
    # If you have an existing pptx object to modify on, pass it into `doc_original`.
    doc_result <- append_all_slides(
      doc_o = temp_pptx,
      page_list = my_page_list,
      doc_original = NULL,
      save_file = TRUE
    )

    # 4. Verify the output
    cat(paste("Number of slides created:", length(doc_result), "\n"))
    cat(paste("Output file exists:", file.exists(expected_output_file)))

This script produces a new PowerPoint file named `My_Presentation_final.pptx`, containing the three slides defined in `my_page_list.`

### Notes

- `to_page` parameter: The function validates that it does not exceed the maximum possible slide position (number of slides + 1). After a slide is inserted at a specific page, all subsequent page numbers shift. Plan your `page_list` sequence accordingly.

- The functions are designed to work with standard `officer` layouts. They will fail if PowerPoint does not support the specified layouts (“Title and Content”, “Section Header”) and master theme (“Office Theme”).