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This document describes intent at the time it was written. It is part of the design record, not user documentation, and may not reflect the current behaviour of the code.

004 - new / new-pptx / new-docx commands

Purpose: Scaffold new Quarto projects from bundled templates.

Status: Implemented (2026-05-07)

Requirements

Section titled “Requirements”
  • mdd new-pptx <dir> creates a Quarto PowerPoint project
  • mdd new-pptx --compact <dir> does the same against the compact reference template (18 / 16 / 14 / 12 pt body text instead of 28 / 24 / 20 / 18 pt)
  • mdd new-docx <dir> creates a Quarto Word project
  • mdd new <dir> creates a project with both outputs
  • Each creates: <dir>/<dir>.qmd, <dir>/render.sh, symlink(s) to reference template(s)
  • Error if no directory name given or name starts with -

Design Approach

Section titled “Design Approach”
  • Commands in src/mdd/commands/new*.py; shared logic in src/mdd/utils/scaffolding.py
  • Templates bundled at src/mdd/templates/ — resolved relative to __file__
  • create_quarto_project() is the shared helper
  • {{TITLE}} in QMD templates is replaced with the base directory name
  • {{FILE_NAME}} in render.sh.template is replaced with the base directory name

Implementation Notes

Section titled “Implementation Notes”

Ported from quarto4sbp (cmd_new, cmd_new_pptx, cmd_new_docx). The cmd_*(args) entrypoint shape was superseded by S35’s register(subparsers, parents) convention; the three modules now expose register() and _run_* handlers in src/mdd/commands/new*.py.

Template files

Section titled “Template files”
  • simple-presentation.{qmd,pptx} — PowerPoint output
  • simple-presentation-compact.{qmd,pptx} — PowerPoint output, compact scale
  • simple-document.{qmd,docx} — Word output
  • combined-document.qmd — both outputs from one source
  • render.sh.template — shell script to render and export PDF

Compact presentation template

Section titled “Compact presentation template”

The default slide master runs a 28 / 24 / 20 / 18 pt body scale, which overflows on dense slides (a table plus a few bullets). Rather than shrink the default and reflow every existing deck, --compact selects a second bundled reference template at 18 / 16 / 14 / 12 pt. The default stays pixel-stable.

  • simple-presentation-compact.pptx is byte-identical to simple-presentation.pptx apart from nine sz attributes in ppt/slideMasters/slideMaster1.xml’s <p:bodyStyle>: levels 1-4 become 1800 / 1600 / 1400 / 1200, and levels 5-9 follow level 4 at 1200 (the default already pins 5-9 to level 4). The 4400 title in <p:titleStyle>, the 1800 <p:otherStyle> default, the 1200 date/footer/slide-number placeholders, the 1000 disclaimer textbox and every ppt/slideLayouts/*.xml override are untouched.
  • scripts/derive-compact-pptx.py regenerates the binary from the default (--check asserts the committed copy is up to date), so the change stays reviewable instead of arriving as an opaque blob. It rezips in the original entry order with the original compression, [Content_Types].xml first, because a naively rebuilt archive triggers PowerPoint’s repair dialog.
  • Selection is front-matter only: the scaffolded .qmd sets reference-doc: simple-presentation-compact.pptx and create_quarto_project symlinks that name into the project. No converter change is needed — mdd.converters.quarto only passes --reference-doc on the S17 publish path, which uses its own templates/quarto/reference.pptx.
  • mdd new (both outputs) and mdd new-docx keep a single template each; the compact variant is a presentation-only concern.

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