PowerPoint (PPTX) manipulation library for .NET / C# developers

ShapeCrawler provides a clean, intuitive API on top of the Open XML SDK, making it easy to read, create, and modify .pptx files programmatically.

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📦 Installation

dotnet add package ShapeCrawler

🚀 Getting Started

// Load an existing presentation
var pres = new Presentation("presentation.pptx");

// Access shapes on a slide
var shapes = pres.Slide(1).Shapes;
var textBox = shapes.Shape("TextBox 1");

// Read text content
var text = textBox.TextBox.Text;

// Modify and save
textBox.TextBox.SetText("Updated content");
pres.Save();

🎯 Why ShapeCrawler?

• No Office Required – Process presentations on any platform without Microsoft Office installation
• Clean API – Intuitive object model that hides the complexity of Open XML
• Open Source — Actively maintained

💡 Common Use Cases

Create presentations

// Create a new presentation with a slide
var pres = new Presentation(p => p.Slide());

// Add a shape with text
var shapes = pres.Slide(1).Shapes;
shapes.AddShape(x: 50, y: 60, width: 100, height: 70);

var addedShape = shapes.Last();
addedShape.TextBox.SetText("Hello World!");

pres.Save("output.pptx");

Update image

var pres = new Presentation("presentation.pptx");
var picture = pres.Slide(1).Shape("Picture 1").Picture;

// Replace the image
using var newImage = File.OpenRead("new-image.png");
picture.Image.Update(newImage);

pres.Save();

Tables

Create table

var pres = new Presentation("presentation.pptx");
var shapes = pres.Slide(1).Shapes;

// Add a 3x2 table at position (50, 120)
shapes.AddTable(x: 50, y: 120, columnsCount: 3, rowsCount: 2);

var table = shapes.Last().Table;
table[0, 0].TextBox.SetText("Hello table");

pres.Save();

Update table

var pres = new Presentation("presentation.pptx");
var table = pres.Slide(1).Shapes.Shape("Table 1").Table;

// Insert a row at index 1, using row 0 as a template
table.Rows.Add(1, 0);

// Merge two header cells
table.MergeCells(table[0, 0], table[0, 1]);

pres.Save();

Lines

Adding a straight line

var pres = new Presentation("presentation.pptx");
var shapes = pres.Slide(1).Shapes;

// Add a line from (50, 60) to (100, 60)
shapes.AddLine(startPointX: 50, startPointY: 60, endPointX: 100, endPointY: 60);

Accessing Start and End Points

var pres = new Presentation("presentation.pptx");
var line = pres.Slide(1).Shapes.First(shape => shape.GeometryType == Geometry.Line).Line;

var start = line.StartPoint; // Point(x, y)
var end = line.EndPoint;     // Point(x, y)
Console.WriteLine($"Line from {start.X},{start.Y} to {end.X},{end.Y}");

Charts

Create Bar Chart

var pres = new Presentation(p => p.Slide());
var shapes = pres.Slide(1).Shapes;

var points = new Dictionary<string, double>
{
    { "Q1", 50 },
    { "Q2", 60 },
    { "Q3", 40 }
};

// Add a bar chart
shapes.AddBarChart(x: 100, y: 100, width: 500, height: 350, points, "Sales");

pres.Save("output.pptx");

Update Chart Category

var pres = new Presentation("presentation.pptx");
var chart = pres.Slide(1).Shapes.Shape("Bar Chart 1").Chart;

// Update category name
chart.Categories[0].Name = "Renamed Category";

pres.Save();

More Examples

See More Examples

❓ Getting Help

Have questions? We're here to help!

• Issues – Report bugs or request features
• Discussions Forum – Ask questions and share ideas
• Email – Reach out to theadamo86@gmail.com

🤝 Contributing

We love contributions! Here's how you can help:

• Give us a star ⭐ – If you find ShapeCrawler useful, show your support with a star!
• Reporting Bugs – Found a bug? Open an issue with a clear description of the problem
• Contribute Code – Pull requests are welcome!
• Need to share a confidential file? – Email it to theadamo86@gmail.com – only the maintainer will access it

🔄 Pre-release Versions

Want to try the latest features? Access pre-release builds from the master branch using the following NuGet: https://www.myget.org/F/shape/api/v3/index.json

📝 Changelog

Version 0.77.0 - 2025-12-24

🍀Added support for updating the category name of the multi-category chart #151

View Full Changelog