How to create your own meeting template

If the ready-made templates do not fit the way your team works, build your own. That is where the value is: you decide which blocks appear in your summary, in which order they come and how much detail Sally writes. You put the template together yourself, and there is no upper limit on the number of sections.

This article walks the whole way, from the calendar to a published template. You create the template with a title and a visibility, add the sections, fill each one with a title and a prompt, test the result on a recording you already have and publish it at the end. The example is a template for project kickoffs with four sections: a summary, a list of goals, the agreements and the tasks.

Quick navigation

1. Creating the template
2. Adding sections
3. Filling in the sections
4. Testing the template
5. Publishing the template
6. Next steps

1. Creating the template

1. Open Settings at the bottom of the left sidebar.

Figure 1: Open Settings

2. In the settings sidebar on the left, under Configuration, click Meeting templates.

Figure 2: Meeting templates in the settings sidebar

3. Click Create new in the top right. The New meeting template dialog opens on the right.

Figure 3: Create new starts a blank template

4. Enter a title at the top and, ideally, a description. The description is what your colleagues see on the card, so write what the template is for rather than what it is called.

5. Under Category, pick where the template belongs in the overview. If the right category does not exist yet, click Create category, type the name and click Add. The folder icon in front of the name field gives the category its own icon.

Figure 4: A new category can be created right in the dialog

6. Below that, Visibility decides who may see and use the template: Personal for you alone, Team for the members of one team, or Organization for everyone. Team only becomes available once a team exists, and the Create a team link takes you there. Then click Create in the bottom right.

Figure 5: Title, description, category and visibility, then Create

Changing the visibility later

The visibility is not set in stone. The Edit button in the top right of the template takes you back to these details, and you can switch it there. Sharing a template explains what the three levels mean.

2. Adding sections

The editor opens as soon as the template exists, and it starts empty. Everything you do here happens in a draft, so nothing is live yet.

1. Click Add section in the middle.

Figure 6: A new template has no sections yet

2. A panel with the choices opens on the right. On the Standard tab, the top group holds the sections whose prompt you write yourself, Custom list and Free text. Below them are the four automatic ones: Summary, Tasks, Topics and Decisions, which already come with a prompt. The Library tab holds the sections you have saved in the section library.

Figure 7: Standard sections on the left tab, your own library on the right

3. Click the sections you need. In the example those are Summary, Custom list, Decisions and Tasks. The panel stays open, so you can add several in a row. They appear in the list in the order you add them, and that is the order they will have in the summary. Close the panel afterwards with the cross in the top right.

4. The sections now appear one below the other. Sally names them automatically and appends a number, for example Summary #1. On the right of each row you find a pencil icon for editing and a bin icon for removing the section. Custom list #1 also carries the note Incomplete, because this section has no prompt yet. The grip handle on the left of a row lets you drag a section to another position.

Figure 8: The Incomplete note shows where a prompt is still missing

3. Filling in the sections

A section consists of a title and a prompt. The title becomes the heading in your summary, the prompt is the instruction Sally follows while writing. The four automatic sections arrive with a prompt you can adjust. Custom list and Free text are yours to write, which is why they start out marked Incomplete.

1. Click the pencil icon in the row of the section. Its settings open in a panel on the right.

2. Enter the heading you want under Title, in the example Goals and scope. Keep it short and recognizable, more like Blockers than Things that are currently blocking us. If your meetings run in more than one language, the translation icon next to the field gives you a separate title per language, see translating the title.

Figure 9: The title becomes the heading in the summary

3. Below that, use Prompt to describe what the section should contain: what belongs in it, what to leave out and how detailed it may be. We recommend writing the prompt in English, because the AI follows English instructions more precisely. The prompt needs at least 50 characters, and the counter under the field shows where you stand. Above the field, Prompt helper and Show variables give you a head start, both explained in Sections and the section library.

Figure 10: The prompt is the instruction for this section

A prompt that works

Name the content, the structure and the limit. For example: "List the goals and the scope the team agreed on. For each point, name what it covers and who owns it. Leave out ideas that were mentioned without a decision." That last sentence is what keeps the section clean.

4. Scroll down in the panel to Output. Level of detail switches between Short, Medium and Long. Create timestamps adds the point in the recording a statement came from. Output format decides whether the result is HTML or Markdown, and HTML is the right choice for the summary inside Sally.

Figure 11: The output settings shape how detailed the section turns out

5. Close the panel with the cross in the top right. Your title now appears in the list, and the Incomplete note is gone. Repeat the steps for every section that still needs its own title or prompt.

Figure 12: The four sections of the example with their own titles

6. Click Save in the top right. That secures the draft. It is not live yet.

Figure 13: Save keeps the sections in the draft

4. Testing the template

Before a real meeting relies on your template, try it on a recording you already have. That way you see the result before you publish. The recording itself stays untouched.

1. Switch to the Preview tab above the section list and click Select meeting.

Figure 14: Preview and test runs the template against one of your recordings

2. The list of your recordings opens on the right, each with its date. Click Generate behind the recording you want to use.

Figure 15: Generate runs the template against this recording

3. Generating takes a moment. After that your sections appear one below the other, each with the text Sally worked out from that recording. A click on an entry expands it. Sally always writes the content in the language of the meeting, while the headings stay the way you set them in the template.

Figure 16: The result shows what the template makes of a real meeting

4. If something is off, go back to the Edit tab, change the prompt of that section, save and run the test again with Regenerate.

5. Publishing the template

Once you are happy with your draft and want to use it on your meetings from now on, publish it.

1. Click Publish in the top right.

Figure 17: Publish makes the template usable

2. Sally asks for a confirmation, because the template becomes live for your meetings. Confirm with Publish.

Figure 18: The confirmation before the template goes live

3. The badge next to the name now reads v1.0 · Published. From here the template is read-only, and the next change starts with a new draft.

Figure 19: The finished template in version 1.0

6. Next steps

• Set the template for a meeting or make it your default. Applying a template covers both.
• Pass it on to your team or the whole organization. Sharing a template explains the three visibility levels and how to set up a team.
• Change something later on. Every change runs through a draft that you publish, see Creating a new version.