Search for Text in PowerPoint and OpenDocument Presentations

FAQ

• Where does a text search look inside a presentation?
  Across slides and the shapes on them, including table cells and grouped shapes. Notes slides are separate and have to be searched explicitly.
• Can I search with a regular expression rather than a literal string?
  Yes — text is read as strings, so any pattern matching your language offers applies. The library gives you the text and its location; the matching is yours.
• Why does a search for a phrase miss text that is clearly on the slide?
  Because PowerPoint splits text into runs whenever formatting changes, so a phrase can be spread across several runs. Search the paragraph’s combined text rather than run by run.
• Can I find text and replace it in the same pass?
  Yes, and that is the usual shape of the job. Related tasks have their own pages: redaction for removing sensitive text, watermark for adding text over slides.