About this skill

Problem

The Read tool reports .pptx as a binary file it cannot display, while engineers often need a quick view of slide text, tables, speaker notes, and image counts. Relying on python-pptx can also hit sandbox issues when lxml .so files have code signature problems. This skill treats .pptx as a ZIP archive of XML and parses it with the standard library.

How it works

Supports Office 2007+ .pptx files only; legacy .ppt is not supported.
Uses zipfile to open the package and xml.etree.ElementTree to parse presentationml and drawingml namespaces.
Emits the file name, total slide count, per-slide text with indentation, tables in a |-separated layout, speaker notes, and image counts.
Recommends the system python3 to reduce dynamic library signature problems in sandboxed environments.

Boundaries

It is useful for turning PPTX decks into readable text snapshots, but it does not extract image content or reconstruct visual layout. File paths with spaces must be quoted. Decks with many images only report counts, not the image files themselves.

Screenshots

Use Cases

Convert meeting .pptx handouts into plain text before a review
Browse slide text, notes, and tables quickly without opening Office
Check whether .pptx decks contain images and count them per slide
Export table content from .pptx into delimited text for verification

Best For

Backend engineers preparing meeting materials who need searchable .pptx text
Python automation engineers who want to avoid sandbox dependency issues with python-pptx
Training assistants organizing materials who need slide text, notes, and tables
Technical support staff auditing documents who need .pptx image counts without Office

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PPTX Content Reader