Comments on a slide are in a part reached through the slide’s comments
relationship, and the people who wrote them are in another part reached from the
presentation.
The comments part
The classic form, in ECMA-376, is ppt/comments/commentN.xml with the root
element p:cmLst.
<p:cmLst xmlns:p="…">
<p:cm authorId="0" dt="2024-05-01T09:30:00.000" idx="1">
<p:pos x="10" y="10"/>
<p:text>Please check this figure.</p:text>
</p:cm>
</p:cmLst>| Item | Meaning |
|---|---|
authorId | A number in the comment authors part. |
dt | The date and time. |
idx | The comment’s number. |
p:pos | Where on the slide the comment is pinned. |
p:text | The comment. |
The authors are in ppt/commentAuthors.xml: a p:cmAuthorLst of
p:cmAuthor elements, each with an id, a name and
initials.
Modern comments
Recent versions of PowerPoint also write a newer, threaded form, kept in a part with its
own content type and with its authors in ppt/authors.xml. It is a Microsoft
extension and is not in ECMA-376. A comment can hold replies, and its text is in a
DrawingML text body.