Document PPTX Skill - Quick Reference

This skill enables creation and editing of PowerPoint presentations programmatically. Claude should apply these patterns when users need to generate pitch decks, reports, training materials, or automate presentation workflows.

Modern Best Practices (Jan 2026):

• One slide = one takeaway; design the deck around a decision or audience goal.

• Cite numbers (definition + timeframe + source) and keep a single source of truth for charts.

• Accessibility: slide titles, reading order, contrast, and meaningful alt text; follow your org's standard (often WCAG 2.2 AA / EN 301 549).

• Version decks and enforce review loops (avoid "final_final_v7.pptx").

Quick Reference

Task Tool/Library Language When to Use

Create PPTX python-pptx Python Presentations, slide decks

Create PPTX PptxGenJS Node.js Server-side generation

Template-driven PPTX-Automizer Node.js Corporate branding, template injection

Templates python-pptx Python Master slides, themes

Charts python-pptx Python Data visualizations

Extract content python-pptx Python Parse existing decks

Selection guide

• Prefer PPTX-Automizer when you have a branded .pptx template and need to "inject data into slides".

• Prefer python-pptx in Python-heavy pipelines (reporting, notebooks, ETL).

• Prefer PptxGenJS in Node.js pipelines (server-side generation, web apps).

Core Operations

Create Presentation (Python)

from pptx import Presentation

prs = Presentation()

Title slide

title_layout = prs.slide_layouts[0] # Title Slide layout slide = prs.slides.add_slide(title_layout) title = slide.shapes.title subtitle = slide.placeholders[1] title.text = "Q4 2025 Business Review" subtitle.text = "Presented by Product Team"

Content slide with bullets

bullet_layout = prs.slide_layouts[1] # Title and Content slide = prs.slides.add_slide(bullet_layout) slide.shapes.title.text = "Key Highlights" body = slide.placeholders[1] tf = body.text_frame tf.text = "Revenue grew 25% YoY"

p = tf.add_paragraph() p.text = "Customer base expanded to 10,000+" p.level = 0

p = tf.add_paragraph() p.text = "New enterprise tier launched" p.level = 1 # Indented bullet

Add speaker notes

notes_slide = slide.notes_slide notes_slide.notes_text_frame.text = "Emphasize the enterprise growth story here."

prs.save('presentation.pptx')

Create Presentation (Node.js)

import pptxgen from 'pptxgenjs';

async function main() { const pptx = new pptxgen(); pptx.author = 'Product Team'; pptx.title = 'Q4 Business Review';

// Title slide let slide = pptx.addSlide(); slide.addText('Q4 2025 Business Review', { x: 1, y: 2, w: '80%', fontSize: 36, bold: true, color: '363636', align: 'center', }); slide.addText('Presented by Product Team', { x: 1, y: 3.5, w: '80%', fontSize: 18, color: '666666', align: 'center', });

// Content slide with bullets slide = pptx.addSlide(); slide.addText('Key Highlights', { x: 0.5, y: 0.5, w: '90%', fontSize: 28, bold: true, }); slide.addText([ { text: 'Revenue grew 25% YoY', options: { bullet: true } }, { text: 'Customer base expanded to 10,000+', options: { bullet: true } }, { text: 'New enterprise tier launched', options: { bullet: true, indentLevel: 1 } }, ], { x: 0.5, y: 1.5, w: '90%', fontSize: 18 });

// Add chart slide = pptx.addSlide(); slide.addChart(pptx.ChartType.bar, [ { name: 'Sales', labels: ['Q1', 'Q2', 'Q3', 'Q4'], values: [100, 150, 180, 225] }, ], { x: 1, y: 1.5, w: 8, h: 4 });

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

main();

Add Charts (Python)

from pptx import Presentation from pptx.util import Inches from pptx.chart.data import CategoryChartData from pptx.enum.chart import XL_CHART_TYPE

prs = Presentation() slide = prs.slides.add_slide(prs.slide_layouts[6]) # Blank

Chart data

chart_data = CategoryChartData() chart_data.categories = ['Q1', 'Q2', 'Q3', 'Q4'] chart_data.add_series('Revenue', (100, 150, 180, 225)) chart_data.add_series('Expenses', (80, 90, 100, 110))

Add chart

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

chart.has_legend = True chart.legend.include_in_layout = False

prs.save('charts.pptx')

Add Images and Tables

from pptx import Presentation from pptx.util import Inches

prs = Presentation() slide = prs.slides.add_slide(prs.slide_layouts[6]) # Blank

Add image

slide.shapes.add_picture('logo.png', Inches(0.5), Inches(0.5), width=Inches(2))

Add table

rows, cols = 4, 3 table = slide.shapes.add_table(rows, cols, Inches(1), Inches(2), Inches(8), Inches(3)).table

Set column headers

table.cell(0, 0).text = 'Product' table.cell(0, 1).text = 'Sales' table.cell(0, 2).text = 'Growth'

Fill data

data = [ ('Widget A', '$1.2M', '+25%'), ('Widget B', '$800K', '+15%'), ('Widget C', '$500K', '+40%'), ] for row_idx, (product, sales, growth) in enumerate(data, 1): table.cell(row_idx, 0).text = product table.cell(row_idx, 1).text = sales table.cell(row_idx, 2).text = growth

prs.save('images_and_tables.pptx')

Extract Content

from pptx import Presentation

prs = Presentation('existing.pptx')

for slide_num, slide in enumerate(prs.slides, 1): print(f"\n--- Slide {slide_num} ---") for shape in slide.shapes: if shape.has_text_frame: for paragraph in shape.text_frame.paragraphs: print(paragraph.text) if shape.has_table: table = shape.table for row in table.rows: row_text = [cell.text for cell in row.cells] print(row_text)

Slide Layout Reference

Layout Index Name Use Case

0 Title Slide Opening, section dividers

1 Title and Content Standard bullet slides

2 Section Header Section transitions

3 Two Content Side-by-side comparison

4 Comparison Pros/cons, before/after

5 Title Only Custom content placement

6 Blank Full creative control

7 Content with Caption Image + description

Presentation Structure Patterns

Pitch Deck (10 slides)

PITCH DECK STRUCTURE

1. Title (company, tagline)
2. Problem (pain point)
3. Solution (your product)
4. Market Size (TAM/SAM/SOM)
5. Business Model (how you make money)
6. Traction (metrics, growth)
7. Team (founders, advisors)
8. Competition (landscape)
9. Financials (projections)
10. Ask (funding, next steps)

Quarterly Review (8 slides)

QUARTERLY REVIEW STRUCTURE

1. Title + Agenda
2. Executive Summary (KPIs dashboard)
3. Revenue & Growth
4. Product Updates
5. Customer Highlights
6. Challenges & Learnings
7. Next Quarter Goals
8. Q&A

Do / Avoid (Dec 2025)

Do

• Use a slide narrative plan (title + 1-sentence takeaway + supporting visual).

• Put the executive summary up front for decision decks.

• Keep speaker notes aligned with slide takeaways.

Avoid

• Dense slides with multiple messages.

• Uncited numbers or charts without definitions.

• Pixelated screenshots and unreadable tables.

What Good Looks Like

• Narrative: each slide has a 1-sentence takeaway and supports a single decision or insight.

• Structure: opening executive summary + clear arc (problem -> insight -> recommendation -> next steps).

• Data hygiene: charts show units, timeframes, sources, and consistent axes.

• Design: consistent typography, spacing, and contrast; no "wall of text" slides.

• Accessibility: reading order set and meaningful alt text where needed.

Optional: AI / Automation

Use only when explicitly requested and policy-compliant.

• Draft slide headlines and speaker notes; humans verify accuracy and tone.

• Generate chart code from data; humans verify labels, units, and sources.

Navigation

Resources

• references/pptx-layouts.md - Master slides, themes, templates

• references/pptx-charts.md - Chart types, data visualization

• references/pptx-animations-transitions.md - Slide transitions, build animations, timing

• references/pptx-speaker-notes-delivery.md - Speaker notes, presenter mode, delivery prep

• references/pptx-template-branding.md - Corporate templates, multi-brand support

• data/sources.json - Library documentation links

Templates

• assets/pitch-deck.md - Startup pitch structure

• assets/quarterly-review.md - Business review template

• assets/slide-narrative-template.md - 1-sentence takeaway per slide

Related Skills

• ../document-pdf/SKILL.md - Export presentations to PDF

• ../document-xlsx/SKILL.md - Data source for charts

• ../product-management/SKILL.md - Product strategy decks

Fact-Checking

• Use web search/web fetch to verify current external facts, versions, pricing, deadlines, regulations, or platform behavior before final answers.

• Prefer primary sources; report source links and dates for volatile information.

• If web access is unavailable, state the limitation and mark guidance as unverified.