python-pptx-interface 0.0.10

Easy interface to create pptx-files using python-pptx

python-pptx is a great module to create pptx-files. But it it can be challenging to master the complex syntax. This module tries to present an easier interface for python-pptx to create PowerPoint files. It also adds some still missing features like moving slides, create links to other slides or remove unused place-holders.

Content

• Example: demonstrates usage of some key-features of python-pptx-interface

• class PPTXCreator: Create pptx-File from template, incluing methods to add text, tables, figures etc.

• class PPTXPosition: Allows positioning as fraction of slide height/width.

• Style sheets

  • class PPTXFontStyle: Helps to set/change/copy fonts.

  • class PPTXParagraphStyle: Format paragraphs (alignment, indent …).

  • class PPTXTableStyle: Used to layout tables.

  • class PPTXFillStyle

• Working with templates

  • class AbstractTemplate: Base class for all custom templates (enforce necessary attributes)

  • class TemplateExample: Example class to show how to work with custom templates

• utils.py: A collection of useful functions, eg. to generate PDF or PNG from *.pptx (needs PowerPoint installed)

Example

This module comes with a general example, that you could run like

from pptx_tools.examples import general_example_01 as example

example.run(save_dir=my_dir)  # you have to specify the folder where to save the presentation

This will create an example.pptx, using some of the key-features of python-pptx-interface. Lets have a closer look:

from pptx_tools.creator import PPTXCreator, PPTXPosition
from pptx_tools.style_sheets import font_title, font_default
from pptx_tools.templates import TemplateExample

from pptx.enum.lang import MSO_LANGUAGE_ID
from pptx.enum.text import MSO_TEXT_UNDERLINE_TYPE

try:
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
    matplotlib_installed = True
except ImportError as e:
    matplotlib_installed = False

First we need to import some stuff. PPTXCreator is the class used to create a *.pptx file. PPTXPosition allows as to position shapes in more intuitive units of slide width/height. font_title is a function returning a PPTXFontStyle instance. We will use it to change the formatting of the title shape. TemplateExample is a class providing access to the example-template.pptx included in python-pptx-interface and also setting some texts on the master slides like author, date and website. You could use it as reference on how to use your own template files by subclassing AbstractTemplate (you need at least to specify a path to your template and define a default_layout and a title_layout).

MSO_LANGUAGE_ID is used to set the language of text and MSO_TEXT_UNDERLINE_TYPE is used to format underlining.

Importing matplotlib is optional - it is used to demonstrate, how to get a matplotlib figure into your presentation.

def run(save_dir: str):
    pp = PPTXCreator(TemplateExample())

    PPTXFontStyle.lanaguage_id = MSO_LANGUAGE_ID.ENGLISH_UK
    PPTXFontStyle.name = "Roboto"

    title_slide = pp.add_title_slide("Example presentation")
    font = font_title()  # returns a PPTXFontStyle instance with bold font and size = 32 Pt
    font.write_shape(title_slide.shapes.title)  # change font attributes for all paragraphs in shape

Now we create our presentation with PPTXCreator using the TemplateExample. We also set the default font language and name of all PPTXFontStyle instances. This is not necessary, as ENGLISH_UK and Roboto are the defaults anyway. But in principle you could change these settings here, to fit your needs. If you create your own template class, you might also set these default parameters there. Finally we add a title slide and change the font style of the title using title_font().

slide2 = pp.add_slide("page2")
pp.add_slide("page3")
pp.add_slide("page4")
content_slide = pp.add_content_slide()  # add slide with hyperlinks to all other slides

Next, we add three slides, and create a content slide with hyperlinks to all other slides. By default, it is put to the second position (you could specify the position using the optional slide_index parameter).

Lets add some more stuff to the title slide.

text = "This text has three paragraphs. This is the first.\n" \
       "Das ist der zweite ...\n" \
       "... and the third."
my_font = font_default()  # font size 14
my_font.size = 16
text_shape = pp.add_text_box(title_slide, text, PPTXPosition(0.02, 0.24), my_font)

PPTXCreator.add_text_box() places a new text shape on a slide with the given text. Optionally it accepts a PPTXPosition and a PPTXFont. With PPTXPosition(0.02, 0.24) we position the figure 0.02 slide widths from left and 0.24 slide heights from top.

my_font.set(size=22, bold=True, language_id=MSO_LANGUAGE_ID.GERMAN)
my_font.write_paragraph(text_shape.text_frame.paragraphs[1])

my_font.set(size=18, bold=False, italic=True, name="Vivaldi",
            language_id=MSO_LANGUAGE_ID.ENGLISH_UK,
            underline=MSO_TEXT_UNDERLINE_TYPE.WAVY_DOUBLE_LINE)
my_font.write_paragraph(text_shape.text_frame.paragraphs[2])

We can use my_font to format individual paragraphs in a text_frame with PPTXFontStyle.write_paragraph(). Via PPTXFontStyle.set() easily customize the font before using it.

table_data = []
table_data.append([1, 2])  # rows can have different length
table_data.append([4, slide2, 6])  # there is specific type needed for entries (implemented as text=f"{entry}")
table_data.append(["", 8, 9])

pp.add_table(slide2, table_data)

we can also easily add a table. First we define all the data we want to put in the table. Here we use a list of lists. But add_table is more flexible and can work with anything, that is an Iterable of Iterable. The outer iterable defines, how many rows the table will have. The longest inner iterable is used to get the number of columns.

if matplotlib_installed:
    fig = create_demo_figure()
    pp.add_matplotlib_figure(fig, title_slide, PPTXPosition(0.3, 0.4))
    pp.add_matplotlib_figure(fig, title_slide, PPTXPosition(0.3, 0.4, fig.get_figwidth(), -1.0), zoom=0.4)
    pp.add_matplotlib_figure(fig, title_slide, PPTXPosition(0.3, 0.4, fig.get_figwidth(), 0.0), zoom=0.5)
    pp.add_matplotlib_figure(fig, title_slide, PPTXPosition(0.3, 0.4, fig.get_figwidth(), 1.5), zoom=0.6)

If matplotlib is installed, we use it to create a demo figure, and add it to the title_slide. With PPTXPosition(0.3, 0.4) we position the figure 0.3 slide widths from left and 0.4 slide heights from top. PPTXPosition has two more optional parameters, to further position with inches values (starting from the relative position).

pp.save(os.path.join(save_dir, "example.pptx"))

Finally, we save the example as example.pptx.

If you are on windows an have PowerPoint installed, you could use some additional features.

try:  # only on Windows with PowerPoint installed:
    filename_pptx = os.path.join(save_dir, "example.pptx")
    filename_pdf = os.path.join(save_dir, "example.pdf")
    foldername_png = os.path.join(save_dir, "example_pngs")

    # use absolute path, because its not clear where PowerPoint saves PDF/PNG ... otherwise
    pp.save(filename_pptx, create_pdf=True)  # saves your pptx-file and also creates a PDF file
    pp.save_as_pdf(filename_pdf, overwrite=True)  # saves presentation as PDF
    pp.save_as_png(foldername_png, overwrite_folder=True)  # creates folder with PNGs of slides
except Exception as e:
    print(e)

class PPTXCreator

This class provides an easy interface to create a PowerPoint presentation via python-pptx. It has methods to add slides and shapes (tables, textboxes, matplotlib figures) setting format by using layouts and stylesheets. It also has methods to move slides around, remove empty placeholders or create hyperlinks.

class PPTXPosition

To position shapes in a slide, many methods of PPTXCreator except a PPTXPosition parameter. It allows to give a position relative to slide width and high (as a fraction). Additionally ypou can specify the position in inches starting from the relative position. Some stylesheets e.g. PPTXTableStyle can also have an optional PPTXPosition attribute. In that case writing the style to a shape will also set its position.

Stylesheets

While python-pptx-interface can load a template file with placeholders, the intended use case is more focused on creating and positioning shapes like tables, pictures, textboxes etc. directly in python. Therefore all unused placeholders are removed by default, when creating a new slide. As it can be quite tedious to do all the necessary formatting directly using python-pptx, this package provides some style sheet like classes, to define a certain format and than “write” it to the created shapes. In general python-pptx-interface styles only change parameters, that have been set. E.g. when creating a PPTXFontStyle instance and setting the font size, using this style will only change the font size, but not color, bold … attributes. Beside setting an attribute or not changing an attribute there is a third case - using the default value as it is defined e.g. in the master slide. For that case, the value _USE_DEFAULT can be used.

To be consistent, python-pptx-interface will not change anything if an attribute is set to None. This can differ from the pyrhon-pptx behaviour in some cases, where None means “use default”.

class PPTXFontStyle

font-style example …

class PPTXParagraphStyle

…

class PPTXTableStyle

table-style example, …

class PPTXFillStyle

…

Working with templates

…

class AbstractTemplate

…

class TemplateExample

…

utils.py

…

Requirements

• Python >= 3.6 (f-strings)

• python-pptx

Optional requirements

• matplotlib (adding matplotlib figures to presentation)

• comtypes (create PDF’s or PNG’s)

• PowerPoint (create PDF’s or PNG’s)

Contribution

Help with this project is welcome. You could report bugs or ask for improvements by creating a new issue.

If you want to contribute code, here are some additional notes:

• This project uses 120 characters per line.

• Try to avoid abbreviations in names for functions or variables.

• Use type hints.

• Use Slide objects instead of IDs or index values as function parameter.