power replace¶

Replace placeholder text throughout a presentation.

Synopsis¶

power replace PPTX_FILE REPLACEMENTS... -o OUTPUT

Description¶

Finds and replaces {{PLACEHOLDER}} text patterns throughout all slides in a presentation. Useful for filling template presentations with dynamic content.

Arguments¶

Argument	Required	Description
`PPTX_FILE`	Yes	Input presentation file
`REPLACEMENTS`	Yes	One or more `KEY=VALUE` pairs

Options¶

Option	Short	Required	Description
`--output`	`-o`	Yes	Output file path
`--help`	`-h`	No	Show help and exit

Examples¶

Single replacement¶

power replace template.pptx NAME=John -o filled.pptx

This replaces all occurrences of {{NAME}} with John.

Multiple replacements¶

power replace report.pptx \
    TITLE="Q1 Report" \
    DATE="January 2024" \
    AUTHOR="Jane Smith" \
    -o q1_report.pptx

Values with spaces¶

Use quotes for values containing spaces:

power replace template.pptx "COMPANY=Acme Corporation" -o filled.pptx

From variables¶

NAME="John Doe"
DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
power replace template.pptx "NAME=$NAME" "DATE=$DATE" -o output.pptx

Output¶

On success:

Replaced 3 placeholder(s)
Saved to: filled.pptx

On error:

Error: Invalid replacement format: invalid (expected KEY=VALUE)

Template Format¶

In your PowerPoint template, use double curly braces for placeholders:

Welcome, {{NAME}}!

Report Date: {{DATE}}
Prepared by: {{AUTHOR}}

After running:

power replace template.pptx NAME=John DATE=2024-01-15 AUTHOR=Jane -o output.pptx

The output will contain:

Welcome, John!

Report Date: 2024-01-15
Prepared by: Jane

Notes¶

Placeholder names are case-sensitive ({{Name}} ≠ {{NAME}})
Placeholders can appear in titles, body text, tables, and notes
Unreplaced placeholders remain as-is in the output
The replacement searches all text frames in all shapes

Use Cases¶

Dynamic Reports¶

Create a template with placeholders:

{{QUARTER}} - Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4
{{YEAR}} - 2024
{{REVENUE}} - $2.5M
{{GROWTH}} - +25%

Generate reports for each quarter:

power replace quarterly.pptx QUARTER=Q1 YEAR=2024 REVENUE="$2.1M" GROWTH="+20%" -o q1.pptx
power replace quarterly.pptx QUARTER=Q2 YEAR=2024 REVENUE="$2.3M" GROWTH="+22%" -o q2.pptx

Personalized Presentations¶

for name in Alice Bob Carol; do
    power replace welcome.pptx NAME=$name -o "welcome_${name}.pptx"
done

CI/CD Integration¶

# In a GitHub Action or CI pipeline
power replace release.pptx \
    VERSION=${{ github.ref_name }} \
    DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d) \
    COMMIT=${{ github.sha }} \
    -o release_notes.pptx