Creating fast presentations using orgmode and reveal

Introduction

In this brief post I’ll explain how to create fast presentations using emacs + orgmode + reveal.

Requisites

• emacs
• orgmode
• ox-reveal

Installing OX-Reveal

OX-Reveal module creates a new entry in the export menu to convert your Org file to Reveal. To install it under Doom Emacs, open your config.el and add the following lines:

(after! org
     (load-library "ox-reveal")
     (setq org-reveal-root "file:///path/to/reveal.js-master"))

Note: Don’t worry about the org-reveal-root, we will set reveal options in the files themselves.

Once it is installed, you can just do C-c C-e R B to create your presentation.

Creating a new presentation

To create a new presentation, create a new orgmode file. Paste the following code at the top of the file:

:PROPERTIES:
:DIR:      ~/org/projects/notebook-a-modelo-presentacion/img/
:END:

:REVEAL_PROPERTIES:
#+REVEAL_ROOT: https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/reveal.js
#+REVEAL_REVEAL_JS_VERSION: 4
#+REVEAL_THEME: night
#+OPTIONS: timestamp:nil toc:nil num:nil tags:nil todo:nil
:END:

#+TITLE: De Notebook a modelo desplegado como servicio web

The DIR property is the route where images will be saved. This needs to be setup per presentation using the command C-c a s for (org-attacg-set-directory). Additional info: https://orgmode.org/manual/Attachment-defaults-and-dispatcher.html

To insert an image fast, copy it on your clipboard and then run M-x org-download-clipboard. Usually I create a screenshot of an area of the screen using cmd-shift-4, then click the thumbnail that appears, add some notes, arrows, etc. Then I open it using Preview, then copy it to the clipboard. A faster way to do it if you don’t want to customize the screenshot is running M-x org-download-screenshot, or running the shortcut C-M-y.

Now, you can start creating headings as in any regular orgmode file:

• Top level headings are new slides
• Secondary level headers create horizontal splits in your presentation
• To split a slide in two, because contents are too long, you can just insert #+REVEAL: split:t at the point you want to split
• To add code, insert a orgbabel section using the shortcut <sthen press TAB.

And that’s it!

With these simple elements you can create a nice looking presentation, created from pure text, that can be versioned, opens in any browser, etc.

Photo credits: Photo by Teemu Paananen on Unsplash.