Plan the reading order
Supply the audience, decision, source material and required coverage. Review the outline before generating. For a QBR, keep results, variance, risks and next decisions distinct instead of mixing them into a status collage.
Create a Presentation From Excel or a Spreadsheet
Upload your Excel (.xlsx / .xls) or CSV file and get a structured presentation built from it — no retyping rows of numbers into slides by hand. The part that matters with data is accuracy: Gixo reads figures from your spreadsheet and keeps that source attached to the generation and review path. Verify source-critical numbers before presenting.
Lumen · real output
Read the deck before you choose the workflow.
Open an actual exported deck, then compare its outline, source constraints and slide choices with the job you need to finish.
Electricity in the United States: Generation, Capacity and Sales
A 14-slide explainer on how U.S. electricity is generated, delivered and sold, built only from two EIA pages: the 2025 generation mix, what each generating technology does, installed capacity and how it serves base, intermediate and peak demand, and retail sales by customer type. Its three charts use the pages’ own figures.
Inspect the source brief or data
A long explanatory deck for a general business audience on how electricity is generated, how generating capacity differs from generation, and how it is sold in the United States. Cover the three subjects in balance: generation by source, capacity and how the grid is run, and retail sales by customer sector and by type of seller. Use only the supplied pages; every figure, date and definition must come from them, and where they give none do not supply one. Use charts only for figures the pages give. Put the minor sources of generation together on one slide, and give every item of the agenda at least one slide of its own. Workflow: General business. 14 slides requested. Documents supplied as text (EIA, "Electricity in the United States (Energy Explained)", https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us.php; EIA, "Electricity in the United States: generation, capacity, and sales (Energy Explained)", https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/electricity/electricity-in-the-us-generation-capacity-and-sales.php).
Read the sample review notes
A separate reviewer agent read the deck’s 107 claims, slides and speaker notes, against the two EIA pages: 95 are supported, 10 loosen or go a little beyond their wording, 2 are in neither page and none contradicts one. One of the two is the closing slide’s advice; the other ranks rooftop solar as the leading distributed resource, which the pages do not say. It is not a person’s review.
Refine at the right scope
Edit structured slide fields, preview field alternatives or review a whole-slide rewrite. Ask Lumen can propose wider changes; inspect and select the changes before applying them to the saved deck.
Inspect the actual handoff
Check charts, speaker notes, images and contrast in presentation view and the downloaded file. A new-period deck is a separate draft with changed values and sources to review.
Outline planning and field alternatives
Choose a creation mode and workflow profile, supply source material and review the planned coverage. Slide fields have layout-specific budgets. Field assistance offers alternatives with rationale and word counts; whole-slide refinement shows field-level changes. Ask Lumen can propose wider structural edits, which require a reviewed preview before application.
Data, themes and the next reporting period
Paste spreadsheet rows, choose header handling and preview replacement chart data. Where offered, select Business metrics explicitly and inspect their source receipt. Review changes in values and sources before accepting a next-period draft. Theme controls cover brand colors, type, logo placement, background and contrast choices; a custom theme still needs visual review.
Presenting and the exported deck
Inspect full-screen and audience views, speaker notes, next-slide preview, navigation and timer. Check PDF and PowerPoint separately. Supported elements can become native editable shapes or charts; complex visuals can use a flattened fallback. Speaker notes and per-slide handoff choices should be inspected in the actual file.
PowerPoint export is hybrid: supported content may remain editable while complex visuals can be flattened. Conversion between a responsive story and slides requires a preview; it is not lossless.
Additional product example
The short answer
You have the numbers in a spreadsheet — a metrics export, a budget, a results table — and you need them in a deck. The slow way is retyping each figure into slides, where a single fat-fingered digit becomes a wrong number in front of an audience. AI can do the conversion, but only if it carries your actual figures across rather than approximating them.
Gixo reads your spreadsheet directly: Excel workbooks are parsed cell-by-cell, and CSVs are read as rows and columns. When sources are provided, Lumen keeps uploaded and pasted material authoritative and lets the user choose uploaded-only generation or allow web context. Lumen records generation-time source provenance and keeps citations and source review attached; it does not automatically verify every claim, so human review remains required.
The result is a structured, editable deck you can refine and export — built from your real data, not a plausible-looking version of it.
How to turn a spreadsheet into a deck: Excel to PPT in four steps
1
Add your spreadsheet as a reference document
When you create a presentation, upload your Excel (.xlsx / .xls) or CSV file as a reference document (you can add a few related files too). Excel workbooks are read cell-by-cell; CSVs are read as their rows and columns.
2
Choose how the source should constrain generation
Keep generation uploaded-only when the sheet must be the sole source, or allow web context while keeping the spreadsheet authoritative.
3
Review the figures and missing context
Lumen checks the figures in slide and Stanza scene text against the uploaded material and the web results the deck drew on, including decks written from a topic alone. A figure it cannot find there is rewritten to the sourced value or without the number; figures you typed yourself count as yours. Reviewers should still verify source-critical claims before presenting. Compare source-critical figures with the workbook before presenting.
4
Edit and export to PowerPoint
Tweak the deck in Lumen, then export it using the hybrid PowerPoint path. PowerPoint export is hybrid by design: stable layouts become editable text and shapes, complex slides preserve fidelity as images, and the file opens cleanly in PowerPoint. Before an export runs, a deterministic readiness check inspects every slide and blocks the file when an unresolved placeholder, an unfilled image slot, or a browser-only image would otherwise ship unfinished, while fidelity trade-offs are surfaced as warnings rather than applied silently.
Why this matters more for data than for anything else
A deck built from a topic can be vague and still be useful. A deck built from a spreadsheet can't — its whole reason to exist is the numbers, and a wrong one undermines the entire thing. That's why the conversion has to be faithful: the figure on the slide should be the figure in your cell, full stop.
Source provenance makes the review path visible, but it is not automatic claim verification. For a results review, board update, or investor deck, compare source-critical numbers with the workbook and correct the working deck before handoff.
How an AI slide generator turns a spreadsheet row into a chart
Lumen separates a slide's chart request from its chart data. A matching table in supplied material provides a deterministic first path. When no table matches, a separate AI step can extract figures stated in supplied material or captured web evidence; source matching then checks every chart value before the chart is drawn.
Each chart request is then resolved against the tables that actually exist in your uploaded source material. The match is structural — the request is normalised and tested against the label the table sits under — not a similarity score, so when a chart picks a table there is a one-line answer for why it picked that one. The values are then drawn by a deterministic renderer from the matched table.
A missing table does not by itself remove the chart: the stated-figure path may still fill it. If no admitted source states every requested value, the chart's slide is removed before the slide-count top-up. Matching values to evidence does not establish that the source is correct or that the units, period and interpretation suit your argument.
That is the practical difference between a deck built from your workbook and a deck written about your workbook. It does not remove the review step: compare source-critical figures against the sheet before you present.
Frequently asked questions
Can I turn an Excel file into a presentation?
Yes. Upload your .xlsx or .xls workbook as a reference document and Gixo reads it cell-by-cell for use during generation. Review source-critical figures against the workbook before presenting.
Does it work with CSV files too?
Yes. CSV files are supported — they're read as their rows and columns and used as the data behind your slides, the same way an Excel workbook is.
Will it change my numbers or make them up?
The spreadsheet stays authoritative, and you can explicitly choose uploaded-only generation when web context is not appropriate. Lumen records source provenance, but it does not automatically verify every generated claim, so review the numbers before presenting.
How many slides will I get?
The deck is sized to how much data you provide — a small table produces a short deck, a large dataset expands it. The length follows your source rather than padding to a fixed number.
Can I edit the deck and export it to PowerPoint?
You can refine every slide in Lumen. PowerPoint export is hybrid: stable layouts become editable text and shapes, while complex slides preserve fidelity as images. That export stays available after the trial too — downloading a deck you already generated is not gated.
Will the AI slide generator build charts from my spreadsheet data?
Yes. Lumen first looks for a matching table in supplied material and draws that data deterministically. When no table matches, a separate AI step can extract stated figures from supplied material or captured web evidence; every plotted value must match admitted evidence. If neither path supplies supported values, the chart slide is removed before slide-count top-up. Review the original workbook, units, period and interpretation before presenting.
How many slides should a data deck be, and can I choose?
Quick Create offers 12, 20, 30 or 40-slide targets; outline-first also offers a 5-slide target. Review the planned sequence and the resulting deck: source coverage and removal of unsupported or empty content can leave it below the target. Add, remove or reorder slides in the editor as needed.
Can I use more than one spreadsheet, or mix a sheet with a document?
Yes. You can attach up to five reference files to a deck, so a metrics export, a written commentary, and last quarter's notes can inform the same presentation. Mixing a spreadsheet with the memo that explains it usually produces a better deck than either alone, because the numbers get their narrative and the narrative gets its evidence. Review source-critical figures against the original files before presenting.
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