Show HN: Make slides with text, markdown, YAML, JSON or JavaScript, your call

https://play.presenta.cc/v2

by abusedmedia • 6 years ago

135 30 6 years ago

play.presenta.cc

abusedmedia11• 6 years ago

Hi HN

A month ago I’ve released my very own open source project, followed by a bare-bones tool built on top of it. I’ve listen a lot from the community and now, here a sensible update.

The most significant features are:

- not only plain-text but markdown, yaml, json and even javascript can be used to create slides! - it’s possible to use local files and it can run offline (since it’s a pwa) - it saves everything you do, locally - you can share a presentation with one click - better UX of the editor

Hope you find it useful and I’m open to feedback and suggestions.

Thanks!

johnx123-up4• 6 years ago

Brilliant! Huge potential, but I'm not sure how this can be used like flowchart.js, js-sequence-diagram or mermaid in a documentation ecosystem. https://bwmarrin.github.io/MkDocsPlus/ has bundled these libraries already and something on that line would be really helpful

abusedmedia11• 6 years ago

Adding any web-compatible media (i.e. flowchart.js) in PRESENTA Lib is just a matter of wrapping it into a plugin [1].

Then, I need to figure out how to allow end-users to include external plugins in Play tool.

Right now the dev-doc to create plugin is not ready yet, hopefully to release very soon.

[1] https://lib.presenta.cc/plugins/

grtehy• 6 years ago

I'm more of an offline-first person but I love how simple this is. If the need arises I'd consider it for sure. Looks like all my use cases are ticked off as well.

Quick question: is latex/mathematica/any other way to include equations possible? (excluding equation images obviously; needs to be editable)

abusedmedia11• 6 years ago

It's definitely possible with a dedicated plugin of the open source library [1]. When there'll be one available, I can consider to include it in the tool as well.

[1] https://github.com/presenta-software/presenta-lib

abusedmedia11• 6 years ago

Also, the tool can run in offline and use local assets as well.

nvr219• 6 years ago

This is so cool . Thank you for sharing.

jrochkind1• 6 years ago

I like the idea, and the technical implementation. I frequently need something simple and free to create slides. I think the typography in the rendered slides could be improved a bit, with some more careful attention to margins and sizes.

sid_talks• 6 years ago

I stopped using PowerPoint for presentations long back. What I use now is LaTeX with the beamer class to make classy professional looking presentations. This looks like another good alternative to try out.

improbable22• 6 years ago

You might also like "marp", which works as a VS Code plugin for markdown. Much simpler & less control than Beamer, but does allow equations (which it seems the linked presenta.cc does not, or not yet) and a bit more off-line focused perhaps?

ComodoHacker• 6 years ago

I like it.

Add PDF export and I'll use it. Add PPTX export and I might pay for it.

Also, less contrast editor UI would be nice.

phelipetls• 6 years ago

This is very cool. Something similar can be done by using pandoc and exporting to revealjs or beamer, but it's less straightforward.

machinelabo• 6 years ago

For me, slides are like art. I make slides with graphics, with weird arrows, boxes and call outs, images tiled in a particular way, and many custom things. They're more graphical than textual because slides aren't about people reading them - they're already listening to you and simultaneously listening + reading is difficult for the audience. Slides should show visual relationships of your talking points. Use graphics to show architecture, hierarchy, dependencies, etc. Use images to give context. Can it be done programmatically? Sure, if I spend 4 hours customizing my code. I'd rather fire up Powerpoint or Google Slides and roll with it. Also, I present once a quarter, I never found these automatic slide generators useful but I presume if you're presenting concise/textual information often, it can be useful.

abusedmedia11• 6 years ago

There are many different situations/users where decks can be used and the one you describe is just one of them.

If you present few times a year in important events, sure, you'd better using a tool that allows pushing every single pixels because it makes sense for your situation and you have time/skills for.

But if you need to produce (many) documents for reports/lessons/references maybe you'd prefer something that automate a bit more and because you're not interested spending time to invent graphics design.

Also, what you say about images vs text, again, you're right when you're making a show. If you present information that needs to be understood very well, I can assure you that words and (short) sentences displayed when you're speaking, can help a tons.

nbadg• 6 years ago

I would argue that, if you need to have long-form text to explain your content (even if it's only a short sentence or two), then a live presentation is the wrong format for delivering that information. Live presentations simply aren't a good medium for conveying dense information to an unfamiliar and/or varied audience.

I also think people don't have a good appreciation for the time asymmetries in the presentations they give. How big is your audience? If you want to make the case that "it's not worth my time to put together a better presentation", then you have to multiply every minute of your presentation prep by the total number of people you're presenting to. If you're delivering metrics to a company-wide monthly town hall meeting, and 10 minutes prepping saves you 1 minute of presentation, or 10 minutes of layout work saves you 1 minute of comprehension, then no, it's not worth your time, but it's absolutely worth the company's time.

If you present information the needs to be understood very well, I can assure you that words and (short) sentences displayed when you're speaking, can help a tons.

I have a lot of problems with this. What kind of information are you talking about? Surely you're not suggesting explaining a simple trendline with short sentences is better than a graph? And even assuming you have something where a textual representation is the best choice, how you display that text on a slide absolutely can and does have a very real impact in uptake. Are you making a slide with nothing on it except a single number as a 12-point bullet at the top left? Taking an extra 60 seconds to increase the font size and center it on the page is going to drastically increase readability.

Listen, I understand this stuff takes time, and not everyone has that time. I have a lot of sympathy for being frustrated at how slow our software tools are. And (even though I still do it!), I absolutely hate how tedious it is to push those pixels around to put together a visually coherent presentation. You say outright that the reason you don't push those pixels is because you're not interested in spending the time. That's what you should stick with, and it demonstrates a clear need for a presentation authoring tool that makes these kinds of things easy. But don't say you're doing it because it increases comprehension. You're not making a powerpoint completely out of bullet points because it makes the information easier to digest, you're doing it because you don't want to spend the time and effort to make it more digestible. And we need to be honest about that or nobody is going to bother making tools that make it better.

Side note, there's way too much anecdata on presentations, particularly given how much research has been put into them. Here's a good jumping off point with lots of citations: https://policyviz.com/2019/10/23/research-reveals-powerpoint...

ziftface• 6 years ago

So why do the text-based tools like this one get in your way? They can do images just as well. Unless I misunderstood what you meant by graphics.

SCLeo• 6 years ago

For example, if you are teaching grammar. You want to highlight all verbs in red, all nouns in blue, and all adjectives in green. You cannot do this unless you resort to CSS. But in my opinion, the ability to highlight words and set font color with couple clicks is much more simpler.

MuffinFlavored• 6 years ago

I could see power with this if the JavaScript portion allowed require/import, fetch, and async/await.

abusedmedia11• 6 years ago

you can already use fetch, not with async/await, though.

jerrygoyal• 6 years ago

figma can also be used to make slides. if you get hang of it, auto layout and controlled components make it a breeze to maintain consistency across slide.

abusedmedia11• 6 years ago

Figma is much more a PPT/Keynote alternative but you cannot use dynamic media in it.

johnisgood• 6 years ago

The left and right arrow are the same blue color as the background. Should probably add some function to make sure that if the defined color is the same or similar to that of the stuff it is on, then darken, lighten, invert or something.

darepublic• 6 years ago

There are some people I know who regularly have to create power points, I'll recommend they check this out

abusedmedia11• 6 years ago

Thanks

Show HN: Make slides with text, markdown, YAML, JSON or JavaScript, your call

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