pptx

PowerPoint decks (.pptx)

python-pptx for everything. The library is capable, but the deck you get is only as good as your handling of two things: layouts and units.

Layouts first — always

A slide is created from a layout, and the layout supplies the placeholders you then fill. Guessing layout indices produces the classic broken deck: text in the wrong place, a title that is really a body box, branding that silently disappears.

scripts/inspect_pptx.py template.pptx --layouts

Prints every layout in the template with its index, name, and each placeholder's index, type and position. Run this before authoring against any template, including the default one — index 1 is "Title and Content" in the stock template but frequently something else in a corporate deck.

from pptx import Presentation

prs = Presentation("template.pptx")   # or Presentation() for the stock template
layout = prs.slide_layouts[1]         # verify this index with --layouts first
slide = prs.slides.add_slide(layout)

slide.shapes.title.text = "Q1 results"
body = slide.placeholders[1]          # placeholder IDX, not position in a list
body.text = "Revenue up 14%"
for line in ["Costs flat", "Margin improved"]:
    para = body.text_frame.add_paragraph()
    para.text = line
    para.level = 1                     # indent level, 0-4

Building on the user's template is what preserves their fonts, colours and master — always prefer it to Presentation() plus manual styling.

Writing your own script

The scripts here declare their dependencies inline (PEP 723) and run under uv, so they work with nothing installed. Do the same for scripts you write rather than pip-installing or building a venv — on a modern distro the system Python is PEP-668 managed and pip install fails outright:

#!/usr/bin/env -S uv run --quiet --script
# /// script
# requires-python = ">=3.10"
# dependencies = ["python-pptx>=1.0"]
# ///

Then chmod +x build.py && ./build.py, or just uv run --with 'python-pptx>=1.0' python build.py (quote the spec — > and [ are shell metacharacters). If uv is genuinely unavailable, fall back to a venv — but check for uv first.