Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by beepbooptheory 31 days ago
Why is that desirable, or how is that faster, for something where you are just moving the shapes around visually anyway? Kinda feel like I could drag the blue pill to center of the rectangle faster than typing out the instruction..
1 comments
chatmasta 31 days ago
Because the interface sucks. It previews in an embedded viewer, exports to pptx, imports into Google Slides, then I can edit it there but if I want to make further edits on other slides, I’m basically stuck because Claude can’t export from Google Slides back to pptx.

Technically cowork writes python scripts to do all the diagram positioning so if I go and make manual edits it’s not easy for Claude to change those back to the script anyway. Easier for me to guide it and it edits the scripts.

link
beepbooptheory 30 days ago
Ah gotcha. Well, whatever you are working on sounds like absolute hell. Sorry for that.

Can one not export pptx from google drive anymore? That's a bummer. I remember it working quite well in the past.

link
chatmasta 30 days ago
You can, and I could probably make Cowork drive the browser to do this (iirc I might have tried and it stopped cus it couldn’t access downloads pane); and I can do it manually.

And aside from minor issues with fidelity loss from back and forth import/export translation… the main issue remains: drift in the pptx compared to the positioning of elements defined in the script Claude writes to generate the slide. It would need to read the new slide and identify the new positions and transpose them to its own positioning system. It’s just more consistent to instruct it on positioning. And frankly it’s easier — I prefer this workflow.

I do manual edits at the very end, but while iterating I don’t mind staying in one interface (the cowork chat), as long as the agent actually follows my instructions. That’s why I like fable… it’s the first model that follows them and creates diagrams of the precision and quality surpassing my own ability (at least in terms of time taken to make them).

And what I’m working on is a self-created hell borne from my own OCD and obsession with incredibly precise technical diagrams, including some that span multiple slides to build up the full diagram, so exact positioning is important :)

link