Show HN: Generate Google Slides from Markdown • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Generate Google Slides from Markdown

#11

Post by agjmills » Mon, Nov 21, 2016, 10:20 AM UTC

agjmills wrote: post #4

Can someone explain why you would want to make slides from markdown? Surely its just as straightforward, if not easier, just to use the UI - genuinely curious

Thanks for the replies - I guess just because I don't find something useful doesn't mean that others wont - its always nice to have additional tools

Re: Show HN: Generate Google Slides from Markdown

#12

Post by gunmania0 » Mon, Nov 21, 2016, 10:25 AM UTC

Another great markdown->slides project is madoko https://www.madoko.net/ . Also really good for writing markdown based latex papers.

Re: Show HN: Generate Google Slides from Markdown

#13

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 21, 2016, 10:29 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Generate Google Slides from Markdown

#14

Post by danso » Mon, Nov 21, 2016, 10:35 AM UTC

agjmills wrote: post #4

Can someone explain why you would want to make slides from markdown? Surely its just as straightforward, if not easier, just to use the UI - genuinely curious

Going to have to chime in that I recently tried making slides in Google Docs and found the experience absolutely horrible. Trying to add numbered bullet points, and expecting it to be a formatting option as in normal Google Docs, was particularly annoying.

Re: Show HN: Generate Google Slides from Markdown

#15

Post by mikrowave » Mon, Nov 21, 2016, 10:42 AM UTC

Use with impress.js (http://impress.github.io/impress.js/) and you have possibilities * 1000

Re: Show HN: Generate Google Slides from Markdown

#16

Post by thewhitetulip » Mon, Nov 21, 2016, 10:44 AM UTC

Cub3 wrote: post #2

Wow this is exactly what i've been looking for, can you select slide themes with this library?

you would like http://impress.github.io/impress.js/

Re: Show HN: Generate Google Slides from Markdown

#17

Post by macco » Mon, Nov 21, 2016, 11:14 AM UTC

I don't get it. Markdown is text markup language. Slides shouldn't have much text (best: none), but should be visually appealing.

I don't think a text editor is the right interface for that.

Re: Show HN: Generate Google Slides from Markdown

#18

Post by fsloth » Mon, Nov 21, 2016, 11:17 AM UTC

macco wrote: post #17

I don't get it. Markdown is text markup language. Slides shouldn't have much text (best: none), but should be visually appealing. I don't think a text editor is the right interface for that.

"...should be visually appealing"

I would claim that's highly context sensitive. If the goal is to share information in an environment that has keen interest on the content of the presentation the visual appeal is of a tertiary concern at most.

Re: Show HN: Generate Google Slides from Markdown

#19

Post by detaro » Mon, Nov 21, 2016, 11:34 AM UTC

macco wrote: post #17

I don't get it. Markdown is text markup language. Slides shouldn't have much text (best: none), but should be visually appealing. I don't think a text editor is the right interface for that.

In ideal conditions yes, but many presentations are not in such. Favorites include talks in over-filled rooms in noisy environments (not everybody can hear the speaker properly) and presentations to bosses or professors who judge your presentation by what they think when they look at the slides two weeks later, not remembering a thing of what you said.

This could at the very least be useful to get the initial text on the slides quickly, while still allowing you to fine-tune them in the GUI afterwards.

Re: Show HN: Generate Google Slides from Markdown

#20

Post by cm2187 » Mon, Nov 21, 2016, 11:37 AM UTC

macco wrote: post #17

I don't get it. Markdown is text markup language. Slides shouldn't have much text (best: none), but should be visually appealing. I don't think a text editor is the right interface for that.

I think it should be both.

The best example I can think of is the WPF IDE in visual studio, where you have markup and GUI side by side. You change one, it updates the other.

Most people would edit slides in GUI mode only as they currently do.

Pros would spend a lot of time in the markup, which would enable much faster formatting, copy pasting of certain properties, manage invisible items, add meta data to text (like bind this word in that paragraph to a cell in that spreadsheet).

That how powerpoint should evolve if it was still under active development.

Also think of this use case: generate a powerpoint deck automatically from a system. You definitely want to be able to edit your markup for the template, and be able to generate markup from code.