| name | Powerpoint / PPTX |
| slug | powerpoint-pptx |
| version | 1.0.1 |
| homepage | https://clawic.com/skills/powerpoint-pptx |
| description | Create, inspect, and edit Microsoft PowerPoint presentations and PPTX decks with reliable layouts, templates, placeholders, notes, charts, and visual QA. Use when (1) the task is about PowerPoint or `.pptx`; (2) layouts, placeholders, notes, charts, comments, or template fidelity matter; (3) the deck must render cleanly after edits. |
| whenToUse | User needs to create, edit, or inspect PowerPoint/PPTX presentations |
| changelog | Rebalanced the skill toward template inventory, layout mapping, and higher-signal QA after a stricter external audit. |
| metadata | {"clawdbot":{"emoji":"📊","requires":{"bins":[]},"os":["linux","darwin","win32"]}} |
When to Use
Use when the main artifact is a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or .pptx deck, especially when layouts, templates, placeholders, notes, comments, charts, extraction, editing, or final visual quality matter.
Core Rules
1. Choose the workflow before touching the deck
- Reading text, editing an existing deck, rebuilding from a template, and creating from scratch are different jobs with different failure modes.
- For text extraction or inspection, read the deck before editing it.
- Text extraction plus thumbnail-style visual inspection is safer than editing from shape assumptions alone.
- For template-driven work, inventory the deck before replacing content.
- For deep edits, remember a
.pptx file is OOXML with separate parts for slides, layouts, masters, media, notes, and comments.
- If a template exists, template fidelity beats generic slide-design instincts.
- Reusing or duplicating a good existing slide is often safer than rebuilding it and hoping the theme still matches.
2. Inventory the deck before replacing content
- Count the reusable layouts, real placeholders, notes, comments, media, and recurring typography or color patterns first.
- Placeholder indexes and layout indexes are not portable assumptions.
- Inspect the actual slide or template before targeting title, body, chart, or image shapes.
- Speaker notes, comments, and linked assets can live outside the visible slide surface.
- A missing or wrong placeholder target can silently land content in the wrong box or wrong layer.
- Master and layout settings can override local slide edits, so the visible problem is not always on the slide you are editing.
3. Match content to the actual placeholders
- Count the actual content pieces before choosing a layout.
- Pick layouts based on the real number of ideas, columns, images, or charts the slide needs.
- Do not force two ideas into a three-column slide or cram dense text under a chart.
- Category counts and data series lengths must match or charts will break in ugly ways.
- Explicit sizing beats wishful thinking: text boxes, images, and charts need real space, not "it should fit".
- Do not choose a layout with more placeholders than the content can meaningfully fill.
- Quote layouts are for real quotes, and image-led layouts are for slides that actually have images.
- For chart-, table-, or image-heavy slides, full-slide or two-column layouts are usually safer than stacking dense text above the visual.
4. Preserve the deck's visual language
