Abstract
Jolify is a native PowerPoint ribbon add-in that exposes shape positioning,
alignment, formatting, and text utilities as one-click buttons.
It was built to fill the gap in PowerPoint's built-in toolset for
teams that work intensively with slide decks.
Once installed, a Jolify tab appears permanently in the ribbon.
The ribbon handles the fastest everyday actions, and an optional task pane
adds deeper utilities like style clipboards, exports, cleanup, and theme colors.
Features
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Position & Size
Copy, paste, and swap shape positions and dimensions across any selection of shapes.
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Format
Use native fill, outline, and font color pickers alongside one-click style copy, no-fill, and no-outline actions.
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Align
Align shapes to each other or to the slide. Distribute three or more shapes evenly in any direction.
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Group & Text
Group after alignment or distribution, merge multiple text boxes, and split a multi-line text box into one box per line.
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Slide Utilities
Create a shape grid, move selected slides to an Unused section, toggle a DRAFT sticker, open slide layouts, and insert shapes from the native gallery.
User Guide
Jolify now ships with a full user guide that documents the ribbon, the task pane,
selection rules, exports, cleanup, and the deck-aware color palette.
Open the Jolify User Guide
Install Modes
Jolify ships in two installation modes. Both are one-line installs. Pick the mode that best matches how you work.
Hosted Mode
No local daemon
Uses the GitHub-hosted version of Jolify. This is the lightest install and the easiest one to update.
- No background web server on your machine
- Best for users who are usually online
- Updates flow from the hosted site
install
curl -fsSL https://stephenjoly.github.io/jolify-ppt/install.sh | bash
uninstall
curl -fsSL https://stephenjoly.github.io/jolify-ppt/uninstall.sh | bash
Manual option: download manifest.xml and upload it through PowerPoint.
Local Stable Mode
launchd-managed
Installs a localhost-served Jolify runtime and configures a macOS launchd agent so it comes back after reboot and restarts if it dies.
- Better resilience for users who restart often
- No manual
npm or Terminal server process after install
- Jolify’s own assets are served locally
- Good fit for users who want restart-safe local hosting
install
curl -fsSL https://stephenjoly.github.io/jolify-ppt/install-local.sh | bash
uninstall
curl -fsSL https://stephenjoly.github.io/jolify-ppt/uninstall-local.sh | bash
macOS only. The installer sets up a trusted localhost certificate and a user-level launch agent.
Switching Modes
- Choose the mode you want and run its install command.
- PowerPoint will be restarted if needed so the new manifest is picked up.
- Hosted mode is the simplest path. Local stable mode is the most restart-safe path.
- The published install URLs stay stable even though installer source files now live under
install/ in the repo.
Local stable mode self-hosts Jolify’s assets. Office still runs within the standard Microsoft Office add-in environment.