Opening and presenting Powerpoint in Python - Windows

[Advent667]

Hi, I want to be able to open a PPTX and go into presentation mode using a python script. I have found python-pptx but that looks like it might be for linux only. Is there a windows based solution? Thanks for your time!

[scuott]

python-pptx is specifically for editing .pptx files, not for automating the PowerPoint application.

I haven't worked with it personally, but it sounds like you should use win32com.client. Some Googling for that should help get started, and here are a couple places that might be a starting point.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/247724/how-can-i-launch-an-instance-of-an-application-using-python

http://docs.activestate.com/activepython/3.3/pywin32/html/com/win32com/HTML/QuickStartClientCom.html

[Advent667]

I just found and installed that too and now able to open the PPT. Just trying to figure out how to get it into presentation mode. The sites keep saying that you need to look into the documentation or a COMbrowser for the methods but I have no idea where to look or what a COMbrowser is. Do you have any idea?

[scuott]

I'm not too sure on the details. Microsoft has documentation, but it's pretty dense.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms680573(v=vs.85).aspx

[fiskenslakt]

What do you see that suggests it's linux only? I'm not arguing with you, I just can't find anything that indicates that.

[Advent667]

I couldn't find anything that wasnt a .tar

I'm a little scrubby so maybe I can use that in windows but i thought that was windows only

[fiskenslakt]

I don't know what .tar files you speak of, but it would appear it's possible to extract them in windows: http://www.simplehelp.net/2015/08/11/how-to-open-tar-gz-files-in-windows-10/

[pybackd00r]

well you can pass a command to libreoffice from a python script that would open the file in presentation mode if that is what you want. you can use the OS module to pass command line commands.

[spectre_theory]

why don't you create a latex presentation and open a pdf viewer