How to Prevent Automatic Currency Formatting from Breaking Chart Labels in Presentations

·Feb 18, 2026 02:49 PM·

The chart in my template has Column A being Label, Column B being Numeric. The values in column A are currencies, but need the Label data type for the chart to display properly. The prompt says to keep it as Label, but now when generating presentations its changing it to Currency which makes the chart not display correctly and makes the presentation unusable. Is there any way to prevent this?

👀1

9 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Greg
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Using $1M or $500K format for now which works fine but something changed where it always changes it to automatic instead of leaving it as label
Max J.
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Hey Greg! 👋 Thanks for flagging this, and glad the $1M/$500K format is working as a workaround for now. This sounds like the AI is auto-detecting your currency values and overriding the Label data type during generation. A few things that might help while I investigate: First, are you using textMode: "preserve" in your requests? If you're working from a template with a pre-built chart, preserve gives you the most control over keeping your existing data structure intact. If you're using generate or condense, the AI has more freedom to reinterpret your data types. Second, if you have additionalInstructions in your request, try adding something explicit like: "Keep Column A in the chart as Label data type. Do not change it to Currency or Automatic." For chart data in general, keeping currency values formatted as text (like your $1M/$500K approach) instead of raw numbers like $1,000,000 helps prevent the AI from re-categorizing the column. Short labels (2 words or less) tend to work best.
Greg
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Max J. thanks im not sure if im using preserve, generate or condense. is that an option for templates? also, its changing the Scale content to fit within Page Setup to off when its turned on in the template. If theres anything you can do to make it not do that that would be great
Max J.
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Hey Greg! Thanks for the follow-up. So with the from-template endpoint, you won't see textMode (preserve/generate/condense) as an option. Those are only available on the standard /generations endpoint. For from-template, the main lever you have is the prompt field. For both issues, I'd try adding explicit instructions directly in your prompt. Something like: "Keep Column A in the chart as Label data type. Do not change it to Currency or Automatic. Keep 'Scale content to fit' enabled in Page Setup. Do not change any Page Setup settings from the template." Since AI generation isn't fully deterministic, this won't be a guarantee every single time, but strong prompt instructions are the best tool we have right now to keep it from overriding your template settings. Your $1M/$500K formatting approach for the values is also a solid move since it makes the AI less likely to re-categorize. Let me know how it goes with the updated prompt!
Greg
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thanks ive been using that method it doesn't work unfortunately
Max J.
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Got it! Let me keep digging into this for you but in my experience there is a limit to how prescriptive you can be with graph styling at this time via our API regardless. I will try to get back to you tomorrow with more details. Thanks for working with me on this.
Greg
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thank you. at this point the Scale content to fit being turned off is the issue im dealing with, the graph styling is fine with the workaround although other people might be effected by it
Max J.
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Hey Greg! Looked into both of these for you. For the scale content to fit issue -- the AI is accidentally overwriting your template's page setup settings during generation. Adding this to the start of your prompt should help: "CRITICAL: Do NOT output any HEAD tag. Do NOT include any document-level settings like format or page-setup in your output. Preserve all document settings exactly as they are in the template." For the chart column type issue -- your text formatting workaround is solid. You can reinforce it by also adding: "Preserve all chart data exactly as provided in the template. Do not change any column types. Column A must remain type='label'." Neither is a perfect fix since generation is non-deterministic, but both should reduce how often you hit these. I'm going to do some more testing on my end and check back with the team to see if there's anything else we can do here. Will keep you posted!
Greg
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·
This appears to be working thank you!
🙌1

Greg
·
·
Using $1M or $500K format for now which works fine but something changed where it always changes it to automatic instead of leaving it as label
Max J.
·
·
Hey Greg! 👋 Thanks for flagging this, and glad the $1M/$500K format is working as a workaround for now. This sounds like the AI is auto-detecting your currency values and overriding the Label data type during generation. A few things that might help while I investigate: First, are you using textMode: "preserve" in your requests? If you're working from a template with a pre-built chart, preserve gives you the most control over keeping your existing data structure intact. If you're using generate or condense, the AI has more freedom to reinterpret your data types. Second, if you have additionalInstructions in your request, try adding something explicit like: "Keep Column A in the chart as Label data type. Do not change it to Currency or Automatic." For chart data in general, keeping currency values formatted as text (like your $1M/$500K approach) instead of raw numbers like $1,000,000 helps prevent the AI from re-categorizing the column. Short labels (2 words or less) tend to work best.
Greg
·
·
Max J. thanks im not sure if im using preserve, generate or condense. is that an option for templates? also, its changing the Scale content to fit within Page Setup to off when its turned on in the template. If theres anything you can do to make it not do that that would be great
Max J.
·
·
Hey Greg! Thanks for the follow-up. So with the from-template endpoint, you won't see textMode (preserve/generate/condense) as an option. Those are only available on the standard /generations endpoint. For from-template, the main lever you have is the prompt field. For both issues, I'd try adding explicit instructions directly in your prompt. Something like: "Keep Column A in the chart as Label data type. Do not change it to Currency or Automatic. Keep 'Scale content to fit' enabled in Page Setup. Do not change any Page Setup settings from the template." Since AI generation isn't fully deterministic, this won't be a guarantee every single time, but strong prompt instructions are the best tool we have right now to keep it from overriding your template settings. Your $1M/$500K formatting approach for the values is also a solid move since it makes the AI less likely to re-categorize. Let me know how it goes with the updated prompt!
Greg
·
·
thanks ive been using that method it doesn't work unfortunately
Max J.
·
·
Got it! Let me keep digging into this for you but in my experience there is a limit to how prescriptive you can be with graph styling at this time via our API regardless. I will try to get back to you tomorrow with more details. Thanks for working with me on this.
Greg
·
·
thank you. at this point the Scale content to fit being turned off is the issue im dealing with, the graph styling is fine with the workaround although other people might be effected by it
Max J.
·
·
Hey Greg! Looked into both of these for you. For the scale content to fit issue -- the AI is accidentally overwriting your template's page setup settings during generation. Adding this to the start of your prompt should help: "CRITICAL: Do NOT output any HEAD tag. Do NOT include any document-level settings like format or page-setup in your output. Preserve all document settings exactly as they are in the template." For the chart column type issue -- your text formatting workaround is solid. You can reinforce it by also adding: "Preserve all chart data exactly as provided in the template. Do not change any column types. Column A must remain type='label'." Neither is a perfect fix since generation is non-deterministic, but both should reduce how often you hit these. I'm going to do some more testing on my end and check back with the team to see if there's anything else we can do here. Will keep you posted!
Greg
·
·
This appears to be working thank you!
🙌1