Monday, November 24, 2025

Transform Research into a Structured Presentation with NotebookLM

Transform Research into a Structured Presentation with NotebookLM

Need to quickly distill complex research into a shareable outline? NotebookLM’s slide generation feature instantly converts all your source documents into a structured, review-ready presentation, outputting a high-quality PDF perfect for sharing key findings or drafting a lecture structure.

By Rodger Mansfield, Technology Editor
November 24, 2025


NotebookLM
How much time do you spend fighting with bullet points and slide masters instead of focusing on what you actually want to say? 

In the professional world, presentations often begin not with a blank slide, but with a mountain of research: PDFs, meeting transcripts, long reports, and web articles. 

The manual process of summarizing these sources into a coherent narrative is a massive time sink.

Here's a Cool Tip:  Use NotebookLM to Generate a Slide Deck.

 NotebookLM, Google's AI-powered research assistant, now offers a solution that fundamentally changes this workflow. 

With a single prompt, the tool takes your complex source material and instantly drafts a professional, structured slide deck.

Generate a Slide Deck in NotebookLM

Feature Explanation

NotebookLM’s slide generation capability leverages Gemini Pro’s multimodal understanding to analyze the sources you have uploaded to a specific notebook and transform the content into a presentation outline.

What it is: 

A generative AI feature within NotebookLM that creates a structured, non-editable slide presentation based on the entire body of sources within a user’s notebook.

How it works: 

When you use the “Generate a slide deck” suggestion or input a custom prompt, the AI scans the uploaded documents and notes. It identifies primary themes, key arguments, supporting details, and then constructs a logical flow, assigning appropriate titles, bullet points, and speaker notes to each virtual slide.

Why it matters: 

This feature moves beyond simple summarization. It applies a presentational structure to raw data. Instead of copying and pasting, users receive a fully drafted narrative that is immediately ready for refinement and visual design. This dramatically accelerates the most tedious part of presentation preparation: initial drafting.

What You’ll Gain
  • Rapidly convert complex research notes into presentation structure.
  • Focus more time on design and delivery, less on drafting bullet points.
  • Ensure every slide point is directly traceable back to a source document.
  • Accelerate team collaboration by sharing a comprehensive first draft instantly.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Here's how to do it.

Web/Desktop (Windows, macOS, Chrome OS)
  1. Navigate to NotebookLM, notebooklm.google.com.
  2. Select the project notebook that contains the sources you want to use.
  3. In the Studio panel, click “slide deck” to begin generation. (Optional: Use the pencil icon to adjust length and format before generating.)
  4. When created, select the slide deck below to view.
  5. Select the pencil icon next to the slide deck to adjust the options.
  6. Select the download icon to save your presentation as a PDF to your device.


Customize Slide Deck in NotebookLM

fig. 1 - Customize Slide Deck in NotebookLM

NotebookLM Slide Deck Example - William Shakespeare

fig. 2 - NotebookLM Slide Deck Example - William Shakespeare





  • The slide deck generation feature is currently only available for the web interface. 
  • While you can access and interact with your notebooks via mobile browsers, the dedicated “Generate a slide deck” quick action is not functional on mobile yet. 
  • The best experience remains on a desktop or laptop browser.

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Speed and Efficiency: A 50-page report can become a 12-slide draft in under a minute, drastically reducing the drafting time for business analysts.
  • Source Grounding: The generated content directly references your uploaded documents, minimizing the risk of "hallucinations" and ensuring academic rigor for educators drafting lecture material.
  • Excellent Starting Point: Provides a coherent narrative flow and structure that is far easier to edit than starting from scratch, saving project managers hours on kickoff presentations.

Cons
  • Style and Design: The output is a functional outline. It requires manual design, branding, and visual refinement in Google Slides afterward.
  • Prompt Sensitivity: The quality of the draft relies heavily on the sources and the specificity of your prompt. A vague prompt may produce a generic or overly long presentation.
  • No Image Inclusion: The feature currently does not automatically embed relevant charts, graphs, or images from your source documents. 
  • PDF Export:  Export of slide deck is limited to PDF format.

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Feature Access

NotebookLM, including the slide deck generation feature, is currently:
  • Available to: All users in the United States, Australia, and select other regions.
  • Version/Edition: It is part of the core NotebookLM tool and does not require a specific Google Workspace edition.
  • Subscription: NotebookLM is currently Free to use, requiring only a personal Google account.
  • Rollout: The feature is broadly available in supported regions.

Score

Criterion  |  Score (0–10)  |  Justification 

Value 7
Dramatically cuts the time spent on the most time-consuming part of presentation prep: drafting the initial outline from research.

Usability 9
Access is simple, requiring only a single click or prompt within the NotebookLM chat interface.

Wow Factor 8
The leap from raw notes to a structured, traceable slide deck outline in seconds is highly impressive and immediately useful.

Total: 24/30 👍 18–24 Good
This feature transforms NotebookLM from a simple research tool into a powerful content production accelerator for anyone who needs to present complex information.  But export is limited to PDF format, not an editable Google Slides format.

Key Takeaways

NotebookLM’s ability to generate a slide deck outline directly from your research sources is a game changer for efficiency. 

It eliminates the friction of starting a presentation from a blank page, providing a well-structured narrative that you can immediately refine and enhance visually. 

This means faster turnaround times and more focused communication across professional and educational projects.

Cool Tip Snapshot
  • Feature Name: Generate a Slide Deck
  • Platform(s): Web/Desktop
  • Quick Benefit: Instantly converts notes and documents into a presentation outline.
  • Access Type (Free, Subscription, Beta): Free

Try It Yourself

If you spend any significant time summarizing research into presentations, try using NotebookLM to generate your next slide deck draft. 

Start by uploading 5–10 documents related to your topic, generate a slide deck, and see how fast you move from research to presentation. 

We invite you to share your experience in the comments below, subscribe to the One Cool Tip newsletter for more productivity hacks, and share this Cool Tip with your team, family, and friends.

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Have a great tip or tech question?

Rodger Mansfield, a seasoned technology expert and editor of OneCoolTip.com, transforms complex tech into practical advice for everyday users. His Cool Tips empower readers to stay productive, secure, and one step ahead in the digital world.



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