Office documents

Obsilo can create PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, and Excel spreadsheets directly inside your vault. It can also read existing office files and use them as context in conversations.

What you can create

Format	Tool	What it produces
PPTX	create_pptx	PowerPoint presentations with slides, text, images, layouts
DOCX	create_docx	Word documents with headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, images
XLSX	create_xlsx	Excel spreadsheets with multiple sheets, formatting, and formulas

Simple creation

The easiest path is to describe what you want:

• "Create a presentation about our Q1 results based on my notes in Reports/"
• "Turn this note into a Word document with proper headings and a table of contents"
• "Create a spreadsheet tracking my reading list with columns for title, author, status, and rating"

The agent reads the relevant notes, structures the content, and writes the file into your vault.

Start simple

You don't need to spell out exact slide layouts or cell formatting. The agent picks reasonable defaults. Refine afterwards by saying "make the title slide more prominent" or "add a chart for the monthly data."

Template workflow for presentations

For corporate decks, Obsilo supports a template-based pipeline. This is the best way to create presentations that match your organization's design.

How it works

1. You provide a .pptx template file in your vault
2. The agent scans every slide layout, placeholder, and shape in the template (stored as a TemplateCatalog)
3. An internal LLM call maps your source material to the template's structure, planning content for each slide and shape
4. The final presentation is built using your template's exact design

Step by step

1. Attach or mention your template: "Use @corporate-template.pptx to create a presentation about our product roadmap"
2. The agent runs plan_presentation internally. You'll see it in the activity block.
3. It writes the final .pptx file with your content in your template's design

The 6-step office workflow

For best results, Obsilo follows a built-in workflow:

1. Context: gather source material from your vault
2. Template: analyze the provided template (or use ad-hoc mode)
3. Plan: map content to slides and shapes
4. Generate: build the document
5. Verify: check for missing placeholders or layout issues
6. Deliver: save to your vault and confirm

Two modes

Ad-hoc mode creates presentations from scratch without a template (using PptxGenJS). Template mode uses your corporate .pptx file to keep brand consistency. The agent picks the right mode based on whether you provide a template.

Reading office documents

Obsilo can parse existing office files and use their content in conversations:

• PPTX: text from all slides
• DOCX: headings, paragraphs, tables
• XLSX: sheet data and formulas
• PDF: text content
• CSV: structured data

How to use it:

• Drag and drop an office file into the chat
• Use @filename.pptx to mention it
• Ask "Summarize the attached spreadsheet" or "What are the key points in this presentation?"

The agent uses the read_document tool to parse the file, then works with the extracted content like any other note.

Visual QA with LibreOffice

If you have LibreOffice installed on your system, Obsilo can render generated presentations as images for a visual quality check.

The render_presentation tool converts each slide to an image so the agent can review layouts, text overflow, and visual consistency before you open the file yourself.

LibreOffice required

Visual QA only works if LibreOffice is installed and accessible from the command line. Without it, the agent skips the visual check and relies on structural validation only.

Tips for better documents

1. Provide source material. The more context you give (notes, data, outlines), the better the output.
2. Be specific about structure. "5 slides with an intro, 3 content slides, and a summary" gives much better results than "make a presentation."
3. Use templates for consistency. If you create presentations regularly, invest in a good template. The agent reuses it cleanly every time.
4. Iterate. After the first version, ask the agent to adjust specific slides or sections instead of regenerating everything.
5. Check the activity block. It shows the plan the agent built, so you can see why it made the choices it did.

Next steps

• Skills, Rules & Workflows: Automate your document creation process
• Connectors: Hook up external tools and data sources
• Multi-Agent & Tasks: Hand off document tasks to sub-agents