Markdown Tables and Combo Charts, Natively in PowerPoint
A markdown table becomes a styled, editable PowerPoint table. A combo chart with a secondary axis takes five lines. No python-pptx XML archaeology required.
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Two more entries from the python-pptx wishlist just landed in the API. Styled tables — issue #27 (2013, 37 comments) asks for table styles, and cell borders are a separate decade-old thread — and combo charts with a secondary axis, the subject of #338 and #141. Both now work from plain Markdown.
Tables: write Markdown, get a real table
Put a GitHub-style table under a slide heading. The generator turns it into a native PowerPoint table — theme-colored header row, banded body rows, cell borders — fully editable in PowerPoint afterwards:
# Q3 Review
## Quarterly Numbers
| Region | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|--------|-----|-----|-----|
| EU | 1.0 | 1.2 | 1.4 |
| US | 2.0 | 2.4 | 2.6 |
| APAC | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.3 |One API call with that markup returns the deck. The header picks up your theme's primary color (or your brand override), rows are banded automatically, and every cell has proper borders — the exact things python-pptx makes you hand-assemble from raw XML.
Combo charts: five lines, two axes
Revenue as columns, margin as a line on its own right-hand axis — the chart every quarterly review needs and no library makes easy:
## Revenue vs Margin
```chart
type: combo
categories: Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4
Revenue: 120, 150, 170, 210
Margin % (line, secondary): 10, 12, 14, 16
```Per-series options live in parentheses: line, col or bar pick the series type, secondary moves it to the right-hand value axis. The result is a real, restyleable chart object — open it in PowerPoint and every series, axis and color is editable.
Why this matters for agents
AI agents produce Markdown natively. With tables and combo charts in the markup dialect, an agent can go from "here's our quarterly data" to a finished deck — tables, charts, brand colors — in one tool call over REST or MCP. See the agent skill for the full markup reference, or try it in the live tool.