Install SlydeForge

The important fix in this version

In some cases, after clicking "Restart now" to apply an update, SlydeForge
would close its window but never relaunch into the new version — no error
message, the update just stayed "pending" indefinitely.

The cause: the very last technical step, in charge of switching over to
the new version behind the scenes, was launched in a way that prevented it
from running correctly on some Windows machines.

This is now fixed: restarting after an update now reliably applies the new
version.

The important fix in this version

On some machines, an automatic update could get stuck partway: SlydeForge
would download the new version correctly, but the installation never got
finalized — no error message, just a version number that never changed
after restarting.

The cause: a small technical step, in charge of finishing the
installation behind the scenes, contained accented characters that Windows
could misinterpret in some cases — a small detail, but enough to silently
block the entire update.

This is now fixed: updates now apply reliably, every time.

Also in this version

• New dedicated window for changing the language (Settings > Language…).
• Small translation improvement in the components marketplace.

More reliable automatic updates

The update process has been overhauled: the new version is now downloaded
and prepared separately, then applied in one go when SlydeForge closes. Two
separate issues could previously prevent an update from applying correctly
(an installation left half-updated, or an update that never finalized at
all) — both are now fixed.

New language selection window

Settings > Language… now opens a dedicated window, with flags 🇫🇷 🇬🇧,
making it easier to switch between French and English.

Small improvements

- The network-usage disclosure text for interactive marketplace components
(poll, post-its, webcam, external app) now displays in English for
English-speaking users, instead of staying in French.

🎯 AI generation quality — the highlight of this release

• Overlap-proof guarantee: text can no longer be hidden behind a misplaced decoration (a color band, a shape) — content now always renders on top, regardless of what caused the overlap in the first place.
• List bullets always precisely aligned with their text, even when a neighboring title grows and shifts the rest of the layout.
• Titles in narrow columns (portrait/square formats): the required height is now computed with word boundaries in mind, so text no longer overflows into the next element.
• Theme decorations stay true at every size: bands, shapes and ellipses no longer distort when generating in a format different from the one the theme was originally designed for.
• No more failed generations on icon-heavy slides: a stronger conciseness rule prevents JSON truncation, even without a custom theme template.
• Reliable AI usage tracking: the token counter now reflects the full prompt sent (theme, asset catalog, conversation history…) on top of the model's response — no more mismatch with the subscription usage gauge.

✨ New

• Slide background color, settable directly, no need to go through an image.
• Royalty-free images (Unsplash/Pexels): status now visible in the chat (enabled, no provider configured, or search result) — diagnosed at a glance instead of guessing why no photo showed up.
• Redesigned AI onboarding screen: clearer layout, distinct icons per free-tier engine (Gemini, Groq, OpenRouter), shown again on every launch until an AI is configured.
• New "SlydeForge API" AI backend and a dedicated Subscription menu, for users with an active SlydeForge subscription — both optional, with no impact for anyone already using their own API key.

🐛 Fixes

• A project's placeholder title (generated from a brief) could cut a word in half — fixed.
• The "Slide background" dialog only offered an image, never a color, even though rendering already supported one.

New

• New marketplace component: External App — embed a website, a file (Excel, PDF...), or a Windows application directly into a slide. Perfect for live demos without leaving your presentation.
• Expanded royalty-free image search — alongside Unsplash, SlydeForge now also queries Pexels. The AI assistant can suggest a relevant photo on its own while generating a slide, with photographer credit added automatically.

Improvements

• SlydeForge now ships with its own Python runtime — no separate Python install needed on your machine.
• Several stability fixes for the External App component (a file staying locked after a presentation, window positioning).

✨ New

• Interactive presentation components (Insert > Interactive menu): a slide can now carry one or more components activated during the slideshow, with a contextual toolbar (shown only when relevant, no permanent bar).
• Built-in whiteboard: pen, highlighter, shapes, and text annotations drawn live over the displayed slide, with its own undo/redo for the presentation session.
• Interactive components marketplace: Poll/Rating and Post-its/Zones install from slydeforge.com, each component clearly stating its network usage before install. The Poll relays audience votes via QR code; Post-its stay fully local.
• Poll: customizable placement and colors — drag-and-drop the results card's position/size, and pick background/text colors (theme color or custom).
• Active-components bar above the canvas: Configure / Enable-Disable / Remove for every component placed on the displayed slide, all undoable.
• Simplified presentation navigation: optional ‹ › buttons to move between slides, with a choice at slideshow launch (always visible, only on interactive slides, or never) remembered from one session to the next.
• Guided dependency installation: a marketplace component that needs an extra Python package (e.g. qrcode for Poll) now offers to install it automatically, with explicit confirmation.
• Enriched user guide: a new section dedicated to interactive components, plus a search field to find a topic faster.

🐛 Fixes

• Combining two interactive components on the same slide didn't work — only the first one actually showed up during presentation. Both now run at the same time.
• Poll component: layout fixed (results card now centered instead of stretched), and a clear warning now appears when the service is unreachable instead of a silent "0 responses".
• The automatic missing-dependency install offer didn't trigger when installing a component from a local file (only from the online catalog) — fixed.
• User guide table-of-contents links didn't always land on the right section (incorrect anchor) — fixed for both French and English.

🐛 Fixes

• Default free-tier Gemini/Groq models: the two models offered by default for the free trial (Gemini, Groq) had been deprecated by the providers and stopped working ("Test connection" returned a 404 error). Replaced with the currently available models (gemini-3.6-flash and qwen/qwen3.6-27b). An install that already saved one of the old models automatically switches to the new one, no action needed.
• AI-generated content staying in French despite an English interface/brief: presentation generation ("New from brief"), automatic project/version naming, and presenter-notes suggestions all used to force French regardless of the request's language. Content now follows the language of the user's own brief.
• Demo deck always in French: the presentation shown when opening the app and via File > New (sample) now follows the configured interface language.
• Presenter mode partly in French under an English interface: the keyboard-shortcuts help bar (presenter console and the slideshow's help overlay) and the narration-language picker (presenter mode and voice library) are now fully translated.

✨ New

- Quick-access AI buttons above the slide editing canvas — Formatting, Challenge, Animation — direct equivalents of /suggest_design, /review_slide, and /suggest_animation for the currently displayed slide. Only shown once an AI backend is configured (Settings > AI).
- "Retry" button offered directly in the assistant when applying a suggested layout fails — retries only that step, without losing the choices already made (layout, colors, sizes).
- Stronger visual feedback during AI processing:
- a red glow and a highlight on the last message appear around the assistant's log when an AI action starts;
- a green glow and a polished "✓ Done" callout signal when processing finishes.
- Protection against parallel AI actions: AI buttons (quick actions, notes, a slide's context menu) are automatically disabled while another AI action is already running.

🐛 Fixes

• The assistant's log didn't always scroll to the bottom when an interaction bar appeared ("Are you happy with this result?", conversational challenge, retry after failure) — the latest exchanges could stay hidden.
• The before/after preview window (accept/reject an AI change) could become unreasonably wide and hard to read when the change summary was a bit long.
• Several pieces of text stayed in French even with the interface set to English: the /suggest_design assistant, the AI's self-critique note, and the edit error message.
• The example workflow's default icon wasn't picked up in the Workflows menu on an existing install (one that had already launched before this icon was introduced).
• Icon alignment in the Manage Workflows… list.