Supported PowerPoint features

Box Doc Gen lets you generate PowerPoint presentations from a PPTX template using text tags and image tags. This article describes each supported tag type and how to use it.

Supported tag types

Box Doc Gen supports the following tag types in a PPTX template:

Text tags
Image tags

Support by generation method

Support for each tag type depends on how you generate the document.

Tag type	API	Automate	Box web app
Text tags	Yes	Yes	Yes
Image tags	Yes	No	Yes

Text tags

A text tag is any data field of type string, number, or date. In the following example, fields such as companyName, subscriptionPlan, renewalDate, and expiryDate are used as text tags.

{
  "companyName": "Acme Inc",
  "subscriptionPlan": "E-Advanced",
  "tcv": "100K",
  "renewalDate": "12-12-2026",
  "seatCount": "300",
  "expiryDate": "12-12-2026",
  "AETitle": "Senior Accounts Manager",
  "devCount": "30",
  "customAppsApiCallsAvg": "10000",
  "customApps": 15,
  "AccountExecutive": "John Doe"
}

Create a PPTX presentation that includes the fields you want to replace dynamically. During generation, Box Doc Gen replaces the fields in double curly braces, such as {{companyName}}, with your data. This works with the API, Automate, and Box web app methods.

Image tags

Box Doc Gen can embed any image file stored in Box into the generated presentation. To use an image tag, follow these steps.

Step 1: Upload the image file to Box

Upload the image file you want to use to Box.

If you use a service account to generate the document through the API, make sure the service account has access to the image file.

Step 2: Author the Doc Gen template

Box Doc Gen uses a placeholder image in the template. To set up a placeholder image:

Insert a reference or sample image into the PPTX template. You can adjust the dimensions and alignment of the placeholder image using the native tools in Microsoft PowerPoint.
Select the image, right-click it, and select View Alt Text. Add the following code, and then save the presentation:

{
  "image-path": "brandLogo",
  "alt-text": ""
}

In this code:

image-path is the key you want to use in your JSON schema.
alt-text is the alt text you want the image to have after generation.

Step 3: Create the JSON payload

To generate a document with an image file in Box, use the following schema:

{
  "brandLogo": {
    "id": "2205350781386",
    "type": "image"
  }
}

In this schema:

The key, such as brandLogo, matches the key used in the placeholder image.
id is the file ID of the image file in Box.
type signifies that this is an image file to embed in the document. The value must always be image.

The image file ID must refer to your image file ID in Box.

Step 4: Make a document generation request

You can include images in your generated documents using one of the following methods:

Box Doc Gen API — generate documents with images programmatically. For details, see the Box Doc Gen API documentation.
Box Doc Gen web app — create documents with embedded images through the web interface.

​Supported tag types

​Support by generation method

​Text tags

​Image tags

​Step 1: Upload the image file to Box

​Step 2: Author the Doc Gen template

​Step 3: Create the JSON payload

​Step 4: Make a document generation request

Supported tag types

Support by generation method

Text tags

Image tags

Step 1: Upload the image file to Box

Step 2: Author the Doc Gen template

Step 3: Create the JSON payload

Step 4: Make a document generation request