[HN Gopher] A tool to create slides using Markdown easily for you
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       A tool to create slides using Markdown easily for you
        
       Author : hiroppy
       Score  : 98 points
       Date   : 2021-02-04 11:44 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | sportsaw wrote:
       | I love markdown. I hate making slide decks. I'm looking forward
       | to comparing this to similar tools I've tried. In a perfect world
       | I would be able to `brew install fusuma` and not need node, but
       | that's a small thing. Thanks!
        
       | chrisseaton wrote:
       | Does this encourage people to make slides which are just walls of
       | text? The examples are pages of text rather than visual slides.
        
       | afinlayson wrote:
       | Love the idea in theory, just wish it would export to Google
       | Slides
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | rpdillon wrote:
       | Others have already mentioned RevealJS, which I've used via Org
       | Mode export. I've also had a good experience with Remark, which
       | also focuses on Markdown as the authoring language.
       | 
       | https://remarkjs.com/
        
       | juanpabloaj wrote:
       | http://platonio.herokuapp.com/
        
       | thegginthesky wrote:
       | Very nice! I've been using Marp https://marp.app/ at work for the
       | same purpose as well. One cool thing is that it comes with a
       | VSCode extension, making it very convenient to use.
        
         | ravivyas wrote:
         | +1 for Marp, and +1 for VS code as a ecosystem
        
           | Steltek wrote:
           | VS Code is great but I'm concerned about there being a single
           | canonical "app store". It would be nice to see an equivalent
           | "F-Droid" that's usable side-by-side with the MS marketplace.
           | I believe code-server (VSCode in Docker over a Browser) does
           | something like that for OSS extensions but it's my assumption
           | that the VSCode codebase only supports one store at a time.
        
             | lasagnaphil wrote:
             | There's already OpenVSX (https://open-vsx.org/) maintained
             | by the Eclipse foundation, and it contains almost all of
             | the mostly used FOSS extensions (not the propietary
             | Microsoft extensions though). It's used by default in
             | VSCodium (FOSS version of VS code), and also Eclipse's own
             | cloud editor Theia (https://theia-ide.org/).
        
               | Steltek wrote:
               | I hadn't heard of this! Thank you! My VSCode experience
               | is primarily "VSCode" (not Codium) w/ the MS Remote
               | extensions and looking at code-server for its more unique
               | capabilities. Definitely going to look into this and
               | adopt it where I can.
               | 
               | FYI, it looks like the code-server devs have some
               | concerns about # of extensions and matching the MS
               | market: https://github.com/cdr/code-server/issues/1473 .
               | I'm not too worried about that for myself though.
        
       | vulcan01 wrote:
       | Note that you can also use pandoc[0] to convert a markdown-like
       | file to a reveal.js or PowerPoint presentation, among other
       | formats.
       | 
       | [0]: https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#slide-shows
        
       | teknopaul wrote:
       | Slides that are text only distract the audience.
       | 
       | They read the text.
       | 
       | Slides that are non-self-explanatory images, _require_ the
       | audience to listen to the speaker.
       | 
       | Try it. Put two circles on the screen and see what people do.
       | They look at you for explanation.
        
         | mosselman wrote:
         | David Ogilvy said 'You have to attack people through the eyes
         | and the ears' or something along those lines when referring to
         | text on flip overs and what you say. As in, the spoken and
         | written text needs to be exactly the same in order to land the
         | message. If you speak different words than are written, he
         | says, you are doing it wrong.
         | 
         | I don't know if I agree with text vs no-text, but I do feel
         | what Ogilvy says about this subject: it is so distracting when
         | a speaker uses different words than his slides, even if ever so
         | slightly. I also love the sticky image of 'attacking through
         | the eyes and ears'. Again, not 100% sure these are his exact
         | words.
        
         | Diederich wrote:
         | I understand what you're saying and agree that slides with more
         | than a little text are distracting.
         | 
         | For many years, even before becoming aware that the approach
         | had a name, I've always made slides for my presentations
         | contain only a few words, and, for the most part, no images.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takahashi_method
         | 
         | I don't take it quite as far as having one or two words: I
         | normally limit it to six or seven.
         | 
         | Basically, something people can read instantly.
         | 
         | People have commented that my approach to presentations is
         | quite unusual, but at the same time well received and fairly
         | effective.
         | 
         | > They look at you for explanation.
         | 
         | That's exactly it!
        
           | castillar76 wrote:
           | Years ago, my dad's hospital had a rule that the head of the
           | department had to review all slides before you gave a
           | presentation at a conference. The department heads had one
           | consistent rule: they had to be able to view your slide
           | _without putting it in the projector_ and tell what it said.
           | Worked pretty well: you can imagine how big and limited the
           | content would have to be to be able to view it on a slide
           | with the naked eye, and it kept people from filling slides
           | with bullet points.
        
         | cmehdy wrote:
         | I've got to reference Patrick Wilson's "How To Speak" course
         | from MIT OpenCourseWare here[0]. An hour of life well spent!
         | 
         | [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unzc731iCUY
        
           | slowhand09 wrote:
           | Worth watching again!
        
         | Complexicate wrote:
         | Spot on about using little to no text.
         | 
         | TedX has a pretty good style-guide about slides [1]:
         | 
         |  _What goes in my slides?_
         | 
         | *Images and photos: To help the audience remember a person,
         | place or thing you mention, you might use images or photos.
         | 
         | - People will understand that the images represent what you're
         | saying, so there is no need to verbally describe the images
         | onscreen.
         | 
         | *Graphs and infographics
         | 
         | - Keep graphs visually clear, even if the content is complex.
         | Each graph should make only one point.
         | 
         | *No slide should support more than one point.
         | 
         |  _What should the slides look like?_
         | 
         | *Use as little text as possible -- if your audience is reading,
         | they are not listening.
         | 
         | *Avoid using bullet points. Consider putting different points
         | on different slides.
         | 
         | [1] https://storage.ted.com/tedx/manuals/tedx_speaker_guide.pdf
        
           | high_byte wrote:
           | Great point, and it works great for Ted, but Ted is only but
           | one format. For academic purposes, I would go with all the
           | opposite.
        
             | castillar76 wrote:
             | I had similar problems at work until I realized there were
             | two competing agendas at play. One group wants the slides
             | to be "here's a record of what I talked about so people who
             | didn't make it can read it later", while another wants the
             | slides to be "here's stuff that supports what I'm talking
             | about _now_ ". Those are fundamentally incompatible, and
             | it's a bad idea to try to use a deck generated for one
             | purpose to satisfy the other.
             | 
             | One potential solution is two slide decks--one for the
             | presentation and one as a "reading deck", but that's a pain
             | in the neck. Another option we're currently using at work
             | is to go with the Amazon 6-page-paper: _write_ what you 're
             | going to talk about, and then the slides are _only_ to
             | support the actual presentation. The paper is the thing
             | people read if they missed the meeting.
        
         | ozh wrote:
         | Slides with images and no text are a nightmare for non visual
         | person like myself. I see text: I remember text. I see image: I
         | remember exactly nothing.
        
         | benibela wrote:
         | I used to think that the best presentations are those where the
         | slides are text only and the speaker just reads the text out
         | aloud.
         | 
         | Just repeating the text of the slides verbatim
         | 
         | Because then I can download the slides at home, read them for
         | myself, and do not miss anything. If the speaker would say
         | anything important that is not written on the slides, I would
         | actually have to go to the presentation, and am annoyed when
         | they talk too slowly and angry that I cannot stay home.
         | 
         | Although my perspective is changing. Now I have glasses and
         | cannot read as fast as I used to. And nowadays there are HD
         | video recordings. With a video recording it does not matter how
         | the presentation is done. In any case I could stay home and
         | watch the recording at 2x speed
        
         | simonebrunozzi wrote:
         | Even better: when you want them to listen to you, use the
         | "blank" shortcut (B key on Macs using Keynote). The screen goes
         | blank (black), and then they look at you for explanation.
         | 
         | Source: presented 600+ times in front of audiences of all types
         | and size.
        
       | ekianjo wrote:
       | Reminds me of xaringan for R.
        
       | joshgrib wrote:
       | https://github.com/jdan/cleaver
       | 
       | Here's a similar project that I've used in the past and liked a
       | lot
        
       | arsenico wrote:
       | How is this different or better than reveal.js
       | https://github.com/hakimel/reveal.js?
        
         | TN1ck wrote:
         | reveal.js is mostly aimed at creating slides using HTML, it has
         | markdown support for writing the content, but this project
         | seems to aim to create the entire presentation from markdown.
         | I'd compare it to deckset - https://www.deckset.com/
        
           | RBerenguel wrote:
           | As a Deckset user, my only gripe (minor, and usually not a
           | big deal) is not having an HTML version generated by it (this
           | is why I wrote this CLI tool [1])
           | 
           | [1]: Haskset: https://github.com/rberenguel/haskset
        
           | koheripbal wrote:
           | What's that advantage of using markdown? html is far more
           | expansive in visual options.
           | 
           | Not Everything needs to be markdown.
        
             | perlgeek wrote:
             | Some things are just far less typing in markdown than in
             | HTML, for example lists of bullet points and inline code.
        
               | koheripbal wrote:
               | ...but then you're just using the wrong editor.
        
               | macintux wrote:
               | Only "some" things?
        
             | Yoric wrote:
             | I largely prefer writing my slides in Markdown, for the
             | same reason that I prefer writing (a first draft of) my
             | letters in Markdown rather than in a word processor: this
             | helps me focus on the content first, rather than the
             | presentation.
             | 
             | YMMV
        
           | rectalogic wrote:
           | You can create the entire presentation in markdown with
           | reveal.js too https://github.com/rectalogic/gist-reveal
        
         | woile wrote:
         | I've been using this: https://github.com/webpro/reveal-md
         | 
         | which is only markdown on top of reveal.js, quite cool
        
       | cheph wrote:
       | Just use asciidoc.
       | 
       | E.g.
       | 
       | - https://github.com/Mogztter/asciidoctor-web-pdf/tree/master/...
       | - https://asciidoctor.org/docs/asciidoctor-revealjs/
        
       | nindalf wrote:
       | I'm a huge fan of writing in markdown. I've been doing
       | presentations in markdown for years with a different tool with
       | fewer features (https://pkg.go.dev/golang.org/x/tools/present). I
       | plan to switch to Fusuma next time I'm doing presentations
       | though.
        
       | kome wrote:
       | I use https://play.presenta.cc/ and I like it a lot. Btw:I use it
       | online, directly on that website...
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-02-04 23:02 UTC)