Getting Started

This section covers the basic steps to get slidetextbridge running.

For Windows Users (Recommended)

If you are on Windows, the easiest way to get started is to download the latest ZIP file.

1. Download the slidetextbridge-X.Y.Z-windows.zip file from the release page.

2. Extract the contents of the ZIP file.

3. Edit the configuration file config.yaml in the folder.

4. That’s it! You can run slidetextbridge.exe from this folder.

From PyPI (Other Platforms)

You may install from PyPI. (Though I have not released on PyPI yet, hopefully, it’s available when you are reading this document.)

# It is recommended to use a virtual environment
# For Linux, add `--system-site-packages` to use uno module from LibreOffice.
python -m venv --system-site-packages venv
source venv/bin/activate  # On Windows, use `venv\Scripts\activate`

# Install this tool
pip install slidetextbridge

Configuration

slidetextbridge uses a YAML file (e.g., config.yaml) to define a pipeline of steps. Each step in the pipeline processes text in some way, either by reading it from a source, transforming it, or sending it to a destination.

Here is a basic configuration to get you started. This setup reads text from the placeholder shapes of the current slide in PowerPoint and sends it to a text source in OBS Studio.

config.yaml:

# Configuration file for slidetextbridge

# The 'steps' key defines a sequence of operations.
# The text output from one step becomes the input for the next.
steps:
  # Step 1: Retrieves text from the notes of the active slide in Microsoft PowerPoint.
  - type: ppt

  # Step 2: Prints the retrieved text to the console. This is useful for troubleshooting.
  - type: stdout

  # Step 3: Sends the text to a specific source in OBS Studio via the WebSocket plugin.
  - type: obsws
    url: 'ws://localhost:4455/'     # URL of the OBS WebSocket server.
    password: 'your_password_here'  # Password for the OBS WebSocket server (leave blank if none).
    source_name: 'Live Text'        # The name of the Text (GDI+) or (Freetype 2) source in OBS Studio.

  # # Step 3: Optionaly, you may use web server for vMix, etc.
  # - type: webserver
  #   host: 0.0.0.0                   # Host address the server will listen on. 0.0.0.0 for all.
  #   port: 8080                      # Host port the server will listen on.

Running the Program

Downloaded from the release page:

If you have downloaded the ZIP file from the release page,

1. Ensure config.yaml is located at the same directory of slidetextbridge.exe.

2. Double-click slidetextbridge.exe.

3. That’s it, a console window will appear.

Downloaded from PyPI:

If you have installed using pip,

slidetextbridge -c config.yaml

Now, when you change slides in PowerPoint, the text from the new slide’s should appear in the specified OBS text source or in your browser, depending on your configuration.