A presentation is opened using the :func:`Presentation` function, provided directly by the :mod:`pptx` package:

from pptx import Presentation

This function returns a :class:`.Presentation` object which is the root of a graph containing the components that constitute a presentation, e.g. slides, shapes, etc. All existing presentation components are referenced by traversing the graph and new objects are added to the graph by calling a method on that object's container. Consequently, |pp| objects are generally not constructed directly.

Example:

# load a presentation
prs = Presentation(path_to_pptx_file)

# get reference to first shape in first slide
sp = prs.slides[0].shapes[0]

# add a picture shape to slide
pic = sld.shapes.add_picture(path, x, y, cx, cy)

This function is the only reference that must be imported to work with presentation files. Typical use interacts with many other classes, but there is no need to construct them as they are accessed using a property or method of their containing object.

.. autofunction:: pptx.Presentation

.. autoclass:: pptx.presentation.Presentation()
   :members:
   :member-order: bysource
   :exclude-members: part
   :undoc-members:

Each |Presentation| object has a |CoreProperties| object accessed via its :attr:`core_properties` attribute that provides read/write access to the so-called core properties for the document. The core properties are author, category, comments, content_status, created, identifier, keywords, language, last_modified_by, last_printed, modified, revision, subject, title, and version.

Each property is one of three types, |str|, |datetime|, or |int|. String properties are limited in length to 255 characters and return an empty string ('') if not set. Date properties are assigned and returned as |datetime| objects without timezone, i.e. in UTC. Any timezone conversions are the responsibility of the client. Date properties return |None| if not set.

|pp| does not automatically set any of the document core properties other than to add a core properties part to a presentation that doesn't have one (very uncommon). If |pp| adds a core properties part, it contains default values for the title, last_modified_by, revision, and modified properties. Client code should change properties like revision and last_modified_by explicitly if that behavior is desired.

.. attribute:: author

   *string* -- An entity primarily responsible for making the content of the
   resource.

.. attribute:: category

   *string* -- A categorization of the content of this package. Example
   values might include: Resume, Letter, Financial Forecast, Proposal,
   or Technical Presentation.

.. attribute:: comments

   *string* -- An account of the content of the resource.

.. attribute:: content_status

   *string* -- completion status of the document, e.g. 'draft'

.. attribute:: created

   *datetime* -- time of intial creation of the document

.. attribute:: identifier

   *string* -- An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given
   context, e.g. ISBN.

.. attribute:: keywords

   *string* -- descriptive words or short phrases likely to be used as
   search terms for this document

.. attribute:: language

   *string* -- language the document is written in

.. attribute:: last_modified_by

   *string* -- name or other identifier (such as email address) of person
   who last modified the document

.. attribute:: last_printed

   *datetime* -- time the document was last printed

.. attribute:: modified

   *datetime* -- time the document was last modified

.. attribute:: revision

   *int* -- number of this revision, incremented by the PowerPoint® client
   once each time the document is saved. Note however that the revision
   number is not automatically incremented by |pp|.

.. attribute:: subject

   *string* -- The topic of the content of the resource.

.. attribute:: title

   *string* -- The name given to the resource.

.. attribute:: version

   *string* -- free-form version string