Created attachment 30201 [details]
Check the table cell with the value -

I have written code to extract the text from the table in the PPT file.

Sample Code :-

//Import POI classes
import org.apache.poi.poifs.filesystem.*;
import org.apache.poi.hslf.*;
import org.apache.poi.hslf.model.*;
import org.apache.poi.hslf.usermodel.*;

public class createTextFrmPPTTable
{
public static void main( String[] args )
{
String filename = args[ 0 ];
try
{

  SlideShow ppt = new SlideShow( new HSLFSlideShow( filename ) );
  Slide[] slides = ppt.getSlides();
  for( int i=0; i<slides.length; i++ )
  {
   System.out.println("\tTable Object");
   Shape[] sh = slides[i].getShapes();
   
   for (int k = 0; k < sh.length; k++) {  
     if (sh[k] instanceof ShapeGroup){ //got a table 
       ShapeGroup table = (ShapeGroup)sh[k]; 
       Shape[] ch = table.getShapes(); 
            
       for (int l=0; l<ch.length; l++){     	   
         if (ch[l] instanceof TextBox){ 
           TextBox txt = (TextBox)ch[l]; 
           String text = txt.getText(); //text in a table cell
           System.out.println("Textbox text :" + text);
         } else if (ch[l] instanceof AutoShape){
        	AutoShape t = (AutoShape)ch[l];
         	System.out.println("AutoShape text :" +t.getText());
         }  
     } 
   }
   }
  }
}
catch( Exception e )
{
  e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}

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When you run this code against the given sample file , it gives "null" for the table cell where you have "-" .