The TonicPoint Builder provides an Application Programming Interface (API) for manipulating PowerPoint documents. The library abstracts the native PowerPoint file format (.ppt) into a structure so that the different PowerPoint elements, such as presentations, slides, shapes, pictures etc., can be manipulated using java.

PowerPoint elements may be queried to extract information (such as their attributes) or manipulated by setting new attributes. Elements can be created, cut, copied and pasted to update a presentation. Any changes are then written back out to a native PowerPoint file (.ppt). This way, the original file (if any) is never directly edited.