--- name: working-with-documents description: | Creates and edits Office documents: Word (.docx), PDF, and PowerPoint (.pptx). Use when working with document creation, PDF manipulation, presentation generation, tracked changes, or converting between formats. --- # Working with Documents ## Quick Reference | Format | Read | Create | Edit | |--------|------|--------|------| | DOCX | pandoc, python-docx | docx-js | OOXML (unpack\/edit\/pack) | | PDF | pdfplumber, pypdf | reportlab | pypdf (merge\/split) | | PPTX | markitdown | html2pptx | OOXML (unpack\/edit\/pack) | ## Word Documents (.docx) ### Reading Content ```bash # Convert to markdown (preserves structure) pandoc document.docx -o output.md # With tracked changes visible pandoc --track-changes=all document.docx -o output.md ``` ### Creating New Documents Use **docx-js** (JavaScript): ```javascript const { Document, Packer, Paragraph, TextRun } = require('docx'); const doc = new Document({ sections: [{ children: [ new Paragraph({ children: [ new TextRun({ text: "Hello World", bold: true }), ], }), ], }], }); Packer.toBuffer(doc).then(buffer => { fs.writeFileSync("output.docx", buffer); }); ``` ### Editing Existing Documents (Tracked Changes) ```bash # 1. Unpack python ooxml\/scripts\/unpack.py document.docx unpacked\/ # 2. Edit XML files in unpacked\/word\/document.xml # Key files: # - word\/document.xml (main content) # - word\/comments.xml (comments) # - word\/media\/ (images) # 3. Pack python ooxml\/scripts\/pack.py unpacked\/ edited.docx ``` **Tracked changes XML pattern:** ```xml old text<\/w:delText><\/w:r><\/w:del> new text<\/w:t><\/w:r><\/w:ins> ``` ## PDF Documents ### Reading PDFs ```python import pdfplumber # Extract text with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf: for page in pdf.pages: print(page.extract_text()) # Extract tables with pdfplumber.open("document.pdf") as pdf: for page in pdf.pages: tables = page.extract_tables() for table in tables: for row in table: print(row) ``` ### Creating PDFs ```python from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter from reportlab.platypus import SimpleDocTemplate, Paragraph from reportlab.lib.styles import getSampleStyleSheet doc = SimpleDocTemplate("output.pdf", pagesize=letter) styles = getSampleStyleSheet() story = [ Paragraph("Report Title", styles['Title']), Paragraph("Body text goes here.", styles['Normal']), ] doc.build(story) ``` ### Merging\/Splitting PDFs ```python from pypdf import PdfReader, PdfWriter # Merge writer = PdfWriter() for pdf_file in ["doc1.pdf", "doc2.pdf"]: reader = PdfReader(pdf_file) for page in reader.pages: writer.add_page(page) writer.write(open("merged.pdf", "wb")) # Split reader = PdfReader("input.pdf") for i, page in enumerate(reader.pages): writer = PdfWriter() writer.add_page(page) writer.write(open(f"page_{i+1}.pdf", "wb")) ``` ### Command-Line Tools ```bash # Extract text pdftotext input.pdf output.txt pdftotext -layout input.pdf output.txt # Preserve layout # Merge with qpdf qpdf --empty --pages file1.pdf file2.pdf -- merged.pdf # Split pages qpdf input.pdf --pages . 1-5 -- pages1-5.pdf ``` ## PowerPoint Presentations (.pptx) ### Reading Content ```bash # Convert to markdown python -m markitdown presentation.pptx ``` ### Creating New Presentations Use **html2pptx** workflow: 1. Create HTML slides (720pt × 405pt for 16:9) 2. Convert with html2pptx.js library 3. Validate with thumbnail grid ```bash # Create thumbnails for validation python scripts\/thumbnail.py output.pptx --cols 4 ``` ### Editing Existing Presentations ```bash # 1. Unpack python ooxml\/scripts\/unpack.py presentation.pptx unpacked\/ # Key files: # - ppt\/slides\/slide1.xml, slide2.xml, etc. # - ppt\/notesSlides\/ (speaker notes) # - ppt\/media\/ (images) # 2. Edit XML # 3. Validate python ooxml\/scripts\/validate.py unpacked\/ --original presentation.pptx # 4. Pack python ooxml\/scripts\/pack.py unpacked\/ edited.pptx ``` ### Rearranging Slides ```bash # Duplicate, reorder, delete slides python scripts\/rearrange.py template.pptx output.pptx 0,3,3,5,7 # Creates: slide 0, slide 3 (twice), slide 5, slide 7 ``` ## Converting Between Formats ```bash # DOCX\/PPTX to PDF soffice --headless --convert-to pdf document.docx # PDF to images pdftoppm -jpeg -r 150 document.pdf page # Creates: page-1.jpg, page-2.jpg, etc. # DOCX to Markdown pandoc document.docx -o output.md ``` ## OCR for Scanned Documents ```python import pytesseract from pdf2image import convert_from_path images = convert_from_path('scanned.pdf') text = "" for image in images: text += pytesseract.image_to_string(image) ``` ## Design Guidelines (Presentations) ### Color Palettes Pick 3-5 colors that work together: | Palette | Colors | |---------|--------| | Classic Blue | Navy #1C2833, Slate #2E4053, Silver #AAB7B8 | | Teal & Coral | Teal #5EA8A7, Coral #FE4447, White #FFFFFF | | Black & Gold | Gold #BF9A4A, Black #000000, Cream #F4F6F6 | ### Web-Safe Fonts Only Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, Georgia, Verdana, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, Courier New, Impact ### Layout Rules - Two-column: Use for exactly 2 distinct items - Three-column: Use for exactly 3 items - Never vertically stack charts below text - Full-bleed images with text overlays work well ## Dependencies ```bash # Python pip install pypdf pdfplumber reportlab python-docx openpyxl # System tools apt-get install pandoc poppler-utils libreoffice # Node.js (for docx-js) npm install docx ``` ## Verification Run: `python scripts\/verify.py` ## Related Skills - `working-with-spreadsheets` - Excel file handling - `building-nextjs-apps` - Frontend for document uploads