FEB
16
2008

text based presentation software ?

Submitted by Alexander Neundorf

I just decided for myself I should try to use a text based presentation software, since GUI-based presentation apps require you to think about what goes on which page from the beginning, usually you see only the current page, you have to think about the layout (fontsize, decorations etc.), you have to use the mouse, etc.

I remember that I heard several times of text or markup language based presentation tools, where you basically type some text in your editor, run the tool and then you get some presentation. I just can't remember any names. Preferably it shouldn't require latex.

What can you suggest ?
I'm looking forward to your suggestion. :-)

Alex

Comments

latex' Beamer class is what you're looking for. There's even a KDE oxygen template ...

By sebas at Sat, 02/16/2008 - 17:03

I would try magicpoint (http://member.wide.ad.jp/wg/mgp/, usually packaged in most distros), really simple format (textual) for X11 presentations.

By Pino Toscano at Sat, 02/16/2008 - 18:34

check http://lwn.net/Articles/101846/ for various options

By jayavarman at Sat, 02/16/2008 - 18:38

Thanks for the hints, I think I'll try MagicPoint and/or Beamer.

Of course as always, www.lwn.net was a very valuable resource: http://lwn.net/Articles/101846/

Here is a list with many applications:
http://www.miwie.org/presentations/presentations.html

Alex

By Alexander Neundorf at Sat, 02/16/2008 - 19:17

Since KPresenter for 2.0 is very much under construction this is the ideal time for experienced-presenters to give feedback on how they actually want to work.

See for example these mails from Aaron;
http://lists.kde.org/?l=koffice-devel&m=120269356726720&w=2
and (longer) in depth brainstorming;
http://lists.kde.org/?l=koffice-devel&m=120276053826284&w=2

By Thomas Zander at Sun, 02/17/2008 - 10:31

I got to the same point about 3 years ago. I hacked together a small program I have been using since. Its simple. It takes in a text file and spits out a post script file. Since then I have converted it to use Qt's pdf printing ability vs plain postscript so it works well on winders.

If anyone is interested I could clean up the source and post it somewhere. My only current gripe is I would love the input format to be a wiki like syntax so I could just bang out an outline and be done. Right now it uses QSettings to suck in the file in an ini format. It aint pretty, but it gets the job done.

By Ian Reinhart Geiser at Sun, 02/17/2008 - 21:00

Do you know any application that allows me to see all the pages on the screen and zoom on one page if needed? I'm sick of trying to see the whole picture in my mind.
---
Mary-Anne Davis, offshore incorporation affiliate.

By maryadavis at Fri, 06/06/2008 - 10:41