// Presentation creation, editing, and analysis. When Claude needs to work with presentations (.pptx files) for: (1) Creating new presentations, (2) Modifying or editing content, (3) Working with layouts, (4) Adding comments or speaker notes, or any other presentation tasks
| name | pptx |
| description | Presentation creation, editing, and analysis. When Claude needs to work with presentations (.pptx files) for: (1) Creating new presentations, (2) Modifying or editing content, (3) Working with layouts, (4) Adding comments or speaker notes, or any other presentation tasks |
A user may ask you to create, edit, or analyze the contents of a .pptx file. A .pptx file is essentially a ZIP archive containing XML files and other resources that you can read or edit. You have different tools and workflows available for different tasks.
If you just need to read the text contents of a presentation, you should convert the document to markdown:
# Convert document to markdown
python -m markitdown path-to-file.pptx
You need raw XML access for: comments, speaker notes, slide layouts, animations, design elements, and complex formatting. For any of these features, you'll need to unpack a presentation and read its raw XML contents.
python ooxml/scripts/unpack.py <office_file> <output_dir>
Note: The unpack.py script is located at skills/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.
ppt/presentation.xml - Main presentation metadata and slide referencesppt/slides/slide{N}.xml - Individual slide contents (slide1.xml, slide2.xml, etc.)ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide{N}.xml - Speaker notes for each slideppt/comments/modernComment_*.xml - Comments for specific slidesppt/slideLayouts/ - Layout templates for slidesppt/slideMasters/ - Master slide templatesppt/theme/ - Theme and styling informationppt/media/ - Images and other media filesWhen given an example design to emulate: Always analyze the presentation's typography and colors first using the methods below:
ppt/theme/theme1.xml for colors (<a:clrScheme>) and fonts (<a:fontScheme>)ppt/slides/slide1.xml for actual font usage (<a:rPr>) and colors<a:solidFill>, <a:srgbClr>) and font references across all XML filesWhen creating a new PowerPoint presentation from scratch, use the html2pptx workflow to convert HTML slides to PowerPoint with accurate positioning.
CRITICAL: Before creating any presentation, analyze the content and choose appropriate design elements:
Requirements:
Choosing colors creatively:
Example color palettes (use these to spark creativity - choose one, adapt it, or create your own):
Geometric Patterns:
Border & Frame Treatments:
Typography Treatments:
Chart & Data Styling:
Layout Innovations:
Background Treatments:
When creating slides with charts or tables:
html2pptx.md completely from start to finish. NEVER set any range limits when reading this file. Read the full file content for detailed syntax, critical formatting rules, and best practices before proceeding with presentation creation.<p>, <h1>-<h6>, <ul>, <ol> for all text contentclass="placeholder" for areas where charts/tables will be added (render with gray background for visibility)html2pptx.js library to convert HTML slides to PowerPoint and save the presentation
html2pptx() function to process each HTML filepptx.writeFile()python scripts/thumbnail.py output.pptx workspace/thumbnails --cols 4When edit slides in an existing PowerPoint presentation, you need to work with the raw Office Open XML (OOXML) format. This involves unpacking the .pptx file, editing the XML content, and repacking it.
ooxml.md (~500 lines) completely from start to finish. NEVER set any range limits when reading this file. Read the full file content for detailed guidance on OOXML structure and editing workflows before any presentation editing.python ooxml/scripts/unpack.py <office_file> <output_dir>ppt/slides/slide{N}.xml and related files)python ooxml/scripts/validate.py <dir> --original <file>python ooxml/scripts/pack.py <input_directory> <office_file>When you need to create a presentation that follows an existing template's design, you'll need to duplicate and re-arrange template slides before then replacing placeholder context.
Extract template text AND create visual thumbnail grid:
python -m markitdown template.pptx > template-content.mdtemplate-content.md: Read the entire file to understand the contents of the template presentation. NEVER set any range limits when reading this file.python scripts/thumbnail.py template.pptxAnalyze 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 ...]
Using the thumbnail grid: Reference the visual thumbnails to identify:
This inventory file is REQUIRED for selecting appropriate templates in the next step
Create presentation outline based on template inventory:
outline.md with content AND template mapping that leverages available designs# Template slides to use (0-based indexing)
# WARNING: Verify indices are within range! Template with 73 slides has indices 0-72
# Mapping: slide numbers from outline -> template slide indices
template_mapping = [
0, # Use slide 0 (Title/Cover)
34, # Use slide 34 (B1: Title and body)
34, # Use slide 34 again (duplicate for second B1)
50, # Use slide 50 (E1: Quote)
54, # Use slide 54 (F2: Closing + Text)
]
Duplicate, reorder, and delete slides using rearrange.py:
scripts/rearrange.py script to create a new presentation with slides in the desired order:
python scripts/rearrange.py template.pptx working.pptx 0,34,34,50,52
Extract ALL text using the inventory.py script:
Run inventory extraction:
python scripts/inventory.py working.pptx text-inventory.json
Read text-inventory.json: Read the entire text-inventory.json file to understand all shapes and their properties. NEVER set any range limits when reading this file.
The inventory JSON structure:
{
"slide-0": {
"shape-0": {
"placeholder_type": "TITLE", // or null for non-placeholders
"left": 1.5, // position in inches
"top": 2.0,
"width": 7.5,
"height": 1.2,
"paragraphs": [
{
"text": "Paragraph text",
// Optional properties (only included when non-default):
"bullet": true, // explicit bullet detected
"level": 0, // only included when bullet is true
"alignment": "CENTER", // CENTER, RIGHT (not LEFT)
"space_before": 10.0, // space before paragraph in points
"space_after": 6.0, // space after paragraph in points
"line_spacing": 22.4, // line spacing in points
"font_name": "Arial", // from first run
"font_size": 14.0, // in points
"bold": true,
"italic": false,
"underline": false,
"color": "FF0000" // RGB color
}
]
}
}
}
Key features:
default_font_size in points extracted from layout placeholders (when available)bullet: true, level is always included (even if 0)space_before, space_after, and line_spacing in points (only included when set)color for RGB (e.g., "FF0000"), theme_color for theme colors (e.g., "DARK_1")Generate replacement text and save the data to a JSON file Based on the text inventory from the previous step:
alignment property on when "bullet": true"bold": true"bullet": true, "level": 0 (level is required when bullet is true)"alignment": "CENTER" for centered text)"font_size": 14.0, "font_name": "Lora")"color": "FF0000" for RGB or "theme_color": "DARK_1" for theme colorsreplacement-text.jsonExample 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:
"bullet": true, "level": 0Apply replacements using the replace.py script
python scripts/replace.py working.pptx replacement-text.json output.pptx
The script will:
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")
To create visual thumbnail grids of PowerPoint slides for quick analysis and reference:
python scripts/thumbnail.py template.pptx [output_prefix]
Features:
thumbnails.jpg (or thumbnails-1.jpg, thumbnails-2.jpg, etc. for large decks)python scripts/thumbnail.py template.pptx my-grid
workspace/my-grid)--cols 4 (range: 3-6, affects slides per grid)Use cases:
Examples:
# Basic usage
python scripts/thumbnail.py presentation.pptx
# Combine options: custom name, columns
python scripts/thumbnail.py template.pptx analysis --cols 4
To visually analyze PowerPoint slides, convert them to images using a two-step process:
Convert PPTX to PDF:
soffice --headless --convert-to pdf template.pptx
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 filesExample for specific range:
pdftoppm -jpeg -r 150 -f 2 -l 5 template.pdf slide # Converts only pages 2-5
IMPORTANT: When generating code for PPTX operations:
Required dependencies (should already be installed):
pip install "markitdown[pptx]" (for text extraction from presentations)npm install -g pptxgenjs (for creating presentations via html2pptx)npm install -g playwright (for HTML rendering in html2pptx)npm install -g react-icons react react-dom (for icons)npm install -g sharp (for SVG rasterization and image processing)sudo apt-get install libreoffice (for PDF conversion)sudo apt-get install poppler-utils (for pdftoppm to convert PDF to images)pip install defusedxml (for secure XML parsing)