Gemini Notebook Slide Decks: Review the Plan Before It Builds

The slide deck feature in Gemini Notebook (the tool that was called NotebookLM until July) was always a bit of a lottery. You clicked a button, waited, and hoped. If slide four was wrong, you started again. This week Google changed that, and Gemini Notebook slide decks now come with a review step before anything is built.

What is new in Gemini Notebook slide decks

Google announced on October 19 a "co-creation" flow for Slide Decks and Video Overviews. In plain words:

• You ask for slides or a video in the chat. Notebook suggests topics from your sources, and you confirm or change them.
• You pick the content, visual style and format.
• With the new Review toggle on, you get "Review outline notes" for slides and "Review producer notes" for videos. You read the plan, give feedback, for example "add an executive summary first" or "swap these two scenes", and then press Proceed.

If you want the old one-click result, leave the toggle off. Google says it is rolling out globally to all Gemini Notebook users during this week.

Who it helps

Teachers. You already have the material: a chapter PDF, your own notes, a few links. The slow part is getting a lesson in your order, not the order an AI guessed. Now you can fix the outline before it becomes 15 slides you have to rebuild.

Team leads who report upwards. You have a design doc, meeting notes and a ticket export, and you need five clean slides for management on Friday. The review step lets you say "start with the decision we need, then the risks" before it spends time drawing.

How people already use it

The slide feature itself is not new, and people found good uses for it. Lifehacker editor Lindsey Ellefson wrote about not using the decks for presenting at all. The idea: turn your sources into a deck, download the PDF and read it on the phone as a study guide during the commute. Erik Ofgang at Tech & Learning describes making slides, quizzes and flashcards from documents, because he feels better starting from material he already approved. The review step fixes the main pain: little control over the result.

How to try it

1. Open a notebook and add your sources: PDFs, links, notes.
2. In the chat, ask for slides. For example:

Make a slide deck for a 20 minute lesson for 15 year olds about the water cycle. Use only my sources. Start with one question to the class, then three main ideas, then a short quiz at the end. Simple words, one idea per slide.

3. Turn on the Review toggle and open "Review outline notes".
4. Read it like a colleague's draft. Cut, reorder, add what is missing.
5. Press Proceed, then download the PDF or move it to Google Slides or PowerPoint for final edits.

The honest caveat

It is a staged rollout, so you may not see the toggle yet. Google did not say if reviewed plans count against your usage limits, or if school and business Workspace accounts get it on the same day. And a good outline is not a correct deck: check every number and claim against your sources before you stand in front of a class.

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Sources

• Google: Gemini Notebook co-creating Slide Decks and Video Overviews
• Google: NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook
• Android Authority: more creative control over Gemini Notebook's video overviews and slides
• PPC Land: Gemini Notebook adds review step before rendering slides and videos
• Lifehacker Japan: How I use the NotebookLM slide deck generator to study
• Tech & Learning: 4 ways to use NotebookLM as a teacher