PPTX Manipulation Skill Overview This skill enables programmatic creation, editing, and manipulation of Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx) presentations using the python-pptx library. Create professional slides with text, shapes, images, charts, and tables without manual editing. How to Use Describe the presentation you want to create or modify Provide content, data, or images to include I'll generate python-pptx code and execute it Example prompts: "Create a 10-slide pitch deck from this outline" "Add a chart to slide 3 with this data" "Extract all text from this presentation" "Generate slides from this markdown content" Domain Knowledge python-pptx Fundamentals from pptx import Presentation from pptx . util import Inches , Pt from pptx . enum . shapes import MSO_SHAPE from pptx . enum . text import PP_ALIGN
Create new presentation
prs
Presentation ( )
Or open existing
prs
Presentation ( 'existing.pptx' ) Presentation Structure Presentation ├── slide_layouts (predefined layouts) ├── slides (individual slides) │ ├── shapes (text, images, charts) │ │ ├── text_frame (paragraphs) │ │ └── table (rows, cells) │ └── placeholders (title, content) └── slide_masters (templates) Slide Layouts
Common layout indices (may vary by template)
TITLE_SLIDE
0 TITLE_CONTENT = 1 SECTION_HEADER = 2 TWO_CONTENT = 3 COMPARISON = 4 TITLE_ONLY = 5 BLANK = 6
Add slide with layout
slide_layout
prs . slide_layouts [ TITLE_CONTENT ] slide = prs . slides . add_slide ( slide_layout ) Adding Content Title Slide slide_layout = prs . slide_layouts [ 0 ]
Title slide
slide
prs . slides . add_slide ( slide_layout ) title = slide . shapes . title subtitle = slide . placeholders [ 1 ] title . text = "Quarterly Report" subtitle . text = "Q4 2024 Performance Review" Text Content
Using placeholder
body
slide . placeholders [ 1 ] tf = body . text_frame tf . text = "First bullet point"
Add more paragraphs
p
tf . add_paragraph ( ) p . text = "Second bullet point" p . level = 0 p = tf . add_paragraph ( ) p . text = "Sub-bullet" p . level = 1 Text Box from pptx . util import Inches , Pt left = Inches ( 1 ) top = Inches ( 2 ) width = Inches ( 4 ) height = Inches ( 1 ) txBox = slide . shapes . add_textbox ( left , top , width , height ) tf = txBox . text_frame p = tf . paragraphs [ 0 ] p . text = "Custom text box" p . font . bold = True p . font . size = Pt ( 18 ) Shapes from pptx . enum . shapes import MSO_SHAPE
Rectangle
shape
slide . shapes . add_shape ( MSO_SHAPE . RECTANGLE , Inches ( 1 ) , Inches ( 2 ) ,
left, top
Inches ( 3 ) , Inches ( 1.5 )
width, height
) shape . text = "Rectangle with text"
Common shapes:
MSO_SHAPE.RECTANGLE, ROUNDED_RECTANGLE
MSO_SHAPE.OVAL, CHEVRON, ARROW_RIGHT
MSO_SHAPE.CALLOUT_ROUNDED_RECTANGLE
Images
Add image
slide . shapes . add_picture ( 'image.png' , Inches ( 1 ) , Inches ( 2 ) ,
position
width
Inches ( 4 )
auto height
)
Or specify both dimensions
slide . shapes . add_picture ( 'logo.png' , Inches ( 8 ) , Inches ( 0.5 ) , Inches ( 1.5 ) , Inches ( 0.75 ) ) Tables
Create table
rows , cols = 4 , 3 left = Inches ( 1 ) top = Inches ( 2 ) width = Inches ( 8 ) height = Inches ( 2 ) table = slide . shapes . add_table ( rows , cols , left , top , width , height ) . table
Set column widths
table . columns [ 0 ] . width = Inches ( 2 ) table . columns [ 1 ] . width = Inches ( 3 ) table . columns [ 2 ] . width = Inches ( 3 )
Add headers
headers
[ 'Product' , 'Q3 Sales' , 'Q4 Sales' ] for i , header in enumerate ( headers ) : cell = table . cell ( 0 , i ) cell . text = header cell . text_frame . paragraphs [ 0 ] . font . bold = True
Add data
data
[ [ 'Widget A' , '$10,000' , '$12,500' ] , [ 'Widget B' , '$8,000' , '$9,200' ] , [ 'Widget C' , '$15,000' , '$18,000' ] , ] for row_idx , row_data in enumerate ( data , 1 ) : for col_idx , value in enumerate ( row_data ) : table . cell ( row_idx , col_idx ) . text = value Charts from pptx . chart . data import CategoryChartData from pptx . enum . chart import XL_CHART_TYPE
Chart data
chart_data
CategoryChartData ( ) chart_data . categories = [ 'Q1' , 'Q2' , 'Q3' , 'Q4' ] chart_data . add_series ( 'Sales' , ( 19.2 , 21.4 , 16.7 , 23.8 ) ) chart_data . add_series ( 'Expenses' , ( 12.1 , 15.3 , 14.2 , 18.1 ) )
Add chart
x , y , cx , cy = Inches ( 1 ) , Inches ( 2 ) , Inches ( 8 ) , Inches ( 4 ) chart = slide . shapes . add_chart ( XL_CHART_TYPE . COLUMN_CLUSTERED , x , y , cx , cy , chart_data ) . chart
Customize
chart . has_legend = True chart . legend . include_in_layout = False Formatting Text Formatting from pptx . dml . color import RGBColor run = p . runs [ 0 ] run . font . name = 'Arial' run . font . size = Pt ( 24 ) run . font . bold = True run . font . italic = True run . font . color . rgb = RGBColor ( 0x00 , 0x66 , 0xCC ) Shape Fill & Line from pptx . dml . color import RGBColor shape . fill . solid ( ) shape . fill . fore_color . rgb = RGBColor ( 0x00 , 0x80 , 0x00 ) shape . line . color . rgb = RGBColor ( 0x00 , 0x00 , 0x00 ) shape . line . width = Pt ( 2 ) Paragraph Alignment from pptx . enum . text import PP_ALIGN p . alignment = PP_ALIGN . CENTER
LEFT, RIGHT, JUSTIFY
- Best Practices
- Use Templates
-
- Start with a .pptx template for consistent branding
- Layout First
-
- Plan slide structure before coding
- Reuse Slide Masters
-
- Maintain consistency across presentations
- Optimize Images
-
- Compress images before adding
- Test Output
- Always verify generated presentations Common Patterns Slide Deck Generator def create_deck ( title , slides_content ) : prs = Presentation ( )
Title slide
slide
prs . slides . add_slide ( prs . slide_layouts [ 0 ] ) slide . shapes . title . text = title
Content slides
for slide_data in slides_content : slide = prs . slides . add_slide ( prs . slide_layouts [ 1 ] ) slide . shapes . title . text = slide_data [ 'title' ] body = slide . placeholders [ 1 ] tf = body . text_frame for i , point in enumerate ( slide_data [ 'points' ] ) : if i == 0 : tf . text = point else : p = tf . add_paragraph ( ) p . text = point return prs Data-Driven Charts def add_bar_chart ( slide , title , categories , values ) : from pptx . chart . data import CategoryChartData from pptx . enum . chart import XL_CHART_TYPE chart_data = CategoryChartData ( ) chart_data . categories = categories chart_data . add_series ( 'Values' , values ) chart = slide . shapes . add_chart ( XL_CHART_TYPE . BAR_CLUSTERED , Inches ( 1 ) , Inches ( 2 ) , Inches ( 8 ) , Inches ( 4 ) , chart_data ) . chart chart . chart_title . text_frame . text = title return chart Examples Example 1: Create a Pitch Deck from pptx import Presentation from pptx . util import Inches , Pt prs = Presentation ( )
Slide 1: Title
slide
prs . slides . add_slide ( prs . slide_layouts [ 0 ] ) slide . shapes . title . text = "StartupX" slide . placeholders [ 1 ] . text = "Revolutionizing Document Processing"
Slide 2: Problem
slide
prs . slides . add_slide ( prs . slide_layouts [ 1 ] ) slide . shapes . title . text = "The Problem" body = slide . placeholders [ 1 ] . text_frame body . text = "Manual document processing costs businesses $1T annually" p = body . add_paragraph ( ) p . text = "Average worker spends 20% of time on document tasks" p . level = 1
Slide 3: Solution
slide
prs . slides . add_slide ( prs . slide_layouts [ 1 ] ) slide . shapes . title . text = "Our Solution" body = slide . placeholders [ 1 ] . text_frame body . text = "AI-powered document automation" body . add_paragraph ( ) . text = "90% faster processing" body . add_paragraph ( ) . text = "99.5% accuracy" body . add_paragraph ( ) . text = "Works with existing tools"
Slide 4: Market
slide
prs . slides . add_slide ( prs . slide_layouts [ 5 ] )
Title only
slide . shapes . title . text = "Market Opportunity: $50B by 2028"
Add chart
from pptx . chart . data import CategoryChartData from pptx . enum . chart import XL_CHART_TYPE data = CategoryChartData ( ) data . categories = [ '2024' , '2025' , '2026' , '2027' , '2028' ] data . add_series ( 'Market Size ($B)' , [ 30 , 35 , 40 , 45 , 50 ] ) slide . shapes . add_chart ( XL_CHART_TYPE . LINE , Inches ( 1 ) , Inches ( 1.5 ) , Inches ( 8 ) , Inches ( 5 ) , data ) prs . save ( 'pitch_deck.pptx' ) Example 2: Report with Data Table from pptx import Presentation from pptx . util import Inches , Pt prs = Presentation ( )
Title slide
slide
prs . slides . add_slide ( prs . slide_layouts [ 0 ] ) slide . shapes . title . text = "Sales Performance Report" slide . placeholders [ 1 ] . text = "Q4 2024"
Data slide
slide
prs . slides . add_slide ( prs . slide_layouts [ 5 ] ) slide . shapes . title . text = "Regional Performance"
Create table
table
slide . shapes . add_table ( 5 , 4 , Inches ( 0.5 ) , Inches ( 1.5 ) , Inches ( 9 ) , Inches ( 4 ) ) . table
Headers
headers
[ 'Region' , 'Revenue' , 'Growth' , 'Target' ] for i , h in enumerate ( headers ) : table . cell ( 0 , i ) . text = h table . cell ( 0 , i ) . text_frame . paragraphs [ 0 ] . font . bold = True
Data
data
[ [ 'North America' , '$5.2M' , '+15%' , 'Met' ] , [ 'Europe' , '$3.8M' , '+12%' , 'Met' ] , [ 'Asia Pacific' , '$2.9M' , '+28%' , 'Exceeded' ] , [ 'Latin America' , '$1.1M' , '+8%' , 'Below' ] , ] for row_idx , row_data in enumerate ( data , 1 ) : for col_idx , value in enumerate ( row_data ) : table . cell ( row_idx , col_idx ) . text = value prs . save ( 'sales_report.pptx' ) Limitations Cannot render complex animations Limited SmartArt support No video embedding via API Master slide editing is complex Chart types limited to standard Office charts Installation pip install python-pptx Resources python-pptx Documentation GitHub Repository Slide Layout Guide