md2slides Reference

Every building block of a deck, in one place: the command line, the front matter, the slides, the blocks, the code, the keys and the skin. One line per item — what it is and what it takes — with a link to the md2slides page for the whole story. New to the notation itself? See Markdown, Pandoc and md2slides.

In the tables, text is any text, n a number, min minutes (decimals allowed), s seconds (1, 0.4, or 400ms), and length a CSS length (1cm, 2em, 40px, 5%).

Command Line

[rexx] md2slides [options] filename [destination]

A sheet is a path: relative ones are looked for beside the deck, then in the current folder. Filename gets .md when it has no extension and is not found as given; destination defaults to the deck's name with .html, in the current folder. The command line wins over the front matter, which wins over the default. → Usage, Skin and Masters

Front Matter

The --- block on the very first line of the file. md2slides' settings live under rexxpub:. It is YAML 1.2, the same Pandoc reads: blocks, lists, the one-line forms { a: 1, b: 2 } and [a, b], and # comments. yes, no, on, off are booleans, so a text that is one of those words goes in quotes; so does one with a colon and a blank in it. Invalid YAML stops the build, with its line. → YAML Front Matter

rexxpub: — top level

Outside rexxpub:, bibliography: (a file of references, beside the deck) turns citations on: [@key] in the text, ::: {#refs} where the list goes.

Outside rexxpub:, lang: names the language of the caption labels (Listado, Figura... for es).

Not used by md2slides, though other RexxPub tools read them: docclass:, theme:, csl: (use --csl), pandoc-style: / highlight: (use --pandoc-highlight or the skin). The Rexx dialect keys (executor:, experimental:, unicode:) do not reach the slides either: name the dialect on the listing itself (```rexx {executor}).

header: and footer:

A box that does not fit is shrunk, down to half size, together with the other two of its band. The header band shows only when the skin gives it a height. → The margin boxes

anim:

Element effects: fade, fade-up, fade-down, fade-left, fade-right, scale-in, blur-in, cut. Page effects: fade, slide, fade-color, cut. → Animation

timer:

(interval: and seconds: are the old names of popup-every: and switch-to-seconds:; they still work, and the build says what they are called now.) → The Presenter's Timer, Rehearsing

about:

about: no leaves the page out. As a block, each group is yes or no: deck, system, command, links, timing (all yes), path (no: names without their folders) and print (no: yes prints the page after the last slide). → About This Deck

Fields

Where they work:

• In a margin box, every field. One nobody sets comes out empty, and the build warns — unless it is in an optional group: [ · v{version}] is all there when a field in it has a value, and gone when none has; the brackets never show.
• In a slide's text and in link targets ([text]({regulations})), the fields of the first three kinds. An unknown {name} stays as written, and code is never touched.
• On a business card, as in the text, but a field with no value leaves nothing, and a line of the card whose fields are all empty goes, label and all. An unknown {name} is left out too, and the build warns.
• Per slide, a zone with the field's name (::: presenter, ::: course...) sets that field for one slide, in its boxes and in its text. Any field works, except the names of md2slides' own zones and blocks (title, row, card...), which keep their meaning.

→ The margin boxes

Slides

A slide opens with a marker, a line of its own, or with a level-1 heading, and a deck may use both. A heading right under a marker is that slide's title; two headings in a row are one title of two lines. The braces take classes (.name), an identifier (#name) and attributes (key=value, in quotes with blanks).

--- {.slide .logo-rexx kicker="Basics" time=10}

# The Title {.section}

→ Writing a Deck

Roles

Any other class (.logo-rexx...) goes to the <section> for the masters. → Roles

Slide attributes

→ Attributes at a Glance, The Presenter's Timer

Zones

A zone is a ::: block that md2slides reads as data rather than showing it where it stands. → Zones

Blocks

Everything here is written on a ::: block — ::: {.fragment level=2} — and most of it on a bracketed span too.

Revealing

Timing words take any case. On a block that is not a fragment they time the first fragment inside it. → Marking Fragments

Layout

→ The Grid, Scaling a Block, Indenting a Block

Code

The Rexx listings take the options of the Rexx highlighter (size=, pad=, style=...), and only those: a class on a Rexx fence (.fragment) is dropped, with a warning; put the listing inside ::: fragment instead. A listing with its own style= keeps it when s changes the others. → Rexx Code, and Rexx in Prose, Captions

> Lines

The same as the braces, written as a line that starts with >, just before the thing it is about. A line holds a step word (click, after, with), options (word, word=value), a name (id=#x; used as #x) and a keyword with its operands. A quotation is still a quotation: a line is read as md2slides only when its words are md2slides' (\> starts a paragraph with a >). → The > Lines

Keys

A click goes on (on the left eighth of the screen, back); a drag selects text instead. → Navigating a Deck

On a touch screen: a tap is a click; a swipe is the next or previous step; a tap with two fingers is F1, whose keys are buttons; the round button in the bottom right corner opens the touch bar (first, previous slide, back, next, next slide, last, g, F1). → Without a Keyboard

Skin Properties

A skin is a style sheet that sets these on :root. All are optional; the deck has a default for each.

→ Skin and Masters