Markdown is a lightweight markup language that you can use to create content. We've shown you before how to create your own webpages with it, but did you know you could make presentations, too? Forget Powerpoint and Keynote. With Markdown Presenter, you can create simple, quick presentations using just a simple text editor. Read on to find out how.
>> A Markdown editor (Mou or iA Writer), or TextEdit (included on your Mac)
>> Chris Hulbert’s Markdown Presenter (free download from GitHub)
Once you’ve downloaded the project files, open the "presentation.md" file in your Markdown editor of choice, or TextEdit. You can delete the existing contents of this file, as we will be adding our own content. Follow the style guide below to markup your document so it looks good in the presentation view. When you are done marking up your presentation, save as a plain text file using the "presentation.md" filename.
Adding Headings
Creating a heading is easy. Simply type the name of the heading, followed by a new line, and then type three equal signs (===) and press enter. Smaller heading titles can be added by using three dashes instead of equal signs (---). For example:
My First Heading
===
Adding Bullets
To add a bulleted list to your presentation slide can be done by using asterisks in place of bullets, followed by a space, and followed by the text for that bullet. For example:
First Slide
===
* First bullet
* Second bullet
* Third bullet
Creating a New Slide
New slides are created by adding a blank line, followed by an exclamation point, followed by another blank line. For example:
My First Slide
===
Slide 1 Contents
!
My Second Slide
===
Slide 2 Contents
To view your Markdown-created presentation, simply double-click on the “Presenter.html” file that is in the same project files folder that you downloaded from GitHub.
Assuming that your “Presentation.md” file is in the same folder, it will appear in your web browser of choice automatically (if not, you can drag and drop the “Presenter.html” file onto the icon of most web browsers in the Dock.
To navigate through the slides, use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.
You can optionally upload the presentation files to your own web server, or host them from your Dropbox account using the information provided in this article.
Cory Bohon is a freelance technology writer, indie Mac and iOS developer, and amateur photographer. Follow this article's author, Cory Bohon on Twitter.
