PPTX creation, editing, and analysis

Overview

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.

Reading and analyzing content

Text extraction

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

Raw XML access

You need raw XML access for: comments, speaker notes, slide layouts, animations, design elements, and complex formatting.

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

Creating a new PowerPoint presentation

Design Principles

CRITICAL: Before creating any presentation, analyze the content and choose appropriate design elements:

1. Consider the subject matter: What is this presentation about? What tone, industry, or mood does it suggest?
2. Check for branding: If the user mentions a company/organization, consider their brand colors and identity
3. Match palette to content: Select colors that reflect the subject
4. State your approach: Explain your design choices before writing code

Requirements:

• Use web-safe fonts only: Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, Georgia, Courier New, Verdana, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, Impact
• Create clear visual hierarchy through size, weight, and color
• Ensure readability: strong contrast, appropriately sized text, clean alignment
• Be consistent: repeat patterns, spacing, and visual language across slides

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.

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)
• LibreOffice: sudo apt-get install libreoffice (for PDF conversion)
• Poppler: sudo apt-get install poppler-utils (for pdftoppm to convert PDF to images)