Thesis Defense PPTX

Use this skill for local, editable .pptx thesis defense decks that must follow a supplied university/lab/company PowerPoint template.

Operating Principles

• Platform: Windows + Microsoft PowerPoint for COM-driven cloning, export, and overflow inspection. On macOS/Linux, use the python-pptx-only parts and skip COM-based quality gates.
• Treat the visual template as the source of truth. Preserve its cover, colors, fonts, navigation, card styles, logos, and slide proportions unless the user explicitly asks to redesign.
• Read the thesis source first: PDF, LaTeX, figures, old PPT, experiment scripts, tables, and captions. Do not generate from topic/title alone when source files exist.
• Build a source-asset inventory before placing images: extract \includegraphics entries and captions from the final TeX/PDF, then use only thesis-cited figures or images the user explicitly approves. Do not carry over pictures from a template, old progress deck, or draft figure folder merely because they look relevant.
• Prefer copying native template slides and replacing content over rebuilding from blank slides.
• Keep slides concise and presentation-oriented. Convert thesis prose into defense talking points.
• Preserve the template's font sizes and hierarchy by default. For projection readability, first shorten text, split dense slides, or use the template's larger existing layouts; only change font sizes locally when the template itself provides no readable fit.
• Always generate an editable .pptx, not only an outline, image deck, PDF, or HTML.
• Always run a visual quality gate before final response: export slide images, inspect a contact sheet plus key full-size slide screenshots, check text overflow, check stale template words/images, and verify the PPTX opens.

Recommended Workflow

1. Identify inputs:

   • thesis project path or full thesis document
   • visual template PPTX
   • optional old defense/report PPTX
   • output directory and desired filename

2. Extract thesis context:

   • Use scripts/extract_thesis_context.py to summarize PDF/TeX text and list candidate figures.
   • Read source files directly when details matter: abstract, introduction, method, experiments, results, conclusion.
   • Create an explicit list of final-thesis figures from \includegraphics and captions. Treat this as the allow-list for PPT images unless the user requests new visuals.
   • Collect defense-critical facts: problem, motivation, modeling, algorithms, experimental setup, baselines, metrics, key results, limitations, future work.

3. Analyze the template:

   • Export template slides to PNG if PowerPoint is available.
   • Inspect cover, TOC, navigation, section, body/card, chart/image, summary, and closing slide styles.
   • Note fonts, font sizes, red/brand color, card dimensions, line widths, and spacing.

4. Build a native template skeleton:

   • Use PowerPoint COM (scripts/clone_template_deck.ps1) when PowerPoint is installed.
   • Copy or duplicate original template slides in the needed order.
   • Use python-pptx only to replace content and add images/shapes after the skeleton is valid.

5. Fill content:

   • Use 12-16 slides for undergraduate defense unless user specifies otherwise.
   • Typical order: cover, TOC, background, problem definition, work summary, system/method, modeling, implementation, experiment setup, training/results, comparison, robustness/multi-seed, innovation/limitations, summary/outlook, thanks.
   • Use final-thesis figures first and verify each inserted picture against the source-asset inventory. If a picture is from a template or old deck and is not thesis-cited, replace it or remove it.
   • Keep dense tables limited to headline metrics; move detailed prose into verbal notes or omit. Prefer one message per slide, large existing template placeholders, metric cards, and short bullets over shrinking text or adding small multi-column tables.
   • Match the template's typography before changing sizes: preserve title/body/table/navigation sizing where possible, and use content reduction or slide splitting before manual font scaling.

6. Quality gate:

   • Export final PPTX to PNG with scripts/export_pptx_png.ps1.
   • Create a contact sheet with scripts/make_contact_sheet.py.
   • Run scripts/inspect_pptx_overflow.ps1.
   • Run scripts/scan_pptx_text.py for slide count and stale template terms.
   • Inspect the contact sheet manually, then open any risky slide full-size. COM overflow is not sufficient: also check visible clipping, text crossing card borders, small text caused by overfilling, stale template images, image aspect ratios, and text/card overlap.
   • Check stale template text, placeholders, wrong names/dates, wrong navigation labels, red active-nav white text, and non-thesis images accidentally inherited from the template or old progress deck.
   • Fix and repeat until the exported deck is clean.

7. Final response:

   • Give the full output path, total slide count, main changes, validation performed, and any unresolved manual confirmations.

Script Usage

Extract thesis context:

python scripts/extract_thesis_context.py --input "D:\path\to\thesis" --output "D:\path\to\thesis_context.md"

Clone template slides into a native skeleton:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/clone_template_deck.ps1 `
  -Template "D:\path\template.pptx" `
  -Output "D:\path\output.pptx" `
  -SlideSequence "1,2,3,4,4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15"

In this example slide 4 is deliberately reused as a sub-section page and slide 5 is skipped.

Export final deck:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/export_pptx_png.ps1 `
  -Pptx "D:\path\output.pptx" `
  -OutDir "D:\path\visual_check" `
  -Width 1600 -Height 900

Inspect possible overflow:

powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/inspect_pptx_overflow.ps1 `
  -Pptx "D:\path\output.pptx" `
  -Tolerance 40 `
  -OutputJson "D:\path\overflow.json"

Make a contact sheet:

python scripts/make_contact_sheet.py --input "D:\path\visual_check" --output "D:\path\contact_sheet.png"

Scan deck text and forbidden terms:

python scripts/scan_pptx_text.py `
  --pptx "D:\path\output.pptx" `
  --bad "中期检查,项目简介,系统框图,算法设计,成果展示,总结分析,TODO,占位"

For quality criteria, read references/pptx_quality_gate.md.

Iteration Tips

The fastest way to fail a content fill is guessing strings instead of reading them. Use this loop:

1. Dump first. Run scripts/dump_pptx_content.py --pptx <skeleton> --output dump.md to list every shape's exact text, plus all table cells and picture names. Open dump.md and copy the strings you intend to replace.
2. Prefer partial match for body text. Use replace_partial_text(slide, {"keyword": "new full text"}) instead of replace_exact_text whenever the body sentence might differ from the template by a stray space, half/full-width quote, or —— vs —. Pass min_len=20 to avoid short-key collisions with navigation tags.
3. Keep replace_exact_text for short tags. Navigation labels and section titles ("项目简介", "工作总结") are stable; exact match is safer because it cannot accidentally rewrite a body paragraph that happens to contain the same word.
4. Use the table/picture helpers. write_table(table, rows) preserves cell font/color/size, and replace_picture(slide, old_pic, new_path) swaps an image while keeping position and size — both avoid the boilerplate of removing and re-creating shapes.
5. Re-run overflow + scan after every fill pass. Overflow caused by longer content is the single most common bug; fix by shortening copy first, then by manual \n line breaks, and only resize the textbox if the template visual really allows it.
6. Encoding. All Python scripts shipped here force stdout to UTF-8, and the PowerShell scripts force the console output codepage