pptx_slide_editing v1.0.0

name: "pptx_slide_editing" description: "Edit PowerPoint decks programmatically with python-pptx: build from templates, fill layouts and placeholders, enforce brand fonts and colors, and generate slide-by-slide change reports. Triggers when the user asks to create, edit, audit, restyle, or diff a .pptx deck, apply a template, or lock a deck to brand." metadata: { "includeInPrompt": true }

PPTX Slide Editing

Purpose

Make real .pptx edits that stay editable in PowerPoint: slides built from the template's own layouts and placeholders, brand fonts and colors enforced by a check script, and review copies diffed slide by slide. The skill ships three CLIs in bin/ that do the auditing, brand-checking, and diffing, plus worked recipes in references/ for everything else.

Workflow

1. Start from a template. Presentation("brand-template.pptx") inherits the brand's fonts, colors, and layouts. Only use bare Presentation() for throwaway scripts.

1. Audit before touching. Run bin/pptx_inspect.py deck.pptx first. It lists every layout and placeholder (name, idx, type) plus a per-slide inventory of shapes, fonts, and explicitly-set colors. Never assume layout index 1 means "Title and Content" in someone else's template; resolve layouts by name and fail loudly listing the names when a lookup misses.

1. Fill placeholders, don't free-draw. Set slide.shapes.title, write into slide.placeholders[idx] text frames, drop pictures/tables/charts into content placeholders. Free text boxes and raw coordinates are the last resort, not the default. All geometry goes through Inches/Pt/Cm, never raw EMU.

1. Lock the brand. Put fonts and hex colors in brand.json and run bin/pptx_brandcheck.py brand.json deck.pptx after every edit. Exit 0 is clean, 1 lists violations with slide and shape names. Details: references/brand-locks.md.

1. Track edits with diffs, not native tracking. PowerPoint has no track-changes (and Microsoft is retiring the desktop Compare-and-Merge tool, so reviewers now work in shared copies). Keep the original, collect reviewer edits in a copy, then run bin/pptx_diff.py original.pptx revised.pptx --md report.md for a slide-by-slide change report covering text, tables, chart titles and series values, and speaker notes. Details: references/change-reports.md.

1. Build new decks from recipes. Worked, tested examples for titles, bullets, tables, charts, images, speaker notes, and multi-run text styling live in references/recipes.md. references/building-decks.md covers the layout/placeholder rules.

Output Contract

• Every generated or edited deck: opens in PowerPoint, uses the template's layouts/placeholders, passes pptx_brandcheck.py against the project's brand.json when one exists.
• Every review cycle: produces a Markdown change report via pptx_diff.py, never a claim that edits were "tracked" natively.
• Scripts must run clean (python3 -m py_compile) and be dry-run tested before shipping.

Operating Rules

1. Never invent layout names, placeholder indices, fonts, or colors. Inspect the actual deck first.
2. Never set positions in raw EMU; always use the unit helpers.
3. SVG is not supported by python-pptx. Pre-render diagrams to PNG (1600px wide or better) before add_picture.
4. Brand checks only see explicitly-set fonts and colors. Anything inherited from the template is reported as inherited and passes silently; if the template itself is off-brand, fix the template.
5. Charts written by python-pptx are native OpenXML charts: PowerPoint renders them and the user can re-edit the data. Prefer them over screenshotting chart images.
6. Keep SKILL.md tight. Bulky how-to material goes in references/; ship new recipes there, not here.