Office documents

This skill introduces tools for working with Office documents and checking the resulting files.

Presentation routing

• Use this skill’s PPTX guidance only when the requested operation modifies an existing actual .pptx file. Reading and rendering that file may support the edit; mentioning PPTX or requesting a PPTX output alone does not trigger this guidance.
• Use the Slides skill to create presentations, including presentations delivered as .pptx.
• Use the Slides skill for Slides artifacts, including edits to their source and exports. A PPTX export does not change which skill owns the Slides workflow.

Tool selection

Choose a suitable tool based on the requested operation, available capabilities, and required output quality. Follow the user's tool and formatting preferences. OfficeCLI and LibreOffice are available options: another suitable tool or library may be used directly or as a fallback when a tool is unavailable, fails, or does not meet the task's needs.

Tool or task	Guidance
OfficeCLI	Create, inspect, and edit DOCX/XLSX; modify existing PPTX files; or export static HTML for these tasks. Read the CLI reference when choosing this tool.
PDF conversion	Read PDF conversion for the LibreOffice option and output verification. Other suitable converters are allowed.
Tool setup	Read environment setup if the selected tool needs installation or dependency preparation.

The format guides below describe OfficeCLI operations. Read the matching guide when using that tool:

• Word — docx.md
• Excel and CSV — xlsx.md
• Existing PPTX file edits only — pptx.md; presentation creation and Slides artifacts use the Slides skill.

Setup and reuse

A skill file on disk does not mean OfficeCLI is on PATH. Do not start document work with officecli --version or officecli help until a binary path is resolved.

1. If another suitable tool already meets the task, use it and skip OfficeCLI.
2. If you choose OfficeCLI, follow environment setup: pick the OS with uname -s (Linux/Darwin → bash probe; MINGW*/MSYS*/CYGWIN* or no uname → PowerShell probe). Do not infer the current shell from uname. If empty, run the matching official installer and probe again; then invoke only via the printed absolute path using the current shell's quoting (& is PowerShell-only; Git Bash uses a quoted /c/... path). Re-probe in a new shell; do not assume $CLI survives.
3. command not found / exit 127 on a bare officecli means the current PATH has no working binary. Continue the setup steps or switch tools. It is not a device-offline failure. Do not treat 127 as success, and do not keep calling a path that failed --version.
4. Reuse the official installer's location in the same environment (typically $HOME/.local/bin on Unix/WSL). A Windows host install is not reusable inside WSL, and the reverse is also false.

Verify the result

Save pending edits before another tool reads the file. Verify the actual deliverable: check content, document structure, and rendered layout as relevant to the task. Use the same quality criteria when switching tools; a successful command alone does not establish that the document is correct.