Feature Request: Support for Adding Shape Animations (Entrance/Exit) via python-pptx or slides animation

[sajjad-salam]

Hello,

First of all, thank you for the great work on python-pptx. It has been extremely useful for generating PowerPoint files programmatically.

After extensive testing and research, I confirmed that python-pptx currently does not support adding animations to individual shapes (such as entrance/exit effects like Fly In, Fade, etc.). This limitation is also mentioned in several existing discussions and issues.

Current Behavior

Slide transitions (e.g., Morph, Push, Fade) can be added and work correctly.

Shape-level animations (text boxes, images, shapes) cannot be added using the public API.

Attempting to manipulate animations via XML is unreliable and unsupported.

Expected / Desired Behavior

It would be very valuable if python-pptx could support:

Adding entrance and exit animations to shapes

Basic animation types (Fly In, Fade, Appear, etc.)

Control over animation direction, duration, and trigger (on click / after previous)

Why This Matters

Many users generate presentations programmatically for:

Educational content

Automated report generation

AI-generated presentations

Animations are a key part of professional PowerPoint presentations, and currently users must rely on:

Commercial libraries (Aspose, Spire), or

VBA macro workarounds (which require enabling macros)

Native support in python-pptx would greatly expand its capabilities and adoption.

References

python-pptx documentation

Existing GitHub issues discussing animation limitations (e.g., #400)

Commercial libraries that already support this feature

I understand this may require significant work on the underlying OOXML animation model, but I wanted to formally request and discuss the possibility.

[MartinPacker]

I'm not the developer but...

... You mentioned issues with manipulating the XML to get transitions / animations.

1. What were the issues?

2. Do you have any sample XML?

(I don't use animations myself but might be persuaded to - and to prototype code that could do what you want.)

[sajjad-salam]

I’m not the original library developer, but from my testing:

At the moment, I’m not able to add animations reliably, neither:

Shape animations (text boxes, images: fly-in, fade, etc.)

Slide-level animations beyond basic transitions

For slide transitions, I was only able to get them working by manually injecting XML (using mc:AlternateContent) based on known examples. This works for simple transitions like push or fade but also when i open the file i have a this response from the powerpoint , but it feels fragile and outside the public API.

For shape animations, I wasn’t able to make them work at all:

Manually inserting animation-related XML either gets ignored by PowerPoint or causes the file to behave inconsistently.

The OOXML animation structure is complex and not well-documented, and small mistakes cause PowerPoint to silently drop the animation.

python-pptx doesn’t currently expose helpers for timing nodes, triggers, or animation sequences.

I don’t have a clean, minimal XML example for shape animations that works reliably yet.

That said, I’m going to experiment next with applying a single animation at the presentation / file level (rather than per shape) to see whether PowerPoint accepts it more consistently. If I manage to get a stable result, I’ll share the XML snippet and findings.

Thanks for being open to looking into this — I really appreciate it.

[sajjad-salam]

this is the response and this is the sample code """ PowerPoint Slide Transitions Module

This module provides functions to add slide transitions to PowerPoint presentations.
Based on Stack Overflow solution: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/73901095/

Author: Martin Packer
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
"""
`
from pptx.oxml import parse_xml

def add_transition_to_slide(slide, transition_type="push", duration_ms=1000):
"""
Add a transition effect to a PowerPoint slide.

Args:
    slide: pptx.slide.Slide object
    transition_type: Type of transition ("push", "fade", "ripple", "reveal", etc.)
    duration_ms: Duration of transition in milliseconds (default: 1000)

Returns:
    None

Example:
    from pptx import Presentation
    from transitions import add_transition_to_slide

    prs = Presentation("presentation.pptx")
    slide = prs.slides[0]
    add_transition_to_slide(slide, "push", 1000)
    prs.save("presentation.pptx")
"""

# Convert duration to appropriate format
if duration_ms <= 500:
    spd = "fast"
elif duration_ms <= 1500:
    spd = "medium"
else:
    spd = "slow"

# XML templates for different transition types
transition_templates = {
    "push": f'''
      <mc:AlternateContent xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006">
    <mc:Choice xmlns:p14="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/2010/main" Requires="p14">
      <p:transition xmlns:p="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/presentationml/2006/main" spd="{spd}" p14:dur="{duration_ms}">
        <p14:push />
      </p:transition>
    </mc:Choice>
    <mc:Fallback>
      <p:transition xmlns:p="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/presentationml/2006/main" spd="{spd}">
        <p:fade />
      </p:transition>
    </mc:Fallback>
  </mc:AlternateContent>
    ''',

    "fade": f'''
      <mc:AlternateContent xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006">
    <mc:Choice xmlns:p14="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/2010/main" Requires="p14">
      <p:transition xmlns:p="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/presentationml/2006/main" spd="{spd}" p14:dur="{duration_ms}">
        <p14:fade />
      </p:transition>
    </mc:Choice>
    <mc:Fallback>
      <p:transition xmlns:p="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/presentationml/2006/main" spd="{spd}">
        <p:fade />
      </p:transition>
    </mc:Fallback>
  </mc:AlternateContent>
    ''',

    "ripple": f'''
      <mc:AlternateContent xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006">
    <mc:Choice xmlns:p14="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/2010/main" Requires="p14">
      <p:transition xmlns:p="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/presentationml/2006/main" spd="{spd}" p14:dur="{duration_ms}">
        <p14:ripple />
      </p:transition>
    </mc:Choice>
    <mc:Fallback>
      <p:transition xmlns:p="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/presentationml/2006/main" spd="{spd}">
        <p:fade />
      </p:transition>
    </mc:Fallback>
  </mc:AlternateContent>
    ''',

    "reveal": f'''
      <mc:AlternateContent xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006">
    <mc:Choice xmlns:p14="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/2010/main" Requires="p14">
      <p:transition xmlns:p="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/presentationml/2006/main" spd="{spd}" p14:dur="{duration_ms}">
        <p14:reveal />
      </p:transition>
    </mc:Choice>
    <mc:Fallback>
      <p:transition xmlns:p="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/presentationml/2006/main" spd="{spd}">
        <p:fade />
      </p:transition>
    </mc:Fallback>
  </mc:AlternateContent>
    ''',

    "wipe": f'''
      <mc:AlternateContent xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006">
    <mc:Choice xmlns:p14="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/2010/main" Requires="p14">
      <p:transition xmlns:p="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/presentationml/2006/main" spd="{spd}" p14:dur="{duration_ms}">
        <p14:wipe />
      </p:transition>
    </mc:Choice>
    <mc:Fallback>
      <p:transition xmlns:p="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/presentationml/2006/main" spd="{spd}">
        <p:fade />
      </p:transition>
    </mc:Fallback>
  </mc:AlternateContent>
    '''
}

# Get the XML template for the requested transition type
xml = transition_templates.get(transition_type, transition_templates["push"])

try:
    xmlFragment = parse_xml(xml)
    slide.element.insert(-1, xmlFragment)
except Exception as e:
    import logging
    logging.warning(f"Failed to add transition to slide: {e}")

def add_transitions_to_presentation(path, transition_type="push", duration_ms=1000, skip_first_slide=True):
"""
Add transitions to all slides in a presentation.

Args:
    path: Path to the PowerPoint file
    transition_type: Type of transition ("push", "fade", "ripple", "reveal", "wipe")
    duration_ms: Duration of transition in milliseconds (default: 1000)
    skip_first_slide: Skip adding transition to first slide (default: True)

Returns:
    None

Example:
    from transitions import add_transitions_to_presentation

    add_transitions_to_presentation("presentation.pptx", "push", 1000)
"""
from pptx import Presentation

prs = Presentation(path)

# Determine starting slide index
start_idx = 1 if skip_first_slide else 0

# Add transitions to slides
for i in range(start_idx, len(prs.slides)):
    add_transition_to_slide(prs.slides[i], transition_type, duration_ms)

# Save the presentation
prs.save(path)

`

[MartinPacker]

Then I must apologise for forgetting I added this to md2pptx in 2022. Look for slideTransition.

Of course it is only basic.