pptx-deck-creation

PPTX Deck Creation

Overview

Create an editable PowerPoint deck from a clear narrative, source evidence, and explicit layout decisions. Keep the deck specification and its native PowerPoint objects as the source of truth. Images may support a slide, but they must not replace editable titles, labels, data, tables, or diagrams.

Use the bundled references for design-profile selection, reference-deck analysis, visual-asset decisions, and final quality checks. The skill does not ship a general-purpose renderer or bundled runtime scripts.

Scope Boundary

Use this skill as the primary workflow for creating a new, editable PPTX deck. It owns the path from a deck brief through narrative planning, a coordinate-explicit specification, task-specific PPTX generation, and final quality assurance. Do not redirect a net-new deck to another skill merely because the requested deliverable is a .pptx file.

Use @pptx-official when work starts with an existing PPTX and requires package-level operations: raw OOXML editing, template duplication and text replacement, speaker notes, comments, animations, or other structural changes to that file. It may support a build when those operations are necessary, but it is not the default workflow for a net-new deck authored here.

When to Use This Skill

• Use when a user asks to create a new editable PowerPoint or PPTX deck
• Use as the default workflow when a new deck needs to be delivered as a .pptx file
• Use when a deck needs a narrative framework, a design direction, and final coordinates
• Use when analyzing a reference PPTX without copying its binary content
• Use when reviewing a generated PPTX for layout, package, or accessibility defects

How It Works

Step 1: Understand the requested deck

Collect the audience, decision or purpose, language, slide count, source material, brand requirements, and delivery format. Ask the user to select a narrative framework if they have not already done so. Do not select one on the user's behalf.

Use one of these framework spines, or a user-defined alternative:

Framework	Use case
mckinsey	Executive proposals and strategic recommendations
scqa	Situation, complication, question, answer narratives
pyramid	Main answer followed by supporting arguments
mece	Issue decomposition and workstream synthesis
action-title	Executive communications with conclusion-led titles
assertion-evidence	Technical or research presentations
exec-summary-first	Board and leadership briefings
custom	User-defined structure or organization playbook

Record the resolved framework, its source, title rules, slide sequence, and any approved assumptions in the deck summary.

Step 2: Establish source and design context

Give each factual source a stable ID. Record a source reference for every metric, chart value, quotation, and factual claim that appears in the deck. Summarize source material into one message per slide rather than pasting long documents into the specification.

For a reference presentation, inspect it read-only. Extract palette, font, slide-size, template, layout-flow, and topic-sequence signals. Re-author target slides with their own explicit coordinates. Do not copy, mutate, or use the source PPTX as a template for generated content.

Select a documented design profile from design profiles. Use the user's named profile first. Use a reference deck when one is available. Otherwise, use Fluent UI Design Token Guidance by default, use Primer Primitives for GitHub-focused technical decks, and use a broader style catalog only when the user requests multiple visual directions. Record the selected profile, source URL, license, palette, typography, spacing, and signature visual treatment in summary.design_context.

Step 3: Plan the story and visual structure

Create one defensible message per slide. Use conclusion-led slide titles when the selected framework calls for them. Keep the storyline mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive where appropriate. Include concrete numbers, dates, owners, and sources only when supported by the evidence.

Every normal content slide needs a visible, style-derived structure such as an accent band, card shell, divider, grid, diagram primitive, or image treatment. Avoid plain title-and-bullets slides, default theme colors, and Calibri-only output unless the user explicitly requests that treatment.

Step 4: Author a coordinate-explicit specification

Create a JSON object with summary and slides. Every generated slide needs an id, title, and complete layout_tree. Use final inch-based bounding boxes, z-order, colors, font sizes, and grouping. Do not rely on a renderer to make layout decisions.

Include this production metadata before building:

{
  "summary": {
    "layout_policy": {
      "safe_margin": 0.5,
      "content_bottom": 6.7,
      "footer_top": 6.85,
      "minimum_gap": 0.12
    },
    "accessibility": {
      "language": "en-US",
      "presentation_title": "Deck title"
    }
  }
}

Keep content inside the safe margin and above the footer rail. Use native text, shape, line, table, and image objects. Add alt text to meaningful images and a reading order for each production slide. Use images as supporting visuals only; recreate essential labels, legend entries, process steps, and data values as editable objects.

Use the following object constraints:

• Keep content text at 9 pt or larger; prefer 10 to 12 pt for body copy
• Keep every child object inside its parent group bounding box
• Keep table column widths equal to the table width and split dense tables across slides
• Keep normal content objects within slide bounds; only decorative full-bleed elements may cross an edge
• Keep images behind overlapping text and preserve their aspect ratio
• Store source_ref with source ID, locator, claim type, and verification status for sourced claims

Step 5: Create the PPTX deck when requested

Own net-new PPTX creation in this workflow. When a PPTX file is required, create a small task-specific builder with the user's approved environment. Start slides from a blank layout and create native objects from the final bounding boxes. Enable word wrap, disable automatic text resizing, set text insets and alignment explicitly, and reject zero or negative bounding boxes for non-line objects before building. Validate lines by requiring two distinct endpoints; horizontal and vertical lines may have a zero-height or zero-width bounding box.

Save the authored specification, PPTX, build manifest, audit records, and source manifest together. Do not add a large shared renderer or copy source presentation content. Use @pptx-official only when the requested result also requires an existing-file or OOXML workflow.

Step 6: Validate and repair

Apply the manual audit checklist before and after building. Check collisions, text capacity, font sizes, safe margins, group containment, table fit, object bounds, design context, and native editability. Reopen the PPTX to verify slide count, package structure, hidden slides, actual geometry, language, image alt text, reading order, and table headers.

Inspect rendered previews when a compatible renderer is available. Check clipping, font fallback, contrast, image crops, and visual hierarchy. Repair the specification or the task-specific builder, rebuild, and repeat the audit until all deterministic failures are resolved. Report any remaining exception with the slide ID, object ID, reason, owner, and review date.

Reference-Deck Analysis

The skill provides a read-only analysis contract, not packaged code. For a specific task, use python-pptx and the Office Open XML package to inspect a presentation. Use OOXML package inspection when python-pptx cannot expose theme, master, layout, relationship, notes, comments, animation, media, or non-modeled formatting evidence. Resolve the package relationship graph; never infer slide order from filenames or copy source package parts. Produce only the context needed for the task:

• Compact prompt context with slide count, styles, brands, template, and layout
• Full extraction with layout_tree, summary metrics, and render-aware elements
• Folder-level diagnostics with one result per deck and a manifest
• Style-master analysis with colors, fonts, layout usage, and flow patterns

Use reference-deck analysis recipes and reference-deck analysis patterns as static implementation references. Use the bundled references/ooxml-parsing.md guidance for the package-part map, relationship resolution, namespace, and secure parsing requirements. Keep all extraction read-only.

Visual Assets

Use visual asset guidelines when an icon, image, SVG, or user-managed infographic is needed. Confirm image licensing before placing it. Record asset provenance, local path, and alt text. Never ask users to provide secrets in chat, and never use a placeholder when acquisition fails.

When a provider, output path, or other required setting is missing, ask for the non-secret information before generating an infographic. If no configured provider is available, omit the asset and continue with editable native slide objects.

Before any external generation call, disclose the provider and model, what prompt or source material will leave the machine, the likely cost, and the output path. Obtain explicit confirmation unless the user already authorized that exact operation. Never overwrite an existing output or manifest without separate explicit confirmation.

Examples

Example 1: Executive recommendation deck

A user asks for a 10-slide leadership deck based on a project brief. Confirm the audience, choose exec-summary-first, summarize the brief into one claim per slide, and create coordinate-explicit content cards with a documented Fluent UI design context. Add source references for each brief-derived metric, then build and audit the requested PPTX.

Example 2: Reference-deck-informed proposal

A user supplies a prior PPTX and asks for a new proposal in a similar visual language. Extract only the existing deck's palette, typography, layout rhythm, and template usage. Use those signals to design a new outline and native layout tree. Do not duplicate slides, copy the deck's binary parts, or present the reference deck as the new deliverable.

Best Practices

• Keep the business framework and source lineage visible in the deck summary
• Make each slide title convey the slide's conclusion or narrative role
• Use source evidence for charts and dashboard-like exhibits
• Build meaningful content from native editable PowerPoint objects
• Add a deliberate visual structure to every normal content slide
• Rebuild and inspect previews after repairing layout or text issues

Limitations

• This skill does not replace a user-provided brand guide, legal asset review, or expert accessibility review
• It does not include a general renderer, a bundled extraction module, or credentials for external providers
• It does not own raw OOXML editing, template duplication, or other mutations of an existing PPTX package
• Stop and ask for clarification when the audience, source evidence, brand requirements, or required output path is missing

Security and Safety Notes

• Keep reference-deck analysis read-only and never overwrite the source deck
• Request confirmation before any task-specific build or repair overwrites an existing output file
• Use user-managed providers only and keep credentials outside chat and skill content
• Omit unlicensed or license-ambiguous visual assets instead of substituting placeholders

Common Pitfalls

Problem: A slide has more copy than its bounding box can hold

Shorten the copy, enlarge the bounding box, or split the content across slides. Do not solve the issue by reducing meaningful content below 9 pt.

Problem: The deck resembles an unstyled default PowerPoint file

Select and record a design profile, then add explicit background, typography, accent, card, divider, or grid primitives to the layout tree.

Problem: A reference deck is used as a source file for the output

Treat the reference deck as read-only context. Re-author the target deck with its own slide specification and native editable content.

Related Skills

• @pptx-official - Use for existing PPTX, OOXML, and template-mutation workflows, not default net-new deck creation
• @python-pptx-generator - Use for focused Python PPTX generation patterns