Slide Smith

Batch-forging decks: audit → standardize → verify. Built for courseware pipelines where dozens of .pptx files must share one visual system.

Safety rule (non-negotiable)

Never modify originals in place. Every script reads a source path and writes a new file (*_standardized.pptx or an explicit --out). If the user asks to overwrite originals, produce the outputs first, then let them swap.

Capabilities

1. Inventory — know what you're dealing with

python3 scripts/inventory.py deck.pptx [more.pptx ...] [--json]

Reports per deck: slide count, layouts used, distinct fonts, distinct font sizes, image count, text boxes overflowing slide bounds. Run this first on any batch — the inventory decides which standardize presets are needed.

2. Standardize — apply design tokens

python3 scripts/standardize.py deck.pptx --preset house [--out out.pptx]

Applies a named preset from references/design-tokens.md:

• Title/body font families and size floors (titles never below the preset's minimum; body text scaled up, never down).
• Theme colors for titles, body, and accents.
• Consistent margins for text placeholders.

Presets included: house (neutral corporate), access-large (accessibility/elder-friendly: 40pt+ titles, 24pt+ body, high contrast), sans-minimal. Add your own by editing the PRESETS dict in the script.

3. Bulk text ops — replace/append across decks

For find-replace or boilerplate insertion across a batch, drive python-pptx directly with a short inline script; pattern:

from pptx import Presentation
prs = Presentation(src)
for slide in prs.slides:
    for shape in slide.shapes:
        if shape.has_text_frame:
            for para in shape.text_frame.paragraphs:
                for run in para.runs:
                    run.text = run.text.replace(OLD, NEW)
prs.save(dst)

Keep replacements at run level to preserve formatting; only rebuild paragraphs when structure must change.

Workflow for a batch job

1. inventory.py over the whole folder → note font chaos / overflow counts.
2. Pick or define a preset; run standardize.py on one representative deck; open and eyeball it (script output says what changed).
3. Loop over the batch; collect the per-deck change summaries.
4. Deliver: standardized files + one Markdown summary (deck, slides, changes applied, warnings like "images may overlap enlarged text").

Known limits

• Charts, SmartArt and grouped shapes are not restyled (python-pptx access is limited); inventory flags them so a human can check.
• Font availability: standardize sets font names; if the target machine lacks the font, PowerPoint substitutes. Prefer widely installed families.
• Overflow detection is geometric (box bounds vs slide), not optical.