How to Use Eve to Create Demonstratives

Overview

You create a demonstrative by asking for one in chat, inside the matter. There's no builder to learn and no template gallery to pick from — you describe the visual you want, Eve builds it from the case file, and you refine it in the same conversation.

The skill worth developing isn't the tool. It's the asking. A vague request produces a generic slide; a specific one produces something you'd actually put in front of a mediator. This guide is mostly about the difference.

Start With the Right Words

Eve needs to know you want a visual, and which kind. Lead with the format:

• "Build a PowerPoint that…" — for slides, timelines, charts, decks

• "Create an image that…" — for a standalone graphic

• "Create a PDF…" — for a fixed, shareable version

If you specifically want a .png or .jpeg, say so. Naming the format up front is the single most reliable way to get back what you pictured.

Work inside the matter you're building for. That's how Eve has the records, bills, photos, and testimony to build from.

Writing a Request That Works

Here's a weak request and a strong one for the same demonstrative.

Weak: "Make me a treatment timeline."

Strong: "Build a PowerPoint with a single-slide horizontal timeline showing the injury and all treatment that followed, using only dates supported by the case file, grouping repeated visits into labeled spans, and spacing everything proportionally to real time. Title it with one factual sentence that tells the story, not 'Case Timeline.'"

The second one is longer, and that's the point. Five things it does that the first doesn't:

1. It names the format and the layout. "Single-slide horizontal timeline" leaves far less to chance than "timeline."

2. It constrains the source. Using only dates supported by the case file. This is the most important sentence in any demonstrative prompt. It's what keeps a plausible-looking date off a slide you'll be questioned about.

3. It says how to handle clutter. Twelve PT visits become one labeled span instead of twelve tick marks fighting for room.

4. It specifies proportional spacing. This is what makes a timeline argue. Eighteen months of treatment looks like eighteen months, rather than being evenly spaced into something that reads as routine.

5. It rules out the boring default. Asking for a factual sentence as the title instead of "Case Timeline" is the difference between a slide that labels itself and one that makes a point.

Reuse that structure: format → layout → source constraint → how to handle detail → what the visual should make obvious.

Requests Worth Trying

Starting points that have worked. Adapt the specifics to your case.

• Damages summary

  Build a PowerPoint one-slide damages board that stacks past medical bills, future care costs, lost earnings, and general damages into a single clean visual total, citing the source document for every number and using no figure not supported by the file.

• Before-and-after life impact

  Create an image split into two contrasting panels — the plaintiff's documented activities and capabilities before the incident on the left, the documented limitations after on the right — using plain-language labels drawn only from records and testimony in the file. Use graphics and any applicable photos to appeal to the jury.

• Medical bills accumulation

  Build a PowerPoint chart showing medical expenses accumulating month by month from the date of injury to the present, with each provider's charges cited to its billing record, so the running total climbs visibly across the slide.

• Defendant knowledge timeline

  Build a PowerPoint timeline showing every date the defendant knew of the hazard or misconduct — complaints, inspection reports, internal emails, prior incidents — before the plaintiff's injury, citing each entry to its source document, so the span between first notice and the incident does the talking.

• Employment retaliation timeline

  Build a PowerPoint timeline contrasting the plaintiff's clean employment history against everything that followed the first protected activity, rendering long good tenure as a visible span, marking the protected activity in one accent color, and spacing proportionally so the speed of retaliation is unmistakable.

• Lost earnings comparison

  Create an image comparing the plaintiff's documented earnings trajectory before the incident against actual post-incident earnings, shading the gap between the two lines and labeling it with the total, using only figures from tax returns, pay stubs, or the economist's report in the file.

• Opening statement deck

  Build a PowerPoint that turns the attached opening statement into a slide deck, pairing each major beat of the narrative with real evidence from the case file — scanned documents, photos, records, and key excerpts shown as callout enlargements with visible highlighting — never stock imagery or recreated text. Keep each slide to one point with one exhibit, sequenced to follow the opening word for word so counsel can advance slides without breaking stride.

Notice what every one of these has in common: an explicit instruction to use only what the file supports, and a stated reason the visual exists. Keep both when you write your own.

Using Your Firm's Branding

If your firm has a template PowerPoint loaded to the Central Library or to the matter, Eve can follow it — but you have to say so. Select the template as part of your context and include the instruction in your request:

Use the [template name] from the central library as the template PowerPoint and single source of truth for colors, fonts, logo, and slide styling — duplicate its existing layouts rather than creating new designs, and never introduce colors or fonts that aren't in the template's theme.

Two things make this work better: naming the template explicitly rather than saying "our template," and telling Eve to duplicate existing layouts instead of designing new ones. Left to its own judgment it will invent layouts that are close to your brand, which can be worse than either matching it or ignoring it.

If your firm hasn't loaded a template yet, that's the setup step worth doing before anyone builds a demonstrative they intend to present.

Be Patient

This is slower than a text chat response. Eve is building a real file, not writing a paragraph.

Practical version: start the request, go do something else, come back. Don't kick one off five minutes before a mediation call, and don't assume a long wait means it failed.

Refining What You Get Back

The first output is a draft, and refining it in chat is faster than opening PowerPoint — up to a point.

Keep it in chat for substance: a missing treatment date, a damages category to break out, a timeline that should span a different window, a slide that's making two points instead of one. Ask for the change in the same conversation and Eve rebuilds it.

You can also come back to an image later. If Eve generated a graphic earlier in the matter, ask it to edit that image in a subsequent message — you don't have to start over to change one panel.

Move to PowerPoint for polish: nudging a text box, fixing spacing, resizing a photo. The .pptx is fully editable, and hand-fixing a small layout issue is faster than describing it. Expect to do some of this on anything you'll present — layout rough edges are a known Early Access limitation.

Finished demonstratives, standalone images included, save to the matter's Drafts.

Review Before You Use It

• Check every date and figure against the record. The source constraint in your prompt helps, but it isn't a guarantee. A cited number is a claim to verify, not a verified claim.

• Check the citations point where they say. Confirm the billing record actually says what the slide attributes to it.

• Treat anatomical illustrations and mechanism-of-injury diagrams with extra care. Eve will attempt them and some results have been genuinely good, but nothing in this category should go in front of anyone without close review by someone who knows the medicine or the physics.

Quick Reference