--- name: powerpoint description: Create, read, edit .pptx decks with python-pptx. version: 1.1.0 author: Nous Research license: MIT platforms: [linux, macos, windows] metadata: hermes: tags: [pptx, powerpoint, presentations, slides, office, python-pptx] category: productivity related_skills: [docx, xlsx, pdf] --- # Powerpoint Skill Create, inspect, and edit PowerPoint (.pptx) presentations using the python-pptx library. Five helper scripts cover deck creation from a JSON spec, structured read-back, in-place edits, template-driven brand decks, and slide rendering — all offline, no PowerPoint installation required. ## When to Use - The user asks to build a slide deck, report presentation, or pitch deck. - You need to extract text, notes, tables, chart data, or images from a .pptx someone shared. - You need to update an existing deck: replace text, refresh or patch chart data, swap a logo, duplicate/remove/reorder slides, set backgrounds, footers, hyperlinks, or speaker notes. - You must produce an on-brand deck from a company .pptx template. - Do NOT use this for .ppt (legacy binary) files — convert them first with `soffice --convert-to pptx old.ppt` if LibreOffice is available. ## Prerequisites - Python 3.10+ with `python-pptx` installed (`pip install python-pptx`). - Optional: LibreOffice (`soffice`) plus poppler (`pdftoppm` or `pdftocairo`) for rendering slides to PNGs and for PDF export. `pptx_render.py` detects both with `shutil.which` and degrades gracefully (reports `{"rendered": false, "missing": [...]}`, exit 0) when absent — all create/read/edit operations work without them. - Check availability via `terminal`: `python3 -c "import pptx; print(pptx.__version__)"` and `which soffice pdftoppm`. ## How to Run All scripts live in `scripts/`, take `--help`, print JSON to stdout, and exit non-zero on failure. Run them with `terminal`: ```bash python3 scripts/pptx_create.py deck.json out.pptx python3 scripts/pptx_read.py deck.pptx --outline # full JSON outline python3 scripts/pptx_read.py deck.pptx --notes # speaker notes python3 scripts/pptx_read.py deck.pptx --images ./img # export pictures python3 scripts/pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --replace-text "Old Corp" "New Corp" python3 scripts/pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --chart-data update.json python3 scripts/pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --duplicate-slide 2 python3 scripts/pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --remove-slide 3 --move-slide 2 0 python3 scripts/pptx_from_template.py brand.pptx out.pptx --values vals.json python3 scripts/pptx_render.py deck.pptx --outdir ./render # slide PNGs ``` Author JSON specs with `write_file`; inspect script output and generated JSON with `read_file`. ## Quick Reference | Task | Command | |---|---| | New deck from spec | `pptx_create.py spec.json out.pptx` | | 16:9 vs 4:3 | `"slide_size": "16:9"` or `"4:3"` in the spec | | Outline as JSON | `pptx_read.py deck.pptx --outline` | | Export images | `pptx_read.py deck.pptx --images DIR` | | Replace text | `pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --replace-text OLD NEW` | | Replace chart data | `pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --chart-data spec.json` | | Patch one series | same flag, spec with `"ops"` (see below) | | Swap picture | `pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --swap-image N NAME new.png` | | Duplicate slide | `pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --duplicate-slide N` | | Remove slide | `pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --remove-slide N` | | Reorder slide | `pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --move-slide FROM TO` | | Slide background | `pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --set-background N RRGGBB` | | Hyperlink runs | `pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --hyperlink N TEXT URL` | | Slide number on | `pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --enable-slide-number N` | | Footer text | `pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --set-footer N TEXT` | | Set notes | `pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --set-notes N TEXT` | | Append notes | `pptx_edit.py deck.pptx --append-notes N TEXT` | | Fill template | `pptx_from_template.py tpl.pptx out.pptx --values v.json` | | Render slide PNGs | `pptx_render.py deck.pptx --outdir DIR` | ## Procedure ### 1. Create a deck Write a JSON spec (see `pptx_create.py --help` for the full format), then run `pptx_create.py`. Per slide you can set: `layout` (title, title_content, section, two_content, title_only, blank), `title`, `subtitle`, `bullets` (strings, or dicts with `level` 0-4, `size` pt, `bold`, `italic`, `font`, `color` hex, `link` URL for a hyperlink), `background` (solid hex), `footer` (text; enables the layout's footer placeholder), `slide_number` (true; enables the layout's slide-number placeholder), `images` (path + left/top/width/height in inches), `tables` (`rows` as list-of-lists), `shapes` (rectangle, rounded_rectangle, oval, diamond, right_arrow, chevron, with `fill` hex + optional `text`), `charts` (bar, bar_h, line, pie with `categories` + `series`), and `notes` (speaker notes). ### 2. Read a deck `pptx_read.py deck.pptx --outline` returns slide size, layout inventory, and per slide: layout name, all shape texts, table cells, image inventory (filename/ext/bytes), chart categories/series/values, and speaker notes. Use `--images DIR` to dump embedded pictures to files, then `vision_analyze` on any exported image if you need to see its content. ### 3. Edit a deck `pptx_edit.py` combines operations in one pass; use `--output` to keep the original. Text replacement scans slide shapes, table cells, and notes. Image swap retargets the picture's relationship id so position and size are preserved. Slide removal drops the relationship and the `` entry; reorder moves the `` element within `` (python-pptx has no public API for either — the script does the XML-level work). `--duplicate-slide N` appends an independent deep copy of slide N: shape XML plus image/media/hyperlink relationships are cloned and rIds remapped, so editing the copy never touches the original. Chart slides are refused (see Pitfalls). `--set-notes`/`--append-notes` edit speaker notes; `--set-background`, `--hyperlink`, `--enable-slide-number`, and `--set-footer` handle deck polish. Chart updates take a JSON spec via `--chart-data`. Full replace: `{"slide": 0, "chart": 0, "categories": [...], "series": {...}}`. For surgical edits, pass `"ops"` instead — a list of `{"op": "update_series", "name": ..., "values": [...]}`, `add_series`, `remove_series`, `rename_category` (`from`/`to` or `index`), and `set_title`. python-pptx can only swap a chart's entire dataset (`replace_data`), so ops are implemented as read-existing → modify → replace; the per-part UX is a wrapper, and any chart data not expressible as categories + numeric series will be normalized by the round-trip. ### 4. Build from a template `pptx_from_template.py` opens a brand .pptx, replaces every `{{token}}` from a values JSON across slides/tables/notes, and can append new slides that use the template's own layouts (by layout name or index) so they inherit the master's fonts and colors. Tip: to start from a template with zero slides, delete existing ones afterward with `pptx_edit.py --remove-slide`. ### 5. Visual verification `pptx_render.py deck.pptx --outdir ./render` converts the deck to PDF with `soffice --headless` and splits it into one PNG per slide with `pdftoppm` (or `pdftocairo`). Output JSON lists the PNG paths — review each with `vision_analyze`. When either tool is missing the script exits 0 with `{"rendered": false, "missing": [...]}` and guidance; fall back to the JSON outline from `pptx_read.py`, which verifies content and structure, just not visuals. ## Converting to PDF If LibreOffice is installed, export the finished deck to PDF directly: ```bash soffice --headless --convert-to pdf --outdir ./out deck.pptx ``` The output lands at `./out/deck.pdf`. Fonts not installed on the host are substituted, so render-verify (Procedure step 5) before shipping the PDF. There is no offline pure-Python .pptx→PDF path; if `soffice` is absent, say so rather than approximating. ## Pitfalls - **Run splitting**: PowerPoint fragments paragraph text into runs at spell-check and edit boundaries. `--replace-text` first merges adjacent runs whose formatting is identical, so matches split across such runs are replaced with formatting fully preserved. Only when a match spans *genuinely differently-formatted* runs is the paragraph rewritten with the first run's formatting — verify those slides after replacement. - **Chart slides cannot be duplicated**: each chart relationship embeds a separate XLSX workbook part; cloning that graph reliably is not supported, so `--duplicate-slide` refuses chart slides cleanly instead of corrupting the deck. Rebuild the chart on a new slide instead. External-hyperlink and image/media rels are carried over; layout and notes rels are recreated fresh. - **Chart ops are a wrapper**: python-pptx replaces the whole dataset; `"ops"` round-trips existing plot data through `replace_data`, and changing chart *type* is not possible. - **Reordering is XML-level**: python-pptx has no supported reorder API. `--move-slide` manipulates `` directly; safe for ordinary decks but re-read the deck afterward to confirm. - **Copying slides between decks is unsupported** — duplication works only within one deck, where layouts and masters are shared. - Footer/slide-number enablement copies the placeholder from the slide's layout; on layouts without those placeholders, `--set-footer` fails with a clear message (add a textbox instead). - Hyperlinks apply to whole runs; `--hyperlink` links every run containing the given text on that slide. - The default python-pptx template is 4:3; the create script sets 16:9 unless the spec says otherwise. Custom templates keep their own size. - Layout indexes vary by template. For brand templates, list layout names first: `pptx_read.py template.pptx --outline` (`layouts_available`). - `slide.shapes.title` is None on blank layouts — the create script handles this, but remember it when writing ad-hoc python-pptx code. - Always pass `encoding="utf-8"` when writing spec files; tokens like `{{city}}` may be filled with non-ASCII values. ## Verification 1. After any create/edit, run `pptx_read.py OUT.pptx --outline` and check slide count, texts, tables, notes, and chart values match intent. 2. `--images DIR` then file-size check confirms pictures embedded. 3. Render every slide with `pptx_render.py deck.pptx --outdir ./render` and review each PNG with `vision_analyze` — this catches overlapping shapes, truncated text, and color problems the outline cannot. If the render tools are missing, the script says so; rely on the outline. 4. The bundled test suite is the full contract: `python3 -m pytest tests/ -q` (requires python-pptx + pytest).