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Greenwich Sports Systems · GSS Playbook

Make a deck that converts cleanly

You do not need our playbook or a proprietary template. Keep each slide simple, give the converter one clear field to crop, and your own diagrams stay yours.

A familiar PowerPoint workflow

Draw plays with ordinary PowerPoint text, lines, arrows, circles, and other shapes. The converter renders what is visible inside the field rectangle; it does not need to understand your terminology or your scheme.

The four rules

A deck that follows these basics gives the cropper the clearest possible signal.

  1. Save as .pptxExport older PowerPoint, Keynote, or Google Slides decks to the modern PowerPoint format first.
  2. One play per slideDo not place two fields or multiple play options on the same slide.
  3. Use one large rectangleMake an ordinary, ungrouped PowerPoint rectangle the largest rectangle on every play slide.
  4. Choose one section patternUse no separators for offense-only, or start every section with OFFENSE or DEFENSE in a mixed deck.

An ideal deck, slide by slide

These illustrations are synthetic examples—not a real team’s playbook. Your colors, formations, labels, and route language can be completely different.

Offense separator slide for a mixed deck A dark blue title slide containing only the word offense and a small subtitle, required before offense plays when the deck also uses section separators. OFFENSE PLAY SECTION
1. OFFENSE separatorA nearly empty title slide. Required in this mixed deck
Example offense play slide A play named Blue Jet with a single large green field rectangle, player circles, and route arrows. 07 BLUE JET
2. One offense playOne large field, name near the top, drawing inside.
Required defense separator slide A charcoal title slide containing only the word defense and a small subtitle. DEFENSE PLAY SECTION
3. DEFENSE separatorEverything after this starts the defense section. Needed for defense
Example defense play slide A defensive play named Cloud with a single large blue field rectangle, player circles, and zone outlines. B CLOUD
4. One defense playThe same slide rules apply after the DEFENSE separator.

No separator slides? That is fine. If the deck contains no OFFENSE or DEFENSE separator, every recognized play slide is treated as offense. For a mixed deck, start the first offense section with OFFENSE and the first defense section with DEFENSE. Once any separator is present, slides before the first separator are ignored.

Anatomy of a reliable play slide

The rectangle defines the crop. Everything important should sit inside it, including the play name.

Annotated ideal play slide A PowerPoint-style slide with numbered annotations marking the play title, field rectangle, route shapes, and clear margins. 12 RIVER MOTION 1 2 3 4
  1. Play name and numberPut a short, readable label near the top, inside the rectangle.
  2. One explicit field rectangleUse Insert → Shapes → Rectangle and leave it ungrouped. Its object name and PowerPoint language do not matter.
  3. Ordinary visible shapesLines, arrows, freeforms, player circles, and text all render as part of the slide image.
  4. Safe inner marginKeep labels and route tips away from the rectangle edge so cropping and printing do not crowd them.

Sections and longer offense playbooks

Separator slides control the current section; they are not included as plays.

Offense-only deck

Title cards are optional

With no section separators, every slide that has a recognized field rectangle becomes an offense play.

Deck with defense

Mark every section

Start with OFFENSE if offense comes first, then place DEFENSE before the first defensive play. Add another OFFENSE separator if the deck switches back.

17–64 offense plays

Additional pages are automatic

The sixteenth play is no longer the end. Recognized offense plays continue onto additional output pages, up to 64 total.

Play slides

Section words are safe inside a play

A slide with a field rectangle remains a play even when its title happens to include “offense” or “defense.”

Coach page 1plays 1–16
Coach page 2plays 17–32
Coach page 3plays 33–48
Coach page 4plays 49–64

Offense wristband sheets use the same play order with eight plays per output page.

What works—and what can fail

Renaming a rectangle is safe. Most conversion issues come from how the field object is built, not from the routes themselves.

Grouped field failure example A field rectangle and play objects surrounded by a dashed group selection box and a red X.

Grouped field

The field can disappear inside a group. Fix: ungroup it and leave the field rectangle as a top-level shape.

Renamed field supported example A field with a selection pane label saying Main Field and a green check mark. Selection Pane Main Field

Renamed rectangle: supported

The converter recognizes actual rectangle geometry, even when the object is renamed or PowerPoint uses another language. Keep it ungrouped and top-level.

Missing field failure example A play drawn on a solid slide background without a rectangle around the field. NO FIELD SHAPE !

Missing field shape

A background color or background image is not a rectangle object. Fix: insert a real rectangle behind the play.

Decorative rectangle failure example A small play field inside a much larger decorative border, with the larger rectangle highlighted in red. LARGEST RECTANGLE

Larger decorative rectangle

The cropper uses the largest recognized rectangle. Fix: remove large rectangle borders or make the field clearly largest.

Unsupported file formats Several document icons labeled PPT, KEY, and PDF point toward one supported PPTX icon. .PPT .KEY .PDF

Unsupported file format

The uploader accepts modern PowerPoint files only. Export first; do not upload a link, PDF, Keynote file, or legacy PowerPoint file.

.ppt.key.pdf
Complex PowerPoint feature warning A stylized SmartArt diagram, a missing font symbol, and a caution badge. Missing custom font? !

Special Office effects

SmartArt, embedded media, unusual fonts, and some ink effects can render differently outside PowerPoint. Fix: use ordinary shapes and common fonts when possible.

Quick check: In PowerPoint, open the Selection Pane and confirm the field is a separate, top-level rectangle object rather than part of a group, table, or background image. If several rectangles exist, make the field clearly the largest.

No LLM

What the converter actually does

The conversion is deterministic, not AI-mediated. It reads the slide’s object structure to locate the large field rectangle, renders the visible slide, and crops that rendering to the rectangle’s bounds.

That is why an ordinary route arrow does not need a special meaning: it only needs to render visibly inside a field the converter can find. It is also why the field rectangle’s object structure matters more than the football notation.

Before you upload

Ready to try it? Start with a small copy of your deck if you want to verify the format before converting the whole playbook.

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