PPTX Engine

A comprehensive skill for creating, editing, and analyzing PowerPoint presentations programmatically. Covers slide creation with layouts, text formatting, images, charts, tables, and animations using Python and Node.js libraries.

When to Use This Skill

Choose this skill when:

• Creating PowerPoint presentations from data or templates
• Generating automated reports as PPTX slide decks
• Extracting content and structure from existing presentations
• Batch-modifying slides across multiple presentations
• Converting between PPTX and other formats

Consider alternatives when:

• Working with DOCX documents → use a DOCX skill
• Creating PDF reports → use a PDF creation skill
• Building web-based slide decks → use reveal.js or similar
• Creating simple image-based slides → use an image generation tool

Quick Start

Copy
from pptx import Presentation
from pptx.util import Inches, Pt, Emu
from pptx.enum.text import PP_ALIGN
from pptx.dml.color import RGBColor

prs = Presentation()

# Title slide
slide = prs.slides.add_slide(prs.slide_layouts[0])
slide.shapes.title.text = "Q1 2024 Report"
slide.placeholders[1].text = "Engineering Team Update"

# Content slide with bullet points
slide = prs.slides.add_slide(prs.slide_layouts[1])
slide.shapes.title.text = "Key Achievements"
body = slide.placeholders[1]
tf = body.text_frame
tf.text = "Shipped v2.0 with 15 new features"
p = tf.add_paragraph()
p.text = "Reduced p99 latency by 40%"
p.level = 0
p = tf.add_paragraph()
p.text = "Onboarded 5 new team members"
p.level = 0

# Slide with table
slide = prs.slides.add_slide(prs.slide_layouts[5])
slide.shapes.title.text = "Performance Metrics"
table = slide.shapes.add_table(4, 3, Inches(1), Inches(2), Inches(8), Inches(3)).table
table.cell(0, 0).text = "Metric"
table.cell(0, 1).text = "Target"
table.cell(0, 2).text = "Actual"
data = [("Uptime", "99.9%", "99.95%"), ("Latency", "<200ms", "145ms"), ("Errors", "<0.1%", "0.05%")]
for row_idx, (metric, target, actual) in enumerate(data, 1):
    table.cell(row_idx, 0).text = metric
    table.cell(row_idx, 1).text = target
    table.cell(row_idx, 2).text = actual

prs.save('q1_report.pptx')

Core Concepts

PPTX Structure

Component	Description	python-pptx Class
Presentation	The file itself	Presentation()
Slide Layout	Template for slide structure	slide_layouts[n]
Slide	Individual slide	slides.add_slide()
Shape	Any element on a slide	shapes collection
Text Frame	Container for text	shape.text_frame
Paragraph	Text paragraph	text_frame.paragraphs
Run	Formatted text segment	paragraph.runs
Table	Grid of cells	shapes.add_table()
Chart	Data visualization	shapes.add_chart()
Picture	Embedded image	shapes.add_picture()

Chart Creation

Copy
from pptx.chart.data import CategoryChartData
from pptx.enum.chart import XL_CHART_TYPE

slide = prs.slides.add_slide(prs.slide_layouts[5])

chart_data = CategoryChartData()
chart_data.categories = ['Q1', 'Q2', 'Q3', 'Q4']
chart_data.add_series('Revenue', (1.2, 1.5, 1.8, 2.1))
chart_data.add_series('Costs', (0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 1.1))

chart = slide.shapes.add_chart(
    XL_CHART_TYPE.COLUMN_CLUSTERED,
    Inches(1), Inches(1.5), Inches(8), Inches(5),
    chart_data
).chart

chart.has_legend = True
chart.legend.include_in_layout = False
chart.style = 10  # Built-in style

Content Extraction

Copy
def extract_pptx_content(path: str) -> list[dict]:
    prs = Presentation(path)
    slides_data = []

    for i, slide in enumerate(prs.slides):
        slide_data = {
            'number': i + 1,
            'layout': slide.slide_layout.name,
            'texts': [],
            'tables': [],
            'images': [],
        }

        for shape in slide.shapes:
            if shape.has_text_frame:
                text = shape.text_frame.text
                if text.strip():
                    slide_data['texts'].append(text)

            if shape.has_table:
                table = shape.table
                rows = []
                for row in table.rows:
                    rows.append([cell.text for cell in row.cells])
                slide_data['tables'].append(rows)

            if shape.shape_type == 13:  # Picture
                slide_data['images'].append(shape.image.blob)

        slides_data.append(slide_data)

    return slides_data

Configuration

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
slideWidth	number	10	Slide width in inches (default: widescreen)
slideHeight	number	7.5	Slide height in inches
defaultFont	string	'Calibri'	Default font for text
defaultFontSize	number	18	Default font size in points
templatePath	string	''	Path to template PPTX for styling
chartStyle	number	10	Default chart style number

Best Practices

1. Use a template presentation for consistent branding — Load an existing PPTX with corporate styling as the base: Presentation('template.pptx'). This inherits slide layouts, color schemes, and fonts automatically.

2. Work with slide layouts, not blank slides — Slide layouts define placeholder positions for titles, content, and images. Using layouts produces professional-looking slides without manual positioning of every element.

3. Set text formatting at the run level, not paragraph level — Different words in the same paragraph may need different formatting. Use runs for granular control: run.font.bold = True, run.font.size = Pt(24).

4. Convert to PDF for distribution, keep PPTX for editing — Generate the PPTX for editing capability, then convert to PDF (libreoffice --convert-to pdf) for distribution. This prevents formatting differences across PowerPoint versions.

5. Test generated presentations in PowerPoint and LibreOffice — python-pptx produces valid OOXML, but rendering can differ between applications. Test with both to catch compatibility issues.

Common Issues

Slide layout doesn't match expected placeholder positions — Different PPTX templates define different layouts. List available layouts and their placeholders before using them: for layout in prs.slide_layouts: print(layout.name).

Charts don't display data correctly — Category and series data must align in dimensions. Verify that categories count matches the data points in each series. Check chart type compatibility with your data structure.

Images stretch or distort — Always specify both width and height, or calculate proportional dimensions from the original aspect ratio. Use shape.width and shape.height to control exact placement.