Tutorials
Claude Opus 5.5: Fix Product Pitch Slides Without Shrinking Everything
Give Claude Opus 5.5 the editable deck, a rendered copy and explicit rules about what may change.
Give Claude Opus 5.5 the editable deck, a rendered copy and explicit rules about what may change. Repair the specific overflowing objects, then inspect the exported slides. A good-looking chat preview cannot tell you whether the recipient’s PowerPoint will preserve the layout. This workflow is for an existing product pitch whose approved wording and images need to survive the repair.
Which problem are you actually fixing?
Separate excess content from broken geometry before asking for a redesign.
| Symptom | First check | Smallest useful repair |
|---|---|---|
| Last line leaves the box | Text margins and available height | Enlarge the box within its reserved region |
| Several labels overlap after opening | Font substitution | Use an approved available font and render again |
| Whole right edge is missing | Slide dimensions and export settings | Restore the intended canvas size |
| Everything fits but is tiny | Too much content for one slide | Split the idea across two slides |
Microsoft documents that changing slide size can either crop content or shrink it. Check the slide-size options before treating the problem as bad copy. In the repair brief, state the final format first: editable presentation, PDF, or both. Each needs its own inspection.
Measure the space before cutting the words
Here is a hypothetical layout, not an Opus benchmark. A product pitch uses a 13.333 × 7.5 inch slide. With 0.5 inch left and right safe areas, usable width is 12.333 inches. A 5 inch product image plus a 0.5 inch gap leaves 6.833 inches for text. A 7.2 inch text box cannot fit that arrangement; smaller type merely conceals the geometry mistake.
Put the title, proof and requested action into separate regions. If the proof needs two paragraphs, decide whether both support the same claim. A second slide may be clearer than a narrower photograph and six-point footnotes. Conversely, a single orphaned word usually calls for a local adjustment, not a new deck.
For approved copy, preserve a text export before editing. Compare it with the repaired file afterwards, including punctuation, units, dates and speaker notes. A screenshot alone cannot reveal deleted notes or a number changed from 15 to 50.
A complete local-repair prompt
Attach the deck and its current PDF or slide images. Replace the bracketed fields; use the actual filenames rather than “the latest version.”
Review [deck filename] against [render filename]. Final delivery is an editable 16:9 deck and PDF.
Preserve slide order, approved wording, numbers, units, product images and speaker notes. Do not invent evidence.
Inspect every slide. Return slide number, object, visible defect, probable cause and smallest repair. Mark anything you cannot inspect as unknown.
Repair only the listed layout defects. Keep the approved [font] and [minimum body size]. If copy cannot fit at that size, propose a split instead of shortening it silently.
For each changed slide, report object positions and sizes, font changes and any text difference. Keep images proportional.
Render the final deck using the available presentation renderer. Inspect every changed slide and the unchanged neighbouring slides. Compare extracted text before and after.
Deliver the deck, PDF and a change log. Distinguish checks actually run from checks still needed in the recipient’s application. If file tools or rendering are unavailable, return the repair instructions without claiming an exported file was tested.This constrains the work more usefully than “make it professional.” The requested output has three parts: the repaired object, an explanation of the change and evidence from the delivered file. Start with one representative problem slide before applying the pattern across a large deck.
Check the recipient’s file, not just the thumbnail
Open the delivered deck in the application the recipient uses. Inspect the title, smallest label and longest sentence at presentation size. Then inspect the PDF independently: a successful deck render does not prove the PDF export is identical. Record the application and version used, and keep unresolved font substitutions in the change log.
A community discussion from August 2026 describes text drifting outside slide boxes. It establishes a practical problem with earlier workflows, not a failure rate for Opus 5.5. This article’s geometry and prompt are a proposed workflow; no model comparison was run.
Questions before sending
Should every slide become an image?
Only when editability is unnecessary. Rasterizing may preserve appearance while making text changes, selection and accessibility harder. Keep the editable source even if a PDF is the final handoff.
Can I ask for a more attractive product photo too?
Treat that as a separately approved asset change. Otherwise the layout repair can quietly become a different campaign. Prepare the new image in Panelly Studio, then place that approved export into the deck.
What if the wording is simply too long?
Request two alternatives: preserve all words across two slides, or propose a shorter version with every deletion visible. Do not let the repair choose between those business decisions for you.
Use the brand drift checklist for campaign-wide consistency after the deck’s actual layout defects are resolved.
