OpenPresenter

01 / THE PROBLEM

Problem & objectives

Open and present a PowerPoint file without installing Office or relying on a conversion server.

Open-source browser application for opening and presenting .pptx files without requiring Microsoft PowerPoint, LibreOffice, or a server-side conversion service.

02 / THE SYSTEM

Architecture & technology

The browser validates the ZIP signature, JSZip extracts the Office Open XML package, and a parser normalizes slide coordinates. React renders the resulting content with HTML, CSS, and SVG.

1. Local .pptx file
2. Parse & normalize
3. Browser presentation

03 / THE BUILD

Implementation & key features

• Runs in the browser
• Opens and presents .pptx files
• No Microsoft PowerPoint or LibreOffice dependency
• No server-side conversion service required

04 / THE BOUNDARIES

Security & reliability

Design notes and review considerations documented alongside this project:

• Treat uploaded presentation files as untrusted input
• Client-side processing reduces the need to transmit presentation files to a conversion server
• File parsing should fail safely on malformed input

05 / THE DECISIONS

Challenges & trade-offs

Local processing avoids a conversion service, but slide compatibility is progressive. SmartArt, charts, animations, and exact Microsoft font substitution are outside the current MVP.

06 / THE RESULT

Outcome & engineering takeaways

A browser application with thumbnail navigation, keyboard presentation controls, fullscreen support, and graceful handling of unsupported slide elements.

The engineering takeaway is to make the system’s capabilities and limits explicit. The repository documents the implementation and its current scope.