Skip to main content

Powerpoint

Create, read, edit .pptx decks with python-pptx.

Skill metadata​

SourceBundled (installed by default)
Pathskills/productivity/powerpoint
Version1.0.0
AuthorNoora
LicenseMIT
Platformslinux, macos, windows
Tagspptx, powerpoint, presentations, slides, office, python-pptx
Related skillsdocx, xlsx, pdf

Reference: full SKILL.md​

info

The following is the complete skill definition that Noora loads when this skill is triggered. This is what the agent sees as instructions when the skill is active.

Powerpoint Skill

Create, inspect, and edit PowerPoint (.pptx) presentations using the python-pptx library. Four helper scripts cover deck creation from a JSON spec, structured read-back, in-place edits, and template-driven brand decks — 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 chart data, swap a logo, remove or reorder slides.
  • 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). Pillow is optional (only if you need to probe image dimensions yourself).
  • Optional: LibreOffice (soffice) for rendering slides to images for visual verification. Degrade gracefully if absent — all create/read/edit operations work without it.
  • Check availability via terminal: python3 -c "import pptx; print(pptx.__version__)" and which soffice.

How to Run​

All scripts live in scripts/, take --help, print JSON to stdout, and exit non-zero on failure. Run them with terminal:

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 --remove-slide 3 --move-slide 2 0
python3 scripts/pptx_from_template.py brand.pptx out.pptx --values vals.json

Author JSON specs with write_file; inspect script output and generated JSON with read_file.

Quick Reference​

TaskCommand
New deck from specpptx_create.py spec.json out.pptx
16:9 vs 4:3"slide_size": "16:9" or "4:3" in the spec
Outline as JSONpptx_read.py deck.pptx --outline
Export imagespptx_read.py deck.pptx --images DIR
Replace textpptx_edit.py deck.pptx --replace-text OLD NEW
Update chartpptx_edit.py deck.pptx --chart-data spec.json
Swap picturepptx_edit.py deck.pptx --swap-image N NAME new.png
Remove slidepptx_edit.py deck.pptx --remove-slide N
Reorder slidepptx_edit.py deck.pptx --move-slide FROM TO
Fill templatepptx_from_template.py tpl.pptx out.pptx --values v.json

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), 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. Chart update uses chart.replace_data() with a JSON spec naming the slide/chart index and new categories/series. Image swap retargets the picture's relationship id so position and size are preserved. Slide removal drops the relationship and the <p:sldId> entry; reorder moves the <p:sldId> element within <p:sldIdLst> (python-pptx has no public API for either — the script does the XML-level work).

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 (optional)​

If soffice exists, render slides to PNG and inspect with vision_analyze:

soffice --headless --convert-to png --outdir ./render deck.pptx  # slide 1
soffice --headless --convert-to pdf --outdir ./render deck.pptx  # all slides

PNG export renders only the first slide; convert to PDF for all slides (then pdftoppm -png render/deck.pdf render/slide if poppler is available). When soffice is absent, rely on the JSON outline from pptx_read.py — it verifies content and structure, just not visuals.

Pitfalls​

  • Run splitting: PowerPoint fragments paragraph text into multiple runs at spell-check and formatting boundaries. --replace-text preserves formatting exactly when a match lies within one run; when the match spans runs, the paragraph is rewritten with only the first run's formatting. Verify important slides after replacement.
  • Reordering is XML-level: python-pptx has no supported reorder API. --move-slide manipulates <p:sldIdLst> directly; it is safe for ordinary decks but re-read the deck afterward to confirm.
  • Copying slides between decks is unsupported — layouts, images, and relationships would need deep cloning. Rebuild the slide in the target deck instead.
  • Chart edits replace the whole data set; you cannot patch a single cell. Adding/removing series works, but changing chart type does not.
  • 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. For high-stakes decks, render via soffice (see Procedure step 5) and review each slide image with vision_analyze.
  4. The bundled test suite is the full contract: python3 -m pytest tests/ -q (requires python-pptx + pytest).