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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.

PPTX Processing

Overview

Work with PowerPoint presentations (.pptx files) for creation, editing, and analysis.

Reading & Analysis

Text Extraction

Copy# Convert to markdown
pandoc presentation.pptx -t markdown -o output.md

Raw XML Access

Copy# Unpack for direct access
unzip presentation.pptx -d presentation_unpacked/

Access comments, speaker notes, layouts, and design elements in the unpacked XML.

Creating New Presentations

Using pptxgenjs (JavaScript)

Copyimport pptxgen from 'pptxgenjs';

const pptx = new pptxgen();

const slide = pptx.addSlide();
slide.addText('Hello World', {
  x: 1, y: 1,
  fontSize: 24,
  color: '363636'
});

pptx.writeFile({ fileName: 'presentation.pptx' });

Using python-pptx (Python)

Copyfrom pptx import Presentation
from pptx.util import Inches, Pt

prs = Presentation()
slide_layout = prs.slide_layouts[0]  # Title slide
slide = prs.slides.add_slide(slide_layout)

title = slide.shapes.title
title.text = "Hello World"

prs.save('presentation.pptx')

Editing Existing Presentations

Workflow

1. Unpack PPTX file
2. Modify XML content directly
3. Validate changes
4. Repack presentation

Python Approach

Copyfrom pptx import Presentation

prs = Presentation('input.pptx')
for slide in prs.slides:
    for shape in slide.shapes:
        if shape.has_text_frame:
            for paragraph in shape.text_frame.paragraphs:
                for run in paragraph.runs:
                    run.text = run.text.replace('old', 'new')
prs.save('output.pptx')

Design Guidelines

Color Palettes

• Use consistent brand colors throughout
• Ensure sufficient contrast for readability
• Limit to 3-5 colors per presentation

Typography

• Headlines: Bold, larger font (24-44pt)
• Body text: Regular weight (18-24pt)
• Use consistent font family

Layout Patterns

• Title + content
• Two-column comparison
• Image with caption
• Quote/highlight slide
• Data visualization

Visual Hierarchy

• Most important content largest/boldest
• Use whitespace effectively
• Guide viewer's eye with alignment

Document Conversion

PPTX to PDF

Copylibreoffice --headless --convert-to pdf presentation.pptx

Slide Thumbnails

Copypdftoppm -jpeg -r 150 presentation.pdf slide

Dependencies

• pptxgenjs (JavaScript)
• python-pptx (Python)
• LibreOffice (conversion)
• Poppler utilities (thumbnails)