PowerPoint Viewer for VS Code

An extension that allows you to directly preview PowerPoint files (.pptx) within VS Code.

Continuous display of all slides with vertical scrolling

Features

• 📊 Display PowerPoint files as high-quality images
• 📜 Continuous display of all slides with vertical scrolling
• 🎯 Complete rendering by LibreOffice (faithfully reproduces fonts, colors, and layouts)
• 🔍 Zoom function (50% - 200%)
• 📍 Display current slide position in the status bar
• ⚡ Complete within VS Code, no PowerPoint app required
• 🎨 Accurately display animations and complex shapes as images

Screenshots

The following features are available in the preview screen:

• Continuous display of all slides by scrolling
• Display number on each slide
• Display PowerPoint appearance exactly as images
• UI compatible with VS Code themes

Prerequisites

To use this extension, the following software must be installed on your system:

1. LibreOffice

Used to convert PowerPoint files to PDF.

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libreoffice

macOS:

brew install --cask libreoffice

Windows: Download and install from the LibreOffice Official Website

2. Poppler

Used to convert PDF to images.

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install poppler-utils

macOS:

brew install poppler

Windows: Download and configure Poppler for Windows

📘 Detailed Guide for Windows

Windows users should check WINDOWS-SETUP.md for detailed setup instructions (with screenshots).

Simplified Windows Steps:

1. Install LibreOffice
2. Download Poppler and extract to C:\poppler
3. Add the following to the PATH environment variable:

• C:\Program Files\LibreOffice\program
• C:\poppler\Library\bin

4. Restart Command Prompt and verify: soffice --version and pdftoppm -v

Installation

Installing Development Version

1. Clone this repository:

git clone <repository-url>
cd vscode-powerpoint-viewer

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Compile TypeScript:

npm run compile

4. Run for development in VS Code:

• Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host

Installing from VSIX File

1. Package the extension:

npm install -g @vscode/vsce
vsce package

2. Install the generated .vsix file into VS Code:

• Ctrl+Shift+P (Mac: Cmd+Shift+P) in VS Code
• Select "Extensions: Install from VSIX..."
• Select the generated .vsix file

Usage

Method 1: Right-click the file

1. Right-click the .pptx file in Explorer
2. Select "Open With..."
3. Select "PowerPoint Preview"

Method 2: From Command Palette

1. Open a .pptx file
2. Open Command Palette with Ctrl+Shift+P (Mac: Cmd+Shift+P)
3. Run "PowerPoint: Open Preview"

Method 3: Set as Default Editor

1. Right-click the .pptx file
2. "Open With..." → "Configure Default Editor for '*.pptx'..."
3. Select "PowerPoint Preview"

Examples

Review Presentation

1. Right-click a .pptx file in the project
2. Select "Open With..." → "PowerPoint Preview"
3. Check all slides by scrolling

Compare Multiple Presentations

1. Open multiple .pptx files
2. Display each with "PowerPoint Preview"
3. Switch tabs to compare contents

Navigation

The following operations are possible in the preview screen:

Scroll

• Mouse Wheel/Trackpad: Continuous display of all slides
• Current Slide: Displayed in status bar

Zoom Function

• Zoom In: "+" button in header or Ctrl/Cmd + +
• Zoom Out: "−" button in header or Ctrl/Cmd + -
• Reset: "⟲" button in header or Ctrl/Cmd + 0
• Mouse Wheel: Ctrl/Cmd + Wheel to zoom
• Zoom Range: 50% - 200%

Status Bar

Displays the following information at the bottom of the screen:

• 📄 Current Slide Number / Total Slides
• 🔍 Current Zoom Level
• File Name

Troubleshooting

Error "LibreOffice is not installed"

Check if LibreOffice is installed on your system. You can verify by running the following in the command line:

soffice --version

Error "Poppler is not installed"

Check if Poppler is installed on your system. You can verify by running the following in the command line:

pdftoppm -v

Preview does not appear

1. Check if LibreOffice and Poppler are installed correctly
2. Check if the file is not corrupted (verify if it opens in PowerPoint)
3. Check for errors in the VS Code Developer Console (Help → Toggle Developer Tools)

Slow Performance

Presentations with large files or many slides may take time to convert. After the initial conversion, results are cached as temporary files.

Development

Build

npm run compile

Watch Mode

npm run watch

Debug

1. Open this project in VS Code
2. Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host
3. Open a .pptx file in the Development Host to test

License

MIT License

Contribution

Pull requests are welcome! Please report bugs and feature requests in Issues.

Future Plans

• [ ] Slide zoom function
• [ ] Jump to specific slide function
• [ ] Presentation mode
• [ ] Slide search function
• [ ] Comparison view of multiple presentations
• [ ] Improve cache management

Technical Details

This extension uses the following tools:

• LibreOffice - Conversion from PowerPoint to PDF
• Poppler - Conversion from PDF to images

Process Flow:

1. Convert PowerPoint file (.pptx) to PDF with LibreOffice
2. Convert PDF to high-resolution JPEG images with Poppler
3. Base64 encode images and embed in WebView
4. Display as vertically scrollable HTML