Google has been rapidly improving NotebookLM, rolling out major new updates or improvements almost every other week. Just a few months ago, the AI tool gained the ability to generate Slide Decks from added information sources. Now, Google is making it even better by adding one of the most-requested features: prompt-based customizations.
Generating Slide Decks in NotebookLM is relatively easy. You can choose between Detailed Deck or Presenter Slides depending on your use case, along with the slide’s length and language. Then, describe the deck you want to create and hit Generate to let Gemini build it for you.
The problem is that there was no way to customize the Slide Decks after they were generated. If you did not like a particular slide in a deck, you had to start from scratch.
With NotebookLM’s latest update, Google is solving this problem for good. In a deck, you can now use prompts to refine or modify an individual slide.
So, if you want to modify the second and fifth slides in a deck, you can update them individually using prompts. This is more efficient than regenerating the whole Slide Deck again.
For now, prompt-based customization appears to be available on the web. Support for mobile apps should arrive later.
Do note that you cannot manually edit or tweak specific elements within a slide since they are essentially AI-generated images. This makes minor, pixel-level tweaking of visual elements almost impossible. It also means you cannot directly edit the text inside a slide.
Currently, the ability to customize Slide Decks in NotebookLM is rolling out for users on the Google AI Ultra or Pro tiers. Free users will gain access to the feature in the coming weeks.
Export your Slide Decks to PowerPoint
That’s not it. Google is adding the ability to (finally!) export your Slide Decks as PPTX. This means you can download and view them in Microsoft PowerPoint. If you heavily rely on PowerPoint as part of your workflow, this will speed things up for you.
Google Slides support is in the works, too, and should arrive soon.
