How to build sections and use the section library

Sections are the parts a template is made of. Each one becomes a heading in your summary, and its prompt is the instruction Sally follows while writing it. That is where you decide whether a section stays a short overview or digs into every detail.

This article goes through everything a section can do: the types you can choose from, how to write a good prompt, how to translate the title into other languages, what the output settings change, and how the section library lets you reuse a section across all your templates instead of writing it again every time.

Quick navigation

1. Section types
2. Title and prompt
3. Output settings
4. The section library

1. Section types

Sections are always edited in a draft. Here is the way there, from the calendar to the list of section types:

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 the card of the template you want to work on.

Figure 3: Clicking the card opens the template

4. In the note at the top, click Create draft version and confirm the version number. Creating a new version walks through that in detail. If you are in the middle of creating your own template, you are already in a draft and can skip this step.

Figure 4: Sections are only edited in a draft

5. Click Add section below the section list. The panel with the choices opens on the right, and its Standard tab splits them into two groups.

Figure 5: Sections with your own prompt at the top, the automatic ones below

With your own prompt

• Custom list produces a list, one entry per point, each with a short label and an explanation.
• Free text produces running text.

Automatically by AI

• Summary writes a short overview of the whole meeting.
• Tasks pulls out the action items, with owners and due dates where they were mentioned.
• Topics lists what was discussed, in the order it came up.
• Decisions records what was actually agreed.

The four automatic ones already come with a prompt that you can adjust.

6. Click the small info icon to the right of an entry when you want to know exactly what that section does.

Figure 6: Every section type has an info icon

7. An explanation opens with What it does and a small Example in a meeting, so you can see the result before you commit. Close it with the cross in the top right.

Figure 7: The explanation shows what the section produces

2. Title and prompt

The title and the prompt are the two things that make up a section. You set both in the panel that opens on the right when you open a section.

1. In the section list, click the pencil icon of the section. Its panel opens on the right.

2. Enter the title at the top. It becomes the heading in your summary, so keep it short and recognizable, for example Blockers rather than Things that are currently blocking us.

Figure 8: The title becomes the heading in the summary

3. Click the translation icon to the right of the title field when your meetings are held in more than one language.

Figure 9: The icon next to the title field opens the translations

4. The Translations window shows your original title at the top. Add language gives you a separate title for every further language. Only the title is translated, not the content: when a summary is written in one of the languages you set up, Sally uses the matching title, and for every other language the original one stays. Click Save afterwards.

Figure 10: One title per language, while the content follows the language of the meeting

5. Under Prompt, describe what the section should contain. Write it the way you would explain it to a new colleague: what belongs in there, what should be left out, and how detailed it should be. The prompt needs at least 50 characters, and the counter below the field tells you where you are. The arrows above the field undo and redo your last edits.

A prompt that works

Name the content, the structure and the boundary. For example: "List every blocker that was mentioned. For each one, say what it is about, who is affected and what is needed to resolve it. Leave out general complaints without a concrete blocker." The last sentence is the one that keeps the section clean.

Prompt help covers two cases: you do not want to start from nothing, or your prompt is already there and you want Sally AI to rewrite it for you.

6. Click Prompt help above the prompt field.

Figure 11: Prompt help is directly above the prompt field

7. The menu offers two routes, Use template and Optimize with Sally AI.

Figure 12: Two ways to get to a prompt faster

Use template opens a collection of ready-made prompts, sorted by area: sales, human resources, management, marketing, product and engineering, project management. Picking one replaces the current prompt of the section, so use it as a starting point rather than an addition.

Figure 13: Ready-made prompts for common meeting purposes

Optimize with Sally AI rewrites your existing prompt for you. You say what should change, for example make it more structured, shorter or add a concrete example answer, and Sally suggests a new version.

Figure 14: You say what should change, Sally rewrites the prompt

8. Next to Prompt help, click Show variables. It lists the placeholders you can drop into the prompt: Meeting date, Meeting subject, Company profile name and Company profile description. Click one and it is inserted into the prompt as a small chip that Sally fills in for every meeting.

Figure 15: Variables put the meeting's own data into the prompt

Write prompts in English

We recommend writing prompts in English, because the AI follows English instructions more precisely. It does not change the language of your summary: Sally still writes the content in the language of the meeting, and the section title stays exactly as you entered it.

3. Output settings

Scroll down in the section panel. There, Output decides how the result looks.

Figure 16: Three settings shape the finished section

• Detail level switches between Short, Medium and Long. Short is right for an overview someone skims, long for a section that has to serve as the record.
• Create timestamps adds the point in the recording each statement came from, so you can jump straight to it.
• Output format produces either HTML or Markdown. HTML is the right choice for the summary in Sally, Markdown if you pass the text on to another tool.

The Tasks section has one extra block. Detect assignees lets Sally assign each task to a participant, and Infer due date lets it turn phrases like by next Friday into an actual date.

Figure 17: Only the tasks section has task detection

4. The section library

If you want the same section in several templates, put it in the section library once. From then on you insert it instead of writing it again. An entry gets into the library in two ways.

From a section you already have

1. Open the section in a draft through its pencil icon, the way Title and prompt describes, and click the icon Save to library at the top right of its panel.

Figure 18: A section you already have can go straight into the library

From scratch

1. Open Settings at the bottom left, click Meeting templates under Configuration and switch to the Section library tab at the top.

Figure 19: The Section library tab is next to the meeting templates

2. Click Create section on the right.

Figure 20: Create section adds a new library entry

3. The dialog asks for the same things as a section in a template, so title, type, prompt and output, plus a visibility. A personal entry stays with you, a team or organization entry is available to your colleagues as well. Once everything is filled in, click Create in the bottom right.

Figure 21: A library entry carries its own visibility

4. The entry then appears in the table with its type and visibility. The icons on the right of the row edit or delete it.

Figure 22: Every library entry in one list

Inserting an entry into a template

To put a library section to work, you add it to a template. That happens in a draft as well.

1. Switch to the Meeting templates tab at the top and click the card of the template the section should go into.

Figure 23: Clicking the card opens the template

2. If the template is published, click Create draft version in the note at the top, as shown in Section types. Then click Add section below the section list and switch to the Library tab at the top of the panel.

Figure 24: The Library tab is next to the Standard tab

3. Click the entry you want to insert.

Figure 25: The Library tab holds your reusable sections

4. The section is added at the bottom of the list with a Library badge. Sally adds a number to the title when the template already has a section of the same type. Click Save in the top right and publish the draft once the section should take effect in real meetings.

Figure 26: The inserted section carries the Library badge

Inside the template that section is read-only. Its pencil icon is greyed out, and a note tells you it was adopted from the library. That is the point: you maintain the text in one place instead of in five templates. To change it, edit the entry on the Section library tab.

Deleting leaves your templates alone

When you delete a library entry, it disappears from the library. Sections that have already been inserted stay unchanged in your templates and keep working.