deck

deck is a tool for creating deck using Markdown and Google Slides.

Key concept

• Continuous deck building
  • Generate and modify deck iteratively.
• Separate content and design
  • Markdown for content, Google Slides for design.

Usage

Setup

Get and set your OAuth client credentials

• Create (or reuse) a developer project at https://console.cloud.google.com.
• Enable Google Slides API and Google Drive API at API & Services page.
• Go to Credentials page and click + CREATE CREDENTIALS at the top.
• Create OAuth client ID type of credentials.
• Choose type Desktop app.
• Download credentials file to ~/.local/share/deck/credentials.json ( or ${XDG_DATA_HOME}/deck/credentials.json ).

Get presentation ID

When using an existing presentation

Get the presentation ID you want to operate. You can get a list with deck ls.

For example, presentation ID is xxxxxXXXXxxxxxXXXXxxxxxxxxxx of https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/xxxxxXXXXxxxxxXXXXxxxxxxxxxx/edit .

When creating a new presentation

You can create a new presentation with the deck new command and obtain the presentation ID.

If you want to apply a theme, specify the presentation ID of a presentation that is already using that theme with the --from option.

$ deck new --from yyyyyyyYYYYyYYYYYYYyyyyyyyyy --title "Talk about deck"
xxxxxXXXXxxxxxXXXXxxxxxxxxxx

Write desk in markdown

The slide pages are represented by dividing them with horizontal lines ---.

Note

The --- at the beginning of the markdown is ignored.

Apply desk written in markdown to Google Slides presentation

$ deck apply xxxxxXXXXxxxxxXXXXxxxxxxxxxx deck.md

Watch mode

You can use the --watch flag to continuously monitor changes to your markdown file and automatically apply them to the presentation:

$ deck apply --watch xxxxxXXXXxxxxxXXXXxxxxxxxxxx deck.md

This is useful during the content creation process as it allows you to see your changes reflected in the presentation in real-time as you edit the markdown file.

Note

The --watch flag cannot be used together with the --page flag.

Support markdown rules

Insertion rule

deck inserts values according to the following rules regardless of the slide layout.

• Heading1 (#) is inserted into the title placeholder ( CENTERED_TITLE or TITLE ) in order.
• Heading2 (##) is inserted into the subtitle placeholder ( SUBTITLE ) in order.
• All other items are inserted into the body placeholder ( BODY ) in order.

Note

They are inserted in the order they appear in the markdown document, from the placeholder at the top of the slide (or from the placeholder on the left if the slides are the same height).

Input markdown document

# CAP theorem

## In Database theory

## Consistency

Every read receives the most recent write or an error.

## Availability

Every request received by a non-failing node in the system must result in a response.

## Partition tolerance

The system continues to operate despite an arbitrary number of messages being dropped (or delayed) by the network between nodes.

Layout and placeholders

Result of applying

Support syntax in body

• Bold ( **bold** )
• Italic ( *italic* __italic__ )
• List ( - * )
• Ordered list ( 1. 1) )
• Link ( [Link](https://example.com) )
• Code ( `code` )
• <br> (for newline)
• Image (![Image](path/to/image.png) )

Style for syntax

Create a layout named style and add a Text box to enter specific word. The styles (bold, italic, underline, backgroundColor, foregroundColor, fontFamily) will be applied as the style for each Markdown syntax.

Word
bold	style for bold.
italic	style for italic.
link	style for link.
code	style for code.
(other word)	style for content of inline HTML elements with matching class name ( e.g. <span class="notice">THIS IS NOTICE</span> )

Code blocks to images

By using the --code-block-to-image-command (-c) option, you can convert Markdown code blocks to images. The specified command is executed for each code block, and its standard output is treated as an image.

$ deck apply --code-block-to-image-command "some-command" xxxxxXXXXxxxxxXXXXxxxxxxxxxx deck.md

The command is executed with bash -c. The command must output image data (PNG, JPEG, GIF) to standard output.

How to receive values

From code blocks like the following, you can obtain the optional language identifier go and the content within the code block.

```go
package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
	fmt.Println("Hello, 世界")
}
```

There are three ways to receive code block information within the command:

1. Receive from standard input

   • The content of the code block is passed as standard input
   • The optional language identifier cannot be obtained, so use it in combination with other methods

2. Receive as environment variables

   • CODEBLOCK_LANG: Optional language identifier of the code block (e.g., go, python)
   • CODEBLOCK_CONTENT: Content of the code block

3. Receive with template syntax ( with expr-lang )

   • {{lang}}: Optional language identifier of the code block
   • {{content}}: Content of the code block
   • {{env.XXX}}: Value of environment variable XXX

These methods can be used in combination, and you can choose the appropriate method according to the command requirements.

Examples

# Convert Mermaid diagrams to images
$ deck apply -c 'mmdc -i - -o output.png --quiet; cat output.png' xxxxxXXXXxxxxxXXXXxxxxxxxxxx deck.md

# Generate code images with syntax highlighting (e.g., silicon)
$ deck apply -c 'silicon -l {{lang == "" ? "-l md" : "-l " + lang}} -o output.png; cat output.png' xxxxxXXXXxxxxxXXXXxxxxxxxxxx deck.md

# Use different tools depending on the language
$ deck apply -c 'if [ {{lang}} = "mermaid" ]; then mmdc -i - -o output.png --quet; else silicon {{lang == "" ? "-l md" : "-l " + lang}} --output output.png; fi; cat output.png' xxxxxXXXXxxxxxXXXXxxxxxxxxxx deck.md

Comment

The comments <!-- --> are used as a speaker notes or page config.

Page config

If the comment <!-- --> can be JSON-encoded, it will be processed as page config.

<!-- {"layout": "title-and-body"} -->

"layout":

It is possible to specify the page layout.

The layout name (e.g. title-and-body) is specified.

<!-- {"layout": "title-and-body"} -->

Tip

With deck ls-layouts it is possible to obtain a list of the layout names for a specific presentation.

$ deck ls-layouts xxxxxXXXXxxxxxXXXXxxxxxxxxxx
title
section
section-dark
title-and-body
title-and-body-half
title-and-body-2col
title-and-body-3col

"freeze":

It is possible to skip the operation of the target page.

Tip

If you set it to a page that has been completed with layout and design, the page will not be modified unnecessarily by deck.

<!-- {"freeze": true} -->

Integration

• zonuexe/deck-slides.el ... Creating deck using Markdown and Google Slides.

Install

homebrew tap:

$ brew install k1LoW/tap/deck

go install:

$ go install github.com/k1LoW/deck/cmd/deck@latest

manually:

Download binary from releases page

Alternatives

• googleworkspace/md2googleslides: Generate Google Slides from markdown

License

• MIT License
  • Include logo as well as source code.
  • Only logo license can be selected CC BY 4.0.
  • Also, if there is no alteration to the logo and it is used for technical information about deck, I would not say anything if the copyright notice is omitted.