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PPTX creation, editing, and analysis

Overview

Create, edit, or analyze the contents of .pptx files when requested. A .pptx file is essentially a ZIP archive containing XML files and other resources. Different tools and workflows are available for different tasks.

CRITICAL: Read All Documentation First

Before starting any presentation task , read ALL relevant documentation files completely to understand the full workflow:

1. For creating new presentations : Read html2pptx.md and css.md in their entirety
2. For editing existing presentations : Read ooxml.md in its entirety
3. For template-based creation : Read the relevant sections of this file plus css.md

NEVER set any range limits when reading these files. Understanding the complete workflow, constraints, and best practices before starting is essential for producing high-quality presentations. Partial knowledge leads to errors, inconsistent styling, and visual defects that require rework.

Reading and analyzing content

Text extraction

To read just the text content of a presentation, convert the document to markdown:

# Convert document to markdown
python -m markitdown path-to-file.pptx

Raw XML access

Use raw XML access for: comments, speaker notes, slide layouts, animations, design elements, and complex formatting. To access these features, unpack a presentation and read its raw XML contents.

Unpacking a file

python ooxml/scripts/unpack.py <office_file> <output_dir>

Note : The unpack.py script is located at skills/public/pptx/ooxml/scripts/unpack.py relative to the project root. If the script doesn't exist at this path, use find . -name "unpack.py" to locate it.

Key file structures

• ppt/presentation.xml - Main presentation metadata and slide references
• ppt/slides/slide{N}.xml - Individual slide contents (slide1.xml, slide2.xml, etc.)
• ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide{N}.xml - Speaker notes for each slide
• ppt/comments/modernComment_*.xml - Comments for specific slides
• ppt/slideLayouts/ - Layout templates for slides
• ppt/slideMasters/ - Master slide templates
• ppt/theme/ - Theme and styling information
• ppt/media/ - Images and other media files

Typography and color extraction

To emulate example designs , analyze the presentation's typography and colors first using the methods below:

1. Read theme file : Check ppt/theme/theme1.xml for colors (<a:clrScheme>) and fonts (<a:fontScheme>)
2. Sample slide content : Examine ppt/slides/slide1.xml for actual font usage (<a:rPr>) and colors
3. Search for patterns : Use grep to find color (<a:solidFill>, <a:srgbClr>) and font references across all XML files

Creating a new PowerPoint presentation without a template

When creating a new PowerPoint presentation from scratch, use the html2pptx workflow to convert HTML slides to PowerPoint with accurate positioning.

Workflow

1. Read documentation : Read html2pptx.md and css.md completely (see "CRITICAL: Read All Documentation First" section above)

2. PREREQUISITE - Extract html2pptx library :

   • Extract the library next to your script: mkdir -p html2pptx && tar -xzf skills/public/pptx/html2pptx.tgz -C html2pptx
   • This creates a html2pptx/ directory with the library files and CLI binaries

3. Plan the presentation : Follow html2pptx.md "Design Philosophy" section for:

   • Aesthetic direction and bold design choices
   • Color palette selection (see "Creating your color palette")
   • Typography strategy
   • Write DETAILED outline with slide layouts and presenter notes (1-3 sentences per slide)

4. Set CSS variables : Override CSS variables in a shared file for colors, typography, and spacing (see css.md "Design System Variables")

const pptxgen = require("pptxgenjs");

const { html2pptx } = require("./html2pptx");

// Create a new pptx presentation
const pptx = new pptxgen();
pptx.layout = "LAYOUT_16x9"; // Must match HTML body dimensions

// Add an HTML-only slide
await html2pptx("slide1.html", pptx);

// Add a HTML slide with chart placeholders
const { slide: slide2, placeholders } = await html2pptx("slide2.html", pptx);
slide.addChart(pptx.charts.LINE, chartData, placeholders[0]);

// Save the presentation
await pptx.writeFile("output.pptx");

7. Visual validation : Convert to images and inspect for layout issues

 * Convert PPTX to PDF first: `soffice --headless --convert-to pdf output.pptx`
 * Then convert PDF to images: `pdftoppm -jpeg -r 150 output.pdf slide`
   * This creates files like `slide-1.jpg`, `slide-2.jpg`, etc.
 * Read each generated image file and carefully examine for: 
   * **Text cutoff** : Text being cut off by header bars, shapes, or slide edges
   * **Text overlap** : Text overlapping with other text or shapes
   * **Positioning issues** : Content too close to slide boundaries or other elements
   * **Contrast issues** : Insufficient contrast between text and backgrounds
   * **Alignment problems** : Elements not properly aligned with each other
   * **Visual hierarchy** : Important content properly emphasized
 * **CRITICAL: All slides MUST pass these validation checks before delivering to the user.** Do not skip this step or deliver presentations with visual defects.
 * If issues found, fix them in the following order of priority: 
   1. **Increase margins** \- Add more padding/spacing around problematic elements
   2. **Adjust font size** \- Reduce text size to fit within available space
   3. **Rethink the layout entirely** \- If the above fixes don't work, redesign the slide layout
 * Regenerate the presentation after making changes
 * Repeat until all slides are visually correct

Editing an existing PowerPoint presentation

To edit slides in an existing PowerPoint presentation, work with the raw Office Open XML (OOXML) format. This involves unpacking the .pptx file, editing the XML content, and repacking it.

Workflow

1. Read documentation : Read ooxml.md completely (see "CRITICAL: Read All Documentation First" section above)
2. Unpack the presentation: python ooxml/scripts/unpack.py <office_file> <output_dir>
3. Edit the XML files (primarily ppt/slides/slide{N}.xml and related files)
4. CRITICAL : Validate immediately after each edit: python ooxml/scripts/validate.py <dir> --original <file>
5. Pack the final presentation: python ooxml/scripts/pack.py <input_directory> <office_file>

Creating a new PowerPoint presentation using a template

To create a presentation that follows an existing template's design, duplicate and re-arrange template slides before replacing placeholder content.

Workflow

1. Extract template text AND create visual thumbnail grid :

   • Extract text: python -m markitdown template.pptx > template-content.md
   • Read template-content.md completely to understand the template contents
   • Create thumbnail grids: python scripts/thumbnail.py template.pptx
   • See Creating Thumbnail Grids section for more details

2. Analyze template and save inventory to a file :

   • Visual Analysis : Review thumbnail grid(s) to understand slide layouts, design patterns, and visual structure

   • Create and save a template inventory file at template-inventory.md containing:

     # Template Inventory Analysis
     
     **Total Slides: [count]**
     **IMPORTANT: Slides are 0-indexed (first slide = 0, last slide = count-1)**
     
     ## [Category Name]
     
     - Slide 0: [Layout code if available] - Description/purpose
     - Slide 1: [Layout code] - Description/purpose
     - Slide 2: [Layout code] - Description/purpose
       [... EVERY slide must be listed individually with its index ...]
     

Example paragraphs field showing proper formatting:

"paragraphs": [
  {
    "text": "New presentation title text",
    "alignment": "CENTER",
    "bold": true
  },
  {
    "text": "Section Header",
    "bold": true
  },
  {
    "text": "First bullet point without bullet symbol",
    "bullet": true,
    "level": 0
  },
  {
    "text": "Red colored text",
    "color": "FF0000"
  },
  {
    "text": "Theme colored text",
    "theme_color": "DARK_1"
  },
  {
    "text": "Regular paragraph text without special formatting"
  }
]

Shapes not listed in the replacement JSON are automatically cleared :

{
  "slide-0": {
    "shape-0": {
      "paragraphs": [...] // This shape gets new text
    }
    // shape-1 and shape-2 from inventory will be cleared automatically
  }
}

Common formatting patterns for presentations :

 * Title slides: Bold text, sometimes centered
 * Section headers within slides: Bold text
 * Bullet lists: Each item needs `"bullet": true, "level": 0`
 * Body text: Usually no special properties needed
 * Quotes: May have special alignment or font properties

7. Apply replacements using thereplace.py script

     python scripts/replace.py working.pptx replacement-text.json output.pptx
     

The script will:

 * First extract the inventory of ALL text shapes using functions from inventory.py
 * Validate that all shapes in the replacement JSON exist in the inventory
 * Clear text from ALL shapes identified in the inventory
 * Apply new text only to shapes with "paragraphs" defined in the replacement JSON
 * Preserve formatting by applying paragraph properties from the JSON
 * Handle bullets, alignment, font properties, and colors automatically
 * Save the updated presentation

Example validation errors:

ERROR: Invalid shapes in replacement JSON:
  - Shape 'shape-99' not found on 'slide-0'. Available shapes: shape-0, shape-1, shape-4
  - Slide 'slide-999' not found in inventory


ERROR: Replacement text made overflow worse in these shapes:
  - slide-0/shape-2: overflow worsened by 1.25" (was 0.00", now 1.25")

Creating Thumbnail Grids

To create visual thumbnail grids of PowerPoint slides for quick analysis and reference:

python scripts/thumbnail.py template.pptx [output_prefix]

Features :

• Creates: thumbnails.jpg (or thumbnails-1.jpg, thumbnails-2.jpg, etc. for large decks)
• Default: 5 columns, max 30 slides per grid (5×6)
• Custom prefix: python scripts/thumbnail.py template.pptx my-grid
  • Note: The output prefix should include the path if you want output in a specific directory (e.g., workspace/my-grid)
• Adjust columns: --cols 4 (range: 3-6, affects slides per grid)
• Grid limits: 3 cols = 12 slides/grid, 4 cols = 20, 5 cols = 30, 6 cols = 42
• Slides are zero-indexed (Slide 0, Slide 1, etc.)

Use cases :

• Template analysis: Quickly understand slide layouts and design patterns
• Content review: Visual overview of entire presentation
• Navigation reference: Find specific slides by their visual appearance
• Quality check: Verify all slides are properly formatted

Examples :

# Basic usage
python scripts/thumbnail.py presentation.pptx

# Combine options: custom name, columns
python scripts/thumbnail.py template.pptx analysis --cols 4

Converting Slides to Images

To visually analyze PowerPoint slides, convert them to images using a two-step process:

1. Convert PPTX to PDF :

   soffice --headless --convert-to pdf template.pptx
   

2. Convert PDF pages to JPEG images :

   pdftoppm -jpeg -r 150 template.pdf slide
   

This creates files like slide-1.jpg, slide-2.jpg, etc.

Options:

• -r 150: Sets resolution to 150 DPI (adjust for quality/size balance)
• -jpeg: Output JPEG format (use -png for PNG if preferred)
• -f N: First page to convert (e.g., -f 2 starts from page 2)
• -l N: Last page to convert (e.g., -l 5 stops at page 5)
• slide: Prefix for output files

Example for specific range:

pdftoppm -jpeg -r 150 -f 2 -l 5 template.pdf slide  # Converts only pages 2-5

Code Style Guidelines

IMPORTANT : When generating code for PPTX operations:

• Write concise code
• Avoid verbose variable names and redundant operations
• Avoid unnecessary print statements

Dependencies

Required dependencies (should already be installed):

• markitdown : pip install "markitdown[pptx]" (for text extraction from presentations)
• pptxgenjs : npm install -g pptxgenjs (for creating presentations via html2pptx)
• playwright : npm install -g playwright (for HTML rendering in html2pptx)
• react-icons : npm install -g react-icons react react-dom (for icons in SVG format)
• LibreOffice : For PDF conversion (required for visual validation step)
  • macOS: brew install --cask libreoffice
  • Linux: sudo apt-get install libreoffice
• Poppler : sudo apt-get install poppler-utils (for pdftoppm to convert PDF to images)

Weekly Installs

44

Repository

bbeierle12/skil…p-claude

GitHub Stars

7

First Seen

Jan 23, 2026

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