pptx

PPTX

Practical patterns for reading, writing, and templating Microsoft PowerPoint .pptx files.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.9+
• python-pptx -- read/write slides, placeholders, text frames, tables, charts, images
• pandoc (CLI, optional) -- convert Markdown -> .pptx and back

When to Use

• Input or output of the task is a .pptx file
• You need to generate a deck from data (sales updates, weekly reports, dashboards)
• You need to pull text or speaker notes out of slides for downstream search/indexing
• You need to fill a template designed by a designer with code-supplied content

Decision Tree

Open and Read

from pptx import Presentation

def read_text(path: str) -> list[str]:
    prs = Presentation(path)
    out: list[str] = []
    for i, slide in enumerate(prs.slides, start=1):
        chunks: list[str] = []
        for shape in slide.shapes:
            if shape.has_text_frame:
                for paragraph in shape.text_frame.paragraphs:
                    text = "".join(run.text for run in paragraph.runs)
                    if text:
                        chunks.append(text)
        out.append(f"# Slide {i}\n" + "\n".join(chunks))
    return out

def read_notes(path: str) -> dict[int, str]:
    prs = Presentation(path)
    notes: dict[int, str] = {}
    for i, slide in enumerate(prs.slides, start=1):
        if slide.has_notes_slide:
            notes[i] = slide.notes_slide.notes_text_frame.text
    return notes