PPTX Notes Editor#

Workflow Decision Tree#

text

User Request
├── Modify Notes → 1,2,3,4,5,6
├── Export to MD Only → 1,2 → 7
├── Pack Existing Content Only → 5 (optional verify → 6)
└── Unpack and View Only → 1

1. Unpack PPTX#

bash

# Unpack to specified directory
mkdir -p pptx-unpacked && unzip your-presentation.pptx -d pptx-unpacked

File Structure:

text

pptx-unpacked/
├── ppt/
│   ├── slides/              # Slides
│   │   ├── slide1.xml
│   │   ├── slide2.xml
│   │   └── _rels/          # Slide relationships
│   │       ├── slide1.xml.rels
│   │       └── slide2.xml.rels
│   ├── notesSlides/        # Notes files
│   │   ├── notesSlide1.xml
│   │   └── notesSlide2.xml
│   └── _rels/
│       └── presentation.xml.rels
└── [Content_Types].xml

2. Confirm Slide-to-Notes Mapping#

Important: The numbering of notesSlideN.xml does NOT necessarily correspond to PPT page numbers! You MUST confirm via the relationship files.

Method 1: Check Precise Mapping (Recommended)#

bash

# Check which notes file corresponds to slide N
cat pptx-unpacked/ppt/slides/_rels/slideN.xml.rels | grep -i "notesSlide"

# Example output:
# <Relationship Id="rId2" Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/notesSlide" Target="../notesSlides/notesSlide2.xml"/>
# This means slideN.xml corresponds to notesSlide2.xml

Method 2: Quick View All Mappings#

bash

# List all slide-to-notes correspondences
for f in pptx-unpacked/ppt/slides/_rels/slide*.xml.rels; do
  slide=$(basename "$f" .xml.rels)
  notes=$(grep -o 'notesSlide[0-9]*\.xml' "$f" | head -1)
  if [ -n "$notes" ]; then
    echo "$slide -> $notes"
  fi
done

Edge Cases#

• Slide has no notes: grep returns no output, this slide has no notes
• Notes file exists but no corresponding slide: may be orphaned notes, can be ignored

3. Read Notes Content#

XML Namespace Reference#

PPTX XML uses these namespace prefixes:

• a: - DrawingML namespace (text, shapes)
• p: - PresentationML namespace (slide structure)
• r: - Relationships namespace

Notes text is inside <a:t> tags.

Method 1: Read Page by Page#

bash

# List all notes files
ls pptx-unpacked/ppt/notesSlides/

# Use file reading tool to read individual notes file
# Notes text is in <a:t> tags

Method 2: Batch Extract All Notes Text#

bash

# Extract text from all notes files (macOS compatible)
grep -oh '<a:t>[^<]*</a:t>' pptx-unpacked/ppt/notesSlides/*.xml | sed 's/<a:t>\([^<]*\)<\/a:t>/\1/g' | head -50

Method 3: Extract Single Page Notes by File#

bash

# Extract all text from notesSlide2.xml (macOS compatible)
grep -oh '<a:t>[^<]*</a:t>' pptx-unpacked/ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide2.xml | sed 's/<a:t>\([^<]*\)<\/a:t>/\1/g'

Handling XML Escaped Characters#

Notes text may contain these escape sequences:

• < → <
• > → >
• & → &
• " → "

Decode with sed:

bash

sed 's/&lt;/</g; s/&gt;/>/g; s/&amp;/\&/g; s/&quot;/"/g'

4. Rewrite in Narrative Style#

Narrative Style Guidelines#

• Tell a story with beginning, development, turning point, and conclusion
• Conversational and natural transitions
• Specific examples and scenarios as support
• Create empathy and engagement with the audience

Important Notes#

• MUST confirm before modifying: After generating notes draft, show it to the user and get explicit confirmation before executing any XML modification. Do NOT modify any notes without user confirmation
• If the original PPT notes are dry bullet-point lists, you need to completely rewrite them in narrative style
• If the original notes are already in narrative style, you can refine and improve them
• Do NOT assume "keep the original style" - determine the style based on the target presentation context

Modification Process#

Step 0: Ask user to select page range and notes style

Present the user with the following choices before starting:

Page Range Selection:

• All pages
• Only pages without notes
• Only pages with existing notes
• Custom range (user inputs e.g. "1-5,8,10-12")

Notes Style Selection:

• Narrative style (storytelling, conversational, with beginning/development/climax/conclusion)
• Concise bullet points (distill key information, brief and powerful)
• Verbatim script (complete spoken script that can be read aloud directly)
• Custom style (user describes desired style)

Language Selection (optional):

• Keep original language
• Chinese
• English

Step 1: Read through entire PPT content (build global context)

Before modifying page by page, you MUST read through all slides to build global context:

bash

# Batch extract text summary from all slides (macOS compatible)
for f in pptx-unpacked/ppt/slides/slide*.xml; do
  slide=$(basename "$f" .xml)
  echo "=== $slide ==="
  grep -oh '<a:t>[^<]*</a:t>' "$f" | sed 's/<a:t>\([^<]*\)<\/a:t>/\1/g'
  echo ""
done

After reading, present a global overview to the user:

text

[PPT Global Overview]
Total: X pages, Theme: xxx
Page 1: Opening - xxx
Page 2: Background - xxx
Page 3: Core argument - xxx
...
Page X: Summary - xxx

Narrative arc: xxx → xxx → xxx

Purpose of reading through:

• Understand the overall narrative arc and logical structure
• Know each page's role (setup, core argument, case study, turning point, summary)
• Avoid content duplication or logical gaps between notes
• Provide contextual support for subsequent page-by-page design

Step 2+: Page-by-page modification

1. Based on selected page range, read slide content summary page by page (extract key text from slideN.xml)
2. Read current notes (from corresponding notesSlide), leverage Step 1's global context to understand this page's role
3. Show both to user in this format:

text

--- Page N ---
[Slide Content]
Title: xxx
Points: aaa, bbb, ccc
Charts: [brief description if any]

[Current Notes]
(show full existing notes, or "None" if empty)

1. Generate notes draft according to user's selected style, present to user
2. MUST wait for user's explicit confirmation before modifying <a:t> text in XML. Do NOT execute any modification without user confirmation
3. Get user confirmation before moving to next page

XML Modification Notes#

• Require exact string matching when modifying XML
• Newlines in XML may display as literal \n
• Recommend searching file content first to confirm exact string

xml

<!-- Replace entire <a:t> tag content -->
<!-- Wrong: replacing text directly will break XML structure -->
<!-- Correct: replace the entire <a:t> tag content -->
<a:t>Old text</a:t>  →  <a:t>New text</a:t>

Example:

xml

<!-- Before -->
<a:t>This is old notes content</a:t>

<!-- After -->
<a:t>This is new notes content</a:t>

Handling Multiple Paragraphs#

If notes contain multiple paragraphs, there will be multiple <a:t> tags:

xml

<a:p>
  <a:r><a:t>First paragraph</a:t></a:r>
</a:p>
<a:p>
  <a:r><a:t>Second paragraph</a:t></a:r>
</a:p>

Modify each <a:t> tag separately.

Batch Operations Guide#

If you need to uniformly modify similar content in multiple places:

1. Search file content to confirm all locations that need modification
2. Modify each one individually
3. Verify after each modification

5. Pack PPTX#

bash

cd pptx-unpacked && zip -r ../pptx-packed.pptx . -x "*.py" -x "*.txt" -x "*.json" -x ".DS_Store"

6. Verify Modifications#

bash

# Unpack newly packed file and verify XML structure is correct
mkdir -p /tmp/verify && unzip -o pptx-packed.pptx -d /tmp/verify

# Check if modified content exists
grep "new text" /tmp/verify/ppt/notesSlides/*.xml

# Verify XML format is correct (no parse errors)
# If xmllint is installed:
# xmllint --noout /tmp/verify/ppt/notesSlides/*.xml 2>&1 && echo "XML format correct"

7. Export to MD#

Extract Slide Titles#

bash

# Extract title text from slides (macOS compatible)
# Titles are usually in the first <a:t> tag
grep -oh '<a:t>[^<]*</a:t>' pptx-unpacked/ppt/slides/slideN.xml | sed 's/<a:t>\([^<]*\)<\/a:t>/\1/g' | head -1

Export Format#

Organize all page notes into a single MD file:

markdown

# Presentation Name - Speaker Notes

## Page 1: Title
Notes content...

## Page 2: Title
Notes content...

Correct Export Script (Based on Actual Mapping)#

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Export notes in slide order using actual mapping (macOS compatible)

output="notes-export.md"
echo "# PPT Speaker Notes Export" > "$output"
echo "" >> "$output"

slide_num=0
for slide_rels in pptx-unpacked/ppt/slides/_rels/slide*.xml.rels; do
  slide_num=$((slide_num + 1))

  # Get the notes file for this slide (macOS compatible)
  notes_file=$(grep -o 'notesSlide[^"]*\.xml' "$slide_rels" | head -1)

  if [ -n "$notes_file" ] && [ -f "pptx-unpacked/ppt/notesSlides/$notes_file" ]; then
    # Get slide title (first <a:t>)
    slide_file="pptx-unpacked/ppt/slides/slide${slide_num}.xml"
    title=""
    if [ -f "$slide_file" ]; then
      title=$(grep -oh '<a:t>[^<]*</a:t>' "$slide_file" | sed 's/<a:t>\([^<]*\)<\/a:t>/\1/g' | head -1)
    fi

    echo "## Page ${slide_num}${title:+: $title}" >> "$output"
    echo "" >> "$output"

    # Extract notes text
    grep -oh '<a:t>[^<]*</a:t>' "pptx-unpacked/ppt/notesSlides/$notes_file" | \
      sed 's/<a:t>\([^<]*\)<\/a:t>/\1/g' | \
      sed 's/&lt;/</g; s/&gt;/>/g; s/&amp;/\&/g; s/&quot;/"/g' >> "$output"

    echo "" >> "$output"
    echo "---" >> "$output"
    echo "" >> "$output"
  fi
done

echo "Export complete: $output"

---

Appendix: Troubleshooting#

Issue: PPT Won't Open After Modification#

• Cause: XML structure was corrupted (e.g., unclosed tags, special characters not escaped)
• Solution: When modifying XML, ensure complete <a:t>...</a:t> structure is preserved

Issue: Modified Text Has No Effect#

• Cause: Modified the wrong notesSlide file
• Solution: Re-confirm the mapping between slideN.xml and notesSlide

Issue: Text Contains Special Characters#

• Cause: Characters like & < > " need escaping
• Solution: When modifying, ensure these characters are properly escaped as & < > "

Complete Example#

bash

# 1. Unpack
mkdir -p pptx-unpacked && unzip demo.pptx -d pptx-unpacked

# 2. Confirm mapping (find which notes correspond to page 5)
cat pptx-unpacked/ppt/slides/_rels/slide5.xml.rels | grep -i "notesSlide"
# Output: Target="../notesSlides/notesSlide3.xml"

# 3. Read page 5 notes (corresponds to notesSlide3.xml, macOS compatible)
grep -oh '<a:t>[^<]*</a:t>' pptx-unpacked/ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide3.xml | sed 's/<a:t>\([^<]*\)<\/a:t>/\1/g'

# 4. Modify notes (edit XML file)
# Replace <a:t>Old content</a:t> with <a:t>New content</a:t> in notesSlide3.xml

# 5. Pack
cd pptx-unpacked && zip -r ../demo-new.pptx . -x "*.py" -x ".DS_Store"
cd ..

# 6. Verify
mkdir -p /tmp/verify && unzip -o demo-new.pptx -d /tmp/verify
grep "new text" /tmp/verify/ppt/notesSlides/notesSlide3.xml

# 7. Export MD (using script above)

Reuse Checklist#

• Unpack PPTX to pptx-unpacked
• Confirm slide-to-notes mapping
• Determine modification scope (all/some pages)
• Confirm narrative style requirements
• Modify page by page with user confirmation
• Pack PPTX after modification
• Verify modifications took effect
• Export to MD if needed