Presentations in Markdown

I have needed a way to make a quick presentation that does not require the use of huge complex programs like PowerPoint or KeyNote. One way I have been using recently is to write the outline in markdown (as I would when sketching out a lesson plan) and then using the amazing pandoc to magic up a pdf. Here are the key elements of your markdown file and how to produce one for yourself.

YAML Header

---
title: Example
author: Nick Hood
date: "22nd September 2019"
classoption: "aspectratio=169"
---

The presentation

The slide heading level is determined by the first heading that is followed by content. Any headings above that will be treated as section header slides.

Any references can be automatically expanded into a list at the end of the final slide.

## Bullets and links

* First [Link](https://cullaloe.net)!
* No link
* Bullet

# Q & A

## References

How to make the presentation

$ pandoc -t beamer Example.md -o Example.pdf \
    --bibliography="/path/to/bibliography.bib"

add -V theme:Pittsburgh for non-default themes
add -V colortheme:beaver for non-default colours
add -V fonttheme:structuresmallcapsserif for non-default fonts
Themes, etc. are online

Have fun.

But I need a PowerPoint

If you really have to, change the output format from pdf to pptx and remove -t beamer from the command. The output is a bit funky, but will give you a starting point for editing and formatting in PowerPoint if that’s what you need.