chen-Powerpoint / PPTX

## When to Use Use when the main artifact is a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or `.pptx` deck, especially when layouts, templates, placeholders, notes, comments, charts, extraction, editing, or final visual quality matter. ## Core Rules ### 1. Choose the workflow before touching the deck - Reading text, editing an existing deck, rebuilding from a template, and creating from scratch are different jobs with different failure modes. - For text extraction or inspection, read the deck before editing it. - Text extraction plus thumbnail-style visual inspection is safer than editing from shape assumptions alone. - For template-driven work, inventory the deck before replacing content. - For deep edits, remember a `.pptx` file is OOXML with separate parts for slides, layouts, masters, media, notes, and comments. - If a template exists, template fidelity beats generic slide-design instincts. - Reusing or duplicating a good existing slide is often safer than rebuilding it and hoping the theme still matches. ### 2. Inventory the deck before replacing content - Count the reusable layouts, real placeholders, notes, comments, media, and recurring typography or color patterns first. - Placeholder indexes and layout indexes are not portable assumptions. - Inspect the actual slide or template before targeting title, body, chart, or image shapes. - Speaker notes, comments, and linked assets can live outside the visible slide surface. - A missing or wrong placeholder target can silently land content in the wrong box or wrong layer. - Master and layout settings can override local slide edits, so the visible problem is not always on the slide you are editing. ### 3. Match content to the actual placeholders - Count the actual content pieces before choosing a layout. - Pick layouts based on the real number of ideas, columns, images, or charts the slide needs. - Do not force two ideas into a three-column slide or cram dense text under a chart. - Category counts and data series lengths must match or charts will break in ugly ways. - Explicit sizing beats wishful thinking: text boxes, images, and charts need real space, not "it should fit". - Do not choose a layout with more placeholders than the content can meaningfully fill. - Quote layouts are for real quotes, and image-led layouts are for slides that actually have images. - For chart-, table-, or image-heavy slides, full-slide or two-column layouts are usually safer than stacking dense text above the visual. ### 4. Preserve the deck's visual language - Theme, master, and layout files usually decide fonts, colors, and hierarchy more than any one slide does. - Start from the deck's actual theme, fonts, spacing, and aspect ratio instead of improvising a new style. - Reuse the deck's own alignment and spacing system instead of inventing a second visual language. - Use common fonts for portability and strong contrast for readability. - Preserve the template's visual logic first; originality matters less than not breaking the deck's existing language. - Combining slides from multiple sources requires normalizing themes, masters, and alignment afterward. ### 5. Run content QA and visual QA separately - Text overflow, bad alignment, clipped shapes, weak contrast, and placeholder leftovers are normal first-pass failures. - Run both content QA and visual QA; missing text and broken layout are different failure classes. - Render or inspect the actual deck output before delivery when layout matters. - Search for leftover template junk, sample labels, and placeholder text before calling the deck finished. - Check notes, comments, labels, legends, and chart/table semantics separately from the visual pass. - A deck can pass text extraction and still fail on overlap, clipping, wrong theme inheritance, or broken notes. - Thumbnail grids and rendered slides usually reveal layout bugs faster than code or text inspection. - Assume the first render is wrong and do at least one fix-and-verify cycle before calling the deck finished. - Re-check affected slides after each fix because one spacing change often creates another issue. ### 6. Keep decks portable and review-safe - Template masters can override direct edits in surprising ways. - Complex effects may degrade across PowerPoint, LibreOffice, and conversion pipelines, so keep important content robust without them. - Image sizing, font substitution, and placeholder mismatch are common reasons a deck looks good in code and bad on screen. - Notes, comments, linked media, and merged decks can stay broken even when the visible slide looks fine. ## Common Traps - Placeholder text and sample charts often survive template reuse if not explicitly replaced. - Directly editing one slide can fail if the real issue lives in the master or layout. - Charts, icons, and text boxes need enough space; near-collisions are usually visible only after rendering. - Layout indexes vary by template, so built-in assumptions from one deck often break in another. - A missing placeholder or wrong shape target can silently put content in the wrong place. - Counting the text ideas after choosing the layout usually leads to empty placeholders, weak hierarchy, or leftover template junk. - Font substitution can move line breaks and wreck careful spacing. - Speaker notes, comments, and linked media can stay broken even when the visible slide looks fine. - A deck can pass text inspection and still fail visually because of overlap, contrast, or edge clipping. - Editing from one slide alone can miss the real source of truth in the theme, master, or layout definitions. - Choosing a quote, comparison, or multi-column layout without matching content usually makes the deck look templated rather than intentional. - Combining or duplicating slides without checking masters and themes can create subtle inconsistency slide by slide. - Aspect-ratio mismatches like `16:9` versus `4:3` can shift every placement decision even when each slide looks locally reasonable. ## Related Skills Install with `clawhub install <slug>` if user confirms: - `documents` — Document workflows that often feed presentation content. - `design` — Visual direction and layout decisions. - `brief` — Concise business messaging for slide narratives. ## Feedback - If useful: `clawhub star powerpoint-pptx` - Stay updated: `clawhub sync`