backslide

backslide

CLI tool for making HTML presentations with Remark.js using Markdown

See an example presentation here

Features

• Template generator with Sass styling
• Live preview server
• Self-contained HTML export
• Automated PDF conversion
• Multiple presentations support

Installation

npm install -g backslide

Usage

Usage: bs [init|serve|export|pdf] [options]

Commands:
  i, init            Init new presentation in current directory
    --force          Overwrite existing files
  e, export [files]  Export markdown files to html slides     [default: *.md]
    -o, --output     Output directory                         [default: dist]
  s, serve [dir]     Start dev server for specified directory [default: .]
    -p, --port       Port number to listen on                 [default: 4100]
  p, pdf [files]     Export markdown files to pdf             [default: *.md]
    -o, --output     Output directory                         [default: pdf]
    -d, --decktape   Decktape installation dir                [default: .]
    -w, --wait       Wait time between slides in ms           [default: 1000]
    --verbose        Show Decktape console output

 For pdf export to work, Decktape must be installed.
 See https://github.com/astefanutti/decktape for details.

Creating a new presentation

Use bs init to create a new presentation along with a template directory in the current directory. The template directory is needed for backslide to transform your Markdown files into HTML presentations.

Then edit the file presentation.md to get started.

You can create as many markdown presentations as you want in the directory, they will all be based on the same template.

Making your slides

Use bs serve to start a development server with live reload. A page will automatically open in your web browser showing all your presentations.

Select one to see the preview, you can then edit your .md file and see the changes immediately as you save the file. Any style change will also be applied live.

Slides are written in Markdown, along with some useful Remark.js specific additions. See the Remark.js wiki for the specific syntax and helpers.

Customize style

Just edit the template/style.scss file and make changes according to your needs. The base theme already provides some helpful additions.

The stylesheet is written in Sass, but you can use plain CSS instead if you feel like it, as long as you don't change the file extension.

Exporting your slides as self-contained HTML

Use bs export to export all your .md files as HTML presentations.

Everything will be inlined in the HTML document (scripts, css, etc) so you don't need a network to show your presentation. If you have images, it's best to include them as data-uri in your markdown, so they can be embedded too.

If you have set a title variable in your document (like this title: My Awesome Presentation), it will be used as the HTML document title, otherwise the file name will be used.

Converting your slides to PDF

Use bs pdf to export your all .md files as PDF presentations.

For this feature to work, you need to install Decktape. If you have installed it in a different directory than your slides, you must provide your installation path when running the command: bs pdf --decktape <decktape_install_dir>