---
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"
license: Proprietary. LICENSE.txt has complete terms
---

# 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:

```bash
# 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**:
   ```bash
   soffice --headless --convert-to pdf template.pptx
   ```

2. **Convert PDF pages to JPEG images**:
   ```bash
   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)