Canvas

A bar chart is always bars. A gauge is always a gauge. A form is a fixed list of question types. You fill in the fields that type already has.

A Canvas slide has no fields like that. You describe the slide. 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 form, a button that opens their portal: if you can describe it, it can be the slide.

The result is a finished frame in your colors, with their numbers. Narration can bring it in part by part.

What you’ll learn:

What you can ask a Canvas slide to be
How that differs from a slide with a fixed configuration
How to create one, edit it in the chat, and attach images or other slides
Where the numbers, words, colors, and fonts come from
How narrations spotlight parts, and how those parts move
How buttons, links, popups, and forms work
How other languages are handled
First messages you can paste to start

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 A photo, a mark, or a sketch you attach. Cast places the file, or rebuilds the sketch as the slide.

☰ A family of slides Point at one Canvas slide. The next ones share its look, with their own story.

☞ Something they can click A link, a question for Ask Me Anything, a jump to another slide, or a popup with the detail.

☑ A form on the slide Questions you describe, including ones that appear only for certain answers. Answers go to the people you name.

By default Cast makes one point: a headline, one hero visual, and two or three supporting facts. Ask for a denser slide, a dashboard, or a long form when that is the story.

Fixed slides and Canvas

	A fixed slide	Canvas
Shape	You pick a type. The layout is that type.	You describe the layout. Cast designs it.
What you configure	The fields that type already has: axes, segments, question types, widget settings.	A message. Then the destinations for anything clickable.
Data	Mapped into that chart’s slots.	That contact’s rows and variables, placed where the sentence needs them.
Look	The chart’s own styling, plus the project theme.	Designed for this slide. Fonts, accent, and background come from the project.
While it plays	The chart’s built-in motion.	Parts you name can fade, scale, count up, grow, or draw as the narration reaches them.
Clicks	Only the types that have them, such as Navigation and Form.	Ask for a button. It can open a link, ask a question, go to a slide, open details, or submit a form.

Use a fixed slide when its shape is the point. Use Canvas when the story needs a combination those shapes do not offer, or a look of its own.

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, or paste one from Start here. 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). Say whether Cast should place that file (a photo, a logo, a diagram) or rebuild the slide from it (a screenshot, wireframe, whiteboard, or sketch). If you do not say, Cast places the file. A rebuild keeps every element in the picture and redraws it.
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. A form is the exception: a long form scrolls inside the slide.
Variables. Contact fields, fields, and snippets. Tag the ones this slide should use with @ in the message.
Your brand color. The accent is the project’s first brand color under Appearance & Branding. Change that color later and the accent follows, without a new design. Ask for a different palette when the slide needs one.
Your fonts. Headings use the project title font. Everything else uses the content font.
The background. The project’s Appearance background, or this slide’s own, shows through. Cast designs the type so it reads on the background that is saved when you generate. Change to a much lighter or darker background later, and ask the chat to adjust the contrast. Ask for a painted background on the slide itself only when you want 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.

The first time a part is shown, it can move:

The part fades up, fades, or scales in.
A hero number counts up.
A bar grows.
A trend line draws.

Dim, or a narration with nothing selected, brings every part in as the slide opens. Hide reveals each part with its narration. A viewer who prefers reduced motion, or who is browsing without playback, sees the finished slide.

Ask for motion in the chat, or ask for none. A later edit keeps the motion already there.

Clicks, popups, and forms

Ask for the control in the chat. Cast draws the button. You set where it goes.

When the slide has a link, a question, a destination, or a form, Interactions appears on Design. Each control has a short name from the template (such as docs or feedback). Fill in the setting next to that name:

Control	What you set	What the viewer gets
Open a link	The URL. A variable is allowed, so each contact can get their own.	Opens an `http`, `https`, `mailto`, `tel`, `sms`, or Zoom address.
Ask a question	The question. A variable is allowed.	Opens Ask Me Anything with that question.
Go to a slide	A slide in this project.	Plays that slide when it is part of this viewer’s presentation.
Show details	Nothing. Describe the popup in the chat, including an optional close label.	A card over a dimmed slide. The player draws the card, the border, and a close button. A click outside the card closes it. Playback waits while it is open.
Submit a form	Who receives the answers. Leave this empty and the answers are still recorded in analytics, the same way as a Form slide.	The questions you described, then a success or error message.

A form can branch. Ask for it in the chat: “If NPS is 9 or 10, ask what they love. Otherwise ask what would help.” A hidden question is skipped. It is not validated and it is not submitted.

These run in the player. The designer preview shows the layout.

Other languages

Viewers whose language is not English see the words translated: the title, the takeaway, labels, captions, button text, and category names. Numbers, currency, percentages, dates, and proper names (a person, a company, a product) stay as written. A name inside a sentence can be kept in English. Ask the chat when one must 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. Switching from Spanish to Hindi translates the English slide again.

Start here

Paste one of these as the first message. Type @ and swap in variables from your project. @contact_name and @contact_account_name are the contact’s name and account.

Welcome

No dataset. The story is the contact.

Welcome @contact_name from @contact_account_name.
One line on why this check-in matters for them.
Their CSM and renewal date, if I tag those variables.

Scorecard

Attach a dataset with the account’s figures (seats, usage, a goal).

A scorecard for @contact_account_name.
One hero number from the dataset, a ring if there is a goal or a total,
and two or three supporting figures. Count the hero number up.

Trend

Attach a dataset with a date and a metric.

The main metric over time, as a line.
The latest point is the hero number, with a one-line takeaway.
Draw the line in.

This period against the last

Attach a dataset that has both periods.

This period against the previous one for up to three metrics.
Green when up, a quiet treatment when down.
Title it with @contact_account_name.

A short survey

No dataset required.

One NPS question, 0 to 10.
If they answer 9 or 10, ask what they love. Otherwise ask what would help.
I will set who receives the answers.

The next message

The first send builds the slide. The next one changes it. A few that are worth sending after:

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.
Rebuild the attached sketch as this slide. Keep every label and every figure.
Add a button, “Open their success plan,” that opens a link. I will set the URL.
Add “See pricing” that goes to the pricing slide, and “Details” that opens a short popup of the three plan names.

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.
The preview is one contact. Generate a cast to see the rest.
Up to 100 dataset rows, for that contact. Personalized scenes use the contact’s mapped rows.
Highlight names are part of the design. Ask the chat to rename a part, then update the narration that points at the old name.

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

Fonts, accent, and background come from the project.

Appearance & Branding