Canvas

Describe the slide in a sentence. Cast designs the layout, binds it to that contact’s data, and shows a different version to every viewer. A welcome, a scorecard, a trend, a mix, a one-page account story: a Canvas slide can hold it.

The result is a finished frame. It appears whole when the narration starts, in your colors, with their numbers.

What you’ll learn:

What a Canvas slide can carry
How to create one from a description, a dataset, or another slide
How narrations spotlight parts of it, and how other languages are handled

Anything you can describe

✦ A welcome with their name on it Company, renewal date, CSM, and one line that only makes sense for them.

◈ A scorecard Health, seats, usage, and a goal ring. One hero number, a few that support it.

╱ A trend Usage, revenue, or tickets over time, drawn from their rows.

▣ A mix Plans, products, or regions as a share of the whole.

⇄ A comparison This quarter against last, or their result against a goal.

✎ An account story One takeaway, and the three figures that prove it.

◉ Your images, their logo Photos, marks, and graphics you attach, placed in the layout.

☰ A family of slides Point at one Canvas slide. The next ones share its look.

Charts, KPI tiles, comparison bars, and a written takeaway can share one frame. Ask for the combination the story needs.

Add a Canvas slide

Add a slide and choose Canvas.
Attach a dataset if the story comes from rows. Leave it off when the story is the contact: their name, company, fields, and snippets. You can remove a dataset later. The slide then builds from those variables.
On Design, describe the slide in the box under the preview. Type @ to pick a variable. Send it. An empty message is allowed: with a dataset, Cast chooses the story the numbers support; with variables only, it builds the slide from those.
The preview shows the project’s selected contact. Change the contact, the dataset, or the mapping and the preview follows.
Save the scene. The design is kept with the slide.

Designing takes a couple of minutes. You can keep typing the next change while it works. Only send is paused.

Shape it in the conversation

Each message edits the slide you already have. Say what should change. Layout, colors, and bindings stay unless you ask for them.


Attach image or SVG	Up to 6 images (PNG, JPG, GIF, WebP, AVIF, SVG, and the other common image types). Cast places those exact files: a photo, a logo, a background, a diagram.
Reference slide	Up to 3 other Canvas slides in this project. Cast matches their visual language. Figures and highlight names stay unique to this slide.
Convert from SVG slide	Recreates a Custom (SVG) slide as a Canvas slide and starts a new conversation. Video, Lottie, and click actions on the SVG are left behind.
Start fresh	The next message designs a new slide. Turn it off to go back to editing.
Edit code	The template, if you want to adjust it by hand. Insert Variable drops in a binding. With a dataset attached, the rows are `dataset_current` (up to 100, for this contact).

Where the content comes from

A dataset. Cast uses that contact’s rows, up to 100. Ask for the story: a hero figure, a short list, the top few items. A long table of every row will not fit the frame.
Variables. Contact fields, fields, and snippets. Tag the ones this slide should use with @ in the message.
Your brand color. The accent is built from the project’s first brand color under Appearance & Branding. Ask for a different palette when the slide needs one.
Images you attach, and logo URLs already in your data. See Logo Configuration for a logo per account.

Numbers are written for people ($1.2M, 68%, 12.4k). Names, companies, and dates stay as they are in the data.

Narrate it in parts

Cast marks the main parts of the slide (the headline, the chart, a group of stats, the takeaway). On the narration, open Visual Explanation, switch on the parts this sentence is about, and choose what happens to the rest:

Dim fades the other parts.
Hide removes them until this sentence is done.

A narration with nothing selected shows the whole slide. If the list of parts is empty, ask the chat to mark the main parts for highlights. See Narrations.

Other languages

Viewers whose language is not English see the words translated: the title, the takeaway, labels, captions, and category names. Numbers, currency, percentages, dates, and proper names (a person, a company, a product) stay as written.

The designer preview stays in English. Translation happens in the player, from the English slide, each time the viewer’s language needs it.

Prompts worth sending

Welcome @contact_name from @company. Show their renewal date and their CSM. One line on why this quarter matters.
A scorecard of seat adoption: licensed, active, and a ring for the goal. Title it with the account name.
Usage by month as a line, with the latest month as the hero number and a one-line takeaway.
Share of revenue by product, top five, as a single bar with a legend.
This quarter against last quarter for the three metrics in the dataset. Green when up, a quiet treatment when down.
Match the look of the referenced slide. New story: open support tickets and time to resolve.
Use the attached photo as a full-bleed background. Put the account logo and two stats on a light card.
Dark background, sharp corners, the brand color only on the hero number.

Good to know

The slide fills the player’s 4:3 frame. Everything is visible. On a phone the same design stacks into one column.
It is fully formed when it appears. Ask for layout, type, and color. Motion and click-through actions belong on other slide types.
The preview is one contact. Generate a cast to see the rest.

Datasets

Connect the rows a Canvas slide can read.

Datasets

Narrations

Write the sentences, then spotlight a part of the slide for each one.

Narrations

Custom slides

Already have an SVG? Convert it, or keep designing in Custom.

Custom

Brand

The accent color comes from the project palette.

Appearance & Branding