pptx_to_md

Powerpoint to Markdown converter - Python 3 script

NOTE: This works on .pptx files ONLY - if you're using Google Drive or Keynote etc export your presentation to .pptx first.

What does it do:

Takes a PowerPoint file and a PDF of the same file (generated from the same application) and generates a Markdown version in a directory with an image for each slide and a yaml metadata block as used by various static site generators.

Audience

This is for people who know how to run Python or Docker. Instructions are for MacOs.

About

This is a simple rough and ready way to turn a Powerpoint slide deck into Markdown.

Installation

This project uses the Poetry package manager.

• Install Poetry if you don't have it.

• Get this code :

  cd ~/working
  git clone https://github.com/ptsefton/pptx_to_md.git
  cd pptx_to_md
  

• Set up a virtual environment with Poetry

  poetry install # Installs the dependencies in a virtual environment
  poetry shell # Starts an shell so you can use python
  

Usage

To create a markdown version of a .pptx file, run this:

python pptx2md.py  your-preso.pptx 

The result ia directory your-preso/ and with an index.md file in it.

The script WILL NOT create images for the slides (but see below the experimental part) - for that you need a PDF file. The best way to get a PDF is to manually create it from the application you used to make the .pptx file, usually Microsoft Word or Google Slides. if you have a PDF file with the same name as the .pprtx with a .pdf extension run:

python pptx2md.py  --pdf your-preso.pptx 

If you're using Pelican or another CMS that needs it you can also add a prefix to the image paths use the -i flag:

python pptx2md.py -p -i {attach} your-preso.pptx 

Experimental

If you would like to try your luck at getting Libre/Open Office to generate the PDF for you you can do this:

# On a mac with LibreOffice installed
python3 pptx2md.py --soffice /Applications/LibreOffice.app/Contents/MacOS/soffice  --topdf  preso.pptx

# On linux or where soffice is in your path
python3 pptx2md.py --topdf  preso.pptx

As a docker container (experimental)

Make a container:

docker build -t rocxl .

Run the container:

docker run -v ${pwd} pptx2md yourfile.pptx