Office365 SharePoint PowerPoint Downloader

A Python tool to automatically capture PowerPoint presentations from SharePoint sites and convert them to PDF format—no SharePoint editing permissions or Office 365 login required.

✨ Features

• 🤖 Automated Capture: Navigates to SharePoint PowerPoint presentations automatically
• 📸 High-Quality Screenshots: Captures each slide with excellent quality
• 📄 PDF Generation: Combines all slides into a single, organized PDF file
• 🔍 Smart Detection: Intelligent last slide detection using advanced image comparison
• 🎬 Animation Handling: Waits for animations and transitions to complete naturally
• 📊 Progress Tracking: Real-time visual progress bars during capture and PDF generation
• 🛡️ Error Recovery: Robust error handling with automatic retry mechanisms
• 👤 Chrome Profile Support: Use existing Chrome profiles to maintain login sessions
• ⚙️ Highly Configurable: Extensive configuration via CLI arguments or JSON files

📋 Prerequisites

• Python 3.7 or higher
• Google Chrome browser
• ChromeDriver (automatically managed by Selenium 4.x)

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/Office365-SharePoint-Downloader.git
   cd Office365-SharePoint-Downloader

2. Install required packages:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

Basic Usage

python main.py <SHAREPOINT_URL>

Example:

python main.py "https://yourcompany.sharepoint.com/sites/team/presentation.pptx"

If you don't provide a URL, the script will prompt you to enter one.

📦 Dependencies

Required

• selenium - Browser automation
• Pillow - Image processing
• reportlab - PDF generation

Optional (Recommended)

pip install imagehash  # Better image comparison
pip install tqdm       # Progress bars

🎯 Usage Examples

Basic Examples

# Capture presentation with default settings
python main.py "https://yourcompany.sharepoint.com/..."

# Custom output folder
python main.py "https://..." -o my_presentation

# Run in headless mode (no browser window)
python main.py "https://..." --headless

Advanced Examples

# High-resolution capture with custom window size
python main.py "https://..." --window-width 2560 --window-height 1440 --pdf-resolution 150

# Using configuration file for complex setups
python main.py "https://..." -c config.json

# Debug mode for troubleshooting
python main.py "https://..." --debug

# Without using Chrome profile (manual login required)
python main.py "https://..." --no-profile

Save Configuration

# Save current settings for reuse
python main.py "https://..." --headless --pdf-resolution 150 --save-config my_config.json

# Use saved configuration
python main.py "https://..." -c my_config.json

⚙️ Configuration

Command-Line Options

Option	Description	Default
-o, --output	Output folder name	slides
-c, --config	Path to JSON configuration file	None
--save-config	Save current configuration to JSON	None
--headless	Run browser without GUI	False
--window-width	Browser window width	1920
--window-height	Browser window height	1080
--wait-timeout	Element wait timeout (seconds)	10
--animation-wait	Animation wait time (seconds)	2.0
--pdf-resolution	PDF resolution (DPI)	100.0
--debug	Enable debug logging	False
--no-profile	Don't use Chrome profile	False
--user-data-dir	Custom Chrome profile path	None

Configuration File

Create a config.json file for persistent settings:

{
  "browser": {
    "window_width": 1920,
    "window_height": 1080,
    "headless": false,
    "use_existing_profile": true
  },
  "capture": {
    "animation_wait": 2.0,
    "consecutive_same_threshold": 10,
    "use_perceptual_hash": true,
    "remove_first_n_images": 1,
    "remove_last_n_images": 2
  },
  "pdf": {
    "resolution": 100.0
  },
  "output_folder": "slides",
  "debug": false
}

See config.example.json for all available options.

Environment Variables

• OUTPUT_FOLDER: Default output folder
• DEBUG: Enable debug mode (true/false)

🔐 Authentication

Using Chrome Profile (Recommended)

Benefits: No manual login required each time

Steps:

1. Close ALL Chrome windows (important!)
2. Enable profile usage:
   • Set use_existing_profile: true in config, OR
   • Don't use --no-profile flag
3. Run the script—it will use your saved Chrome login session

⚠️ Important: Chrome must be completely closed, or you'll get a "profile locked" error.

Manual Login (No Profile)

Use the --no-profile flag or set use_existing_profile: false in config. You'll need to login manually each time the script runs.

Custom Profile Directory

python main.py "URL" --user-data-dir "/path/to/chrome/profile"

📂 Output

After running, you'll find:

slides/                          # Output folder
├── slide_001.png               # Individual slides
├── slide_002.png
├── slide_003.png
├── ...
└── presentation.pdf            # Combined PDF

powerpoint_capture.log          # Detailed log file
page_source.html               # Debug info (if errors occur)

🏗️ Project Structure

Office365-SharePoint-Downloader/
├── src/
│   ├── browser.py              # Browser setup and management
│   ├── capture.py              # Slide capture logic
│   ├── config.py               # Configuration classes
│   ├── exceptions.py           # Custom exceptions
│   ├── image_cache.py          # LRU cache for images
│   ├── image_utils.py          # Image comparison utilities
│   ├── image_validator.py      # Image validation
│   ├── pdf_generator.py        # PDF generation
│   └── utils.py                # General utilities
├── main.py                     # Main entry point
├── config.example.json         # Example configuration
├── requirements.txt            # Dependencies
└── README.md                   # Documentation

🔧 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

"Profile will be locked" error

Solution: Close ALL Chrome windows and wait a few seconds before running the script.

"Could not find Present button" error

Possible causes:

• URL is not a PowerPoint presentation
• You don't have view permissions
• SharePoint page hasn't loaded fully

Solutions:

• Verify the URL is correct
• Try opening the presentation manually first
• Increase wait_timeout in config

Network timeout errors

Solutions:

• Check your internet connection
• Verify the URL is accessible
• Increase wait_timeout in config
• Check firewall/proxy settings

Too many consecutive failures

Solutions:

• Run with --debug flag for detailed logs
• Check powerpoint_capture.log for specific errors
• Verify network stability
• Ensure you have access to the presentation

Debug Mode

Enable detailed logging:

python main.py "URL" --debug

This will:

• Show detailed error messages
• Save page source HTML for inspection
• Log all operations with timestamps
• Display configuration being used

Log Files

• powerpoint_capture.log: Detailed operation logs
• page_source.html: Browser page source (saved on errors)

🧠 Technical Details

Image Comparison Methods

1. Perceptual Hash (Default): Uses imagehash library for accurate similarity detection

   • Better at detecting visually similar images
   • Resistant to minor variations
   • Requires imagehash package

2. Pixel Comparison (Fallback): Direct pixel-by-pixel comparison

   • Works without additional dependencies
   • Less accurate for complex images

Smart Waiting System

Instead of fixed delays, the tool:

• Monitors DOM changes to detect when animations complete
• Checks page stability before capturing
• Uses explicit waits with intelligent timeout handling
• Adapts to network speed and animation complexity

Memory Optimization

• LRU Cache: Recently used images cached in memory
• Lazy Loading: Images loaded only when needed
• Automatic Cleanup: Resources released after use
• Efficient Processing: Minimal memory footprint even for large presentations

Error Handling

Custom Exception Types:

• NetworkError: Connection issues
• AuthenticationError: Login problems
• BrowserError: WebDriver/Chrome issues
• NavigationError: Page loading failures
• CaptureError: Screenshot problems
• PDFGenerationError: PDF creation errors

Features:

• Automatic classification of error types
• Retry logic with exponential backoff
• Helpful error messages with suggestions
• Debug information preservation

⚠️ Known Limitations

• Complex animations may not be captured perfectly
• Requires stable internet connection
• Best results with screen resolution ≥ 1920x1080
• Chrome must be closed when using existing profile
• Some SharePoint configurations may require additional authentication

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to:

• Report bugs
• Suggest new features
• Submit pull requests
• Improve documentation

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License—see the LICENSE file for details.

⚖️ Important Notice

This project is intended for educational and personal use only.

• Respect Microsoft's Terms of Service
• Comply with your organization's policies
• Respect copyright of presentation content
• Use only for presentations you have permission to access

🙏 Acknowledgments

Built with:

• Selenium - Browser automation
• Pillow - Image processing
• ReportLab - PDF generation
• imagehash - Perceptual hashing

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Questions or Issues? Open an issue on GitHub or check the troubleshooting section above.