Just like with PHPExcel, PHPPowerPoint can be used to generate PPTX files from a PHP application. This can be done by creating an in-memory presentation that consists of slides and different shapes, which can then be written to disk using a writer (of which there's currently only one for PowerPoint 2007).

Some example code is included that creates a single-slide slideshow with the PHPPowerpoint logo and the text "Thank you for using PHPPowerpoint". There's plenty of configuration options and you can place things in the slides down to the pixel. You can try out this initial release here.

What's the component? If you haven't seen it before, Slideshare.net is an excellent site for hosting various Powerpoint slide shows for public consumption (think YouTube for slide shows). I wrote the component during the my site redesign to host my various slide shows which can be found in the resources section.

If you'd like to get your hands on it and play with it before the official release, you can always grab it from the Subversion repository for the ZF project.

There are two main ways to build Excel, Word, and PowerPoint documents using PHP. The first is by using the COM library (only if you are using a Windows server) and the other is by using a more standardized approach such as HTML or CSV.

All three examples use the COM method and make basic structures to save out. They also include a screenshot (and description) showing where you can find the list of functions you can call to the COM object for each application.