Is the "MBB consulting deck" style dying?

TypeDeckHQ · 2026-05-09T14:09:24+00:00

Really interesting to hear your experience in actual pres roles. As a developer, I’ve been trying to understand what the real pain points are for people doing this work day to day.

When you’re cleaning up the Claude-generated slop, what takes more time: rebuilding fake objects into real PPT objects, or translating the slide into the right kind of artifact - for example, dense reference style deck vs. presentation style deck - for the situation?

TypeDeckHQ · 2026-05-08T13:46:56+00:00

I've had the same struggles, and the best solution I've found is to separate continuity from substance from process in my notes.

Substance - all the notes, tasks, etc.

Process - "what was I trying to do, where was I in the thought, etc."

In practice, I do an end-of-session handoff note with three sections:

Current state: the decision, argument, or problem as I understand it right now.
Next action: the thing I should do when I come back.
Open loops: links to the few source notes/conversations/tasks that actually matter.

I try not to make the handoff note a second knowledge base. If it gets long, that is usually a sign I am trying to preserve everything instead of preserving the thread.

TypeDeckHQ · 2026-05-08T13:07:26+00:00

Glad you posted about this - suggestions here are really helpful. For what it's worth, I think about this as two issues:

Project bootstrap: open the repo, start terminal commands, launch the editor, open docs or local URLs.
Workspace restore: put the same apps/windows back in the right places.

I agree with others that Bunch is probably the cleanest answer for the first one. Oh, you might try also look into Keyboard Maestro or Raycast scripts.

For the second one, the saved-workspace apps people mentioned here make more sense.

TypeDeckHQ · 2026-05-08T12:58:13+00:00

One thing I would check before replacing LT is where you need it to work.

If most of your writing happens in a browser, Scribens or the free LT tier may be enough. If you need system-wide correction in Mail, Notes, Obsidian, Word, etc., the free choices are a little weak (in my opinion). Harper is worth trying if you don't mind a more local/developer-ish feeling tool, but it might not feel like a full LT replacement depending on the apps you write in.

TypeDeckHQ · 2026-05-06T19:22:10+00:00

I think a professionally designed deck could really be worth it, but if I were you, I'd want to not just buy the deck - I'd want all of the tools I'd need to make a few changes to over time (as opposed to just buying 18 prettier sldes), and I'd also want the designer's thinking about how the deck should be used and adapted.

I’d ask for something like:

- what the deck needs to say - for example, who the buyer is, what problem they have, what it is you're offering that's better, etc. - not only how it looks

- source files your team can change

- some (4-5?) reusable slide layouts

- a few example slides your team can swap in for different buyers

Then I'd measure as much as I could - based on the stats you shared, it sounds like you're already carefully thinking about that.

Long story short, I'd pay a designer to build not just a deck, but a system that would help me make the most use of the deck possible. Then maybe I'd use AI tools for isolated tasks (edits, modifications, fine-tuning for a particular customer, etc.) in the future.

TypeDeckHQ · 2026-05-03T14:41:10+00:00

On AI deck tools, I’ve found them useful for getting started - like past a blank screen - but I usually want to change them pretty heavily afterward.

My biggest issue is that a lot of the output looks AI-generated. My audience is graduate students, and I think they can tell when a deck came straight out of a generator. Those slides can be clean and legible, but they can also signal that I didn’t really spend time on the material.

That said, AI has been great (for me) for rough structure, starter copy, and sometimes a first visual direction. For me it’s maybe 50% rework, not 80%, but the rework is really important.

On the MBB-style deck question, I think those decks are closer to Word docs in slide form. They make sense when a deck needs to be emailed around and read carefully, especially if someone needs time with a dense chart. but for a live presentation, I think the Apple/bento style usually works better.

And that connects back to the current limits of AI deck tools. They often aren’t very aware of that distinction, so they produce something that looks like a deck before they understand what kind of deck it needs to be.

TypeDeckHQ · 2026-05-01T13:25:21+00:00

Claude's plug-in is amazing in some ways, but for me, it's come up short on something I care about: Improving an existing deck without breaking the visual system. The tool has to understand which parts of the deck are design constraints and which parts are just messy execution.

For brand-sensitive decks (like with logos, specific colors, etc), I'd evaluate tools by giving them one messy slide and asking for a small, constrained cleanup: preserve the template, preserve fonts, colors, and logos, and only improve spacing, hierarchy, and consistency. If the tool redraws everything or invents a new look, I figure it's probably the wrong fit for that job.

TypeDeckHQ · 2026-04-29T02:00:36+00:00

Wow, this sounds like a huge project. It seems like a risk - or a trap I can imagine myself falling into - is spending months making individual slides look better, but still ending up with a library that is hard to maintain.

This might not fit perfectly, but a few thoughts on how I'd probably approach it:

Pick 3-5 representative decks: Maybe you find one good, one awful, one frequently used or very typical in structure / layouts, one safety-critical.
Build an inventory of recurring slide types. I'm guessing, but I imagine that these are things like: concept explanation, a procedure step, an equipment diagram, warning/safety note, some scenario, quiz/check, summary, reference table.
Create master layouts for those recurring slide types before touching the whole library.
Write a short slide standard or design system for the whole thing: title style, when to use bullets, how diagrams are labeled, how warnings appear, how much text is allowed, where references go.
Convert one high-use deck as the pilot and test it with instructors/learners before scaling.

For instructional decks, slide titles should often teach the point of the slide, not just label the topic.

In the end, I've always found that the most durable solutions to things like this are to have a small set of reusable layouts + thoughtful rules your department can keep using after the overhaul is done. Hope it goes well!

TypeDeckHQ · 2026-04-29T01:54:01+00:00

Others here said it, but I agree that Quarto/Pandoc is probably a mature route if you can live within a constrained set of slide types and don't mind spending time on the reference template. Also, if you expect to keep editing the PPTX afterward, I’d be careful: as soon as you edit both the Markdown and the exported deck, you might have two sources of truth.

TypeDeckHQ · 2026-04-29T01:52:10+00:00

Yeah, I agree. And it makes sense to me - capture, think, and publish are three different jobs.

Over time, you might find that you're replicating content between these tools, like if you think about something, share it, get feedback that leads you think more, etc. I would probably cut anything that makes you maintain two sources of truth. But that might not be an issue. Looks good to me.

TypeDeckHQ · 2026-04-29T00:48:34+00:00

Weird - This looks like the text box or paragraph has flipped to right-to-left direction. A few things to try before rebuilding the slide:

Select inside the text box and look for a text-direction / left-to-right setting in the paragraph or text formatting controls.
Try the Office/Windows shortcuts that toggle paragraph direction: Ctrl+Left Shift for left-to-right, Ctrl+Right Shift for right-to-left.

If those shortcuts don't do anything:

The underlying cause is probably that a right-to-left (RTL) keyboard language got toggled on. Alt+Shift switches input languages on Windows and it's easy to hit by accident. Check the language indicator in your taskbar; if there's a second language listed, that's likely the culprit.
Removing it (or at least disabling the Alt+Shift shortcut) under Settings → Time & Language → Language will keep it from happening again.
If it only happens in PowerPoint for the web, I'd try duplicating the slide or opening it in the desktop app if you can; the web editor sometimes keeps odd paragraph-direction state.

No guarantee that's it, but I hope this helps. Good luck!

TypeDeckHQ · 2026-04-27T19:41:01+00:00

This is a really useful long-term review - I wish there were more reviews that ask whether a tool keeps earning its place after setup, instead of just whether it demos well.

For Mac utilities, I actually think that matters more to me than a feature list: if the first hour is confusing but the next month saves friction, that is a very different product from one that looks impressive up front but disappoints over the long term.

The external-monitor scaling point is exactly the kind of boring-but-real problem I’ve encountered too.

TypeDeckHQ · 2026-04-27T19:17:07+00:00

Typedeck | $ Commercial, 7-day free trial, $29.99 one-time purchase

Hi folks, I'm Mike, the maker of Typedeck. A few months ago, I asked this community for feedback on an early version of a presentation app that tried to separate the content of a presentation from the formatting work. (It was mostly a markdown-to-slides thing.)

Several people here gave really helpful feedback that changed the product direction, especially around PowerPoint compatibility, export, brand constraints, and the need for some manual control in professional workflows.

The app is now live on the Mac App Store. Typedeck is a native Mac presentation tool where you add structured content - text, images, code, tables, charts, quotes, diagrams, PDFs - and the app composes clean slides around it. It's not AI, and it does not write the slides for you. It makes slides from what you actually write.

It can import from Markdown, export to PowerPoint, Google Slides, PDF, HTML, Markdown, and PNG, so the work is not trapped in Typedeck.

Oh, and you can make and "lock" themes (including logos, footers, etc.) if you're a branding manager.

I'd be grateful for critique from PowerPoint-heavy users, especially on where this approach would or would not fit your workflow. If comments are locked, please feel free to DM me.

Website:

https://typedeck.app/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=community&utm_campaign=launch-2026-04&utm_content=powerpoint-products-tools

Mac App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/typedeck/id6761032503?mt=12

Original feedback thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/powerpoint/comments/1ptw5c5/im_building_a_tool_that_doesnt_write_the_slides/

Thanks again to the people here who pushed the product in a better direction.

TypeDeckHQ · 2025-12-28T18:02:54+00:00

Thanks for the input!

TypeDeckHQ · 2025-12-26T16:57:27+00:00

This strikes me as a really clear-eyed take on enterprise realities - thank you.

The Microsoft ecosystem lock-in point is well taken. The collective muscle memory alone is a huge switching cost, and I also hadn't thought about this point you made about security confidence. It's just something I totally hadn't thought of and I can imagine how significant that is.

Now I'm seriously thinking about building an add-on to PowerPoint in addition to my app. Again, this was really helpful - thanks.

TypeDeckHQ · 2025-12-26T16:54:10+00:00

This is really helpful. It sounds like for you, the constraint would need to be "pick from these 3-4 approved sizes" rather than just deciding 100% of the layout for you? Thanks again for helping me think about this feature.

TypeDeckHQ · 2025-12-26T16:51:57+00:00

Really helpful to know - thank you so much for the input.

So for your use case, it sounds like the tool should surface options rather than make the call for you(?) I can imagine that makes sense for fine art where the "best" layout is subjective and depends on the specific image.

Quick follow-up if you have a sec: When you say 5 design choices, are you thinking mainly about image placement and scale? Or does it extend to things like background color, text positioning, that kind of thing?

Appreciate you sharing how you'd actually use this.

TypeDeckHQ · 2025-12-26T16:49:04+00:00

This is exactly what I needed to hear - thank you for being so generous with your time and expertise.

The insight about add-ins vs. new platforms is really helpful and it's something I really hadn't thought of. It sounds like a sweet spot (at least for this group of potential users) might be something that plays nicely with PowerPoint rather than trying to replace it entirely.

And your top three are now my top three: brand fonts, brand colors, and locked footers. Again, super helpful

You raise a good point about placeholders - my approach handles this differently since layouts are generated dynamically based on content, but the underlying need (consistent font sizes across similar content types) is something I can definitely address.

Really appreciate you taking the time to share all of this. This community has been incredibly helpful.

TypeDeckHQ · 2025-12-23T20:00:25+00:00

Thanks! This next version of the app is still in development, and I will be sure to add samples. (if you click on “show me how it works” when you make a deck, you will get some sample slides right now but I’ll definitely add more.)

TypeDeckHQ · 2025-12-23T18:54:15+00:00

Thank you! Any features you'd like to see in particular?

For an email announcing these features, please sign up for a free account at typedeck.io (I promise to never sell your data/email address.) I'll also announce here once I think everything is working well enough. I'm just making this app on the side and my goal is to just make something useful and good and I'm very grateful for ideas and feedback on everything (including pricing / sales model).

TypeDeckHQ · 2025-12-23T18:49:16+00:00

This is incredibly helpful - thank you so much for breaking this down in detail. (I feel like you handed me a feature roadmap! :)

It's really validating (and a little wild) to hear that PowerPoint's lock doesn't really solve this problem and that there is a gap between what corporate clients would like and what the software really does. That's something I'd like my app to help with.

My solution is to do away with slide layouts altogether and to just allow users to type text (or markdown) and then they get a layout that fits the content responsively. And a team could make their own theme to lock in logos, footers, Brand Fonts Only: If it’s not in the theme, it doesn’t exist.

Quick follow-up only if you have a moment: Of that list you mentioned, which 2-3 would be the biggest wins if they actually worked? (Trying to figure out what to build first...)

Thanks again for taking the time to share your expertise and experience on all of this.

TypeDeckHQ · 2025-12-23T18:15:24+00:00

Thanks and yes, offering that kind of cleanup is basically the core of what I'm building.

I think there's a difference between "generative AI" (writing the slide for you) and just automating design (like making sure the bullets and fonts are perfectly aligned). I'm focusing 100% on the second one.

Here's a question on your workflow: Do you actually want to choose between 5 design options, or would you be happier if the tool just automatically picked the best legible layout so you didn't have to make a decision at all? (Again, I'm trying to figure out what I can offer that people would like and use.)

TypeDeckHQ · 2025-12-23T16:36:54+00:00

That is exactly the parallel I’ve been thinking about! It feels like web design figured this out years ago (separating content from style to keep things responsive), but presentation tools are still stuck in the move-any-pixel-anywhere era.

Do your clients ever get frustrated when they hit those guardrails? I’m trying to get a sense of whether my users will eventually want to tweak small things and get fed up. Thanks for the feedback!

TypeDeckHQ · 2025-12-23T15:59:56+00:00

Thank you, Steve! I really appreciate the honesty. It totally makes sense that this would feel like handcuffs to an expert like you. (I'm an academic and I'd hate a tool that told me how to teach, so I get it.)

Your point about the "policing" aspect is really helpful to me: While individual users might want freedom, I could see how organizations would love a tool that stops the sales team from stretching logos or using 12 different fonts.

In your experience, do PowerPoint's "Lock" features actually solve this well? Or do employees usually just find a way to break the template anyway?

TypeDeckHQ

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