📽️ Presentations Automation

Write Markdown → Get beautiful presentations.
Powered by Slidev, Go Task, and Node.js.

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✨ What this does

Write a .md file, run one command, get a presentation. No PowerPoint. No dragging boxes around. Just text.

• 🎨 Custom local themes — multiple themes to choose from, applied per presentation
• 🗂️ Organised by subfolders — slides/work/q2.md, slides/school/math.md, etc.
• 🔁 Live preview — edit Markdown, see slides update instantly in the browser
• 📄 Export to PDF or PPTX — one command, open instantly with -o
• ⚙️ Config injection — set your name, company, date once in config.json, injected everywhere
• 📋 Manage presentations — list, rename, duplicate from the terminal

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🚀 First-time setup

1. Install Scoop (Windows package manager)

Open PowerShell as Administrator:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://get.scoop.sh | Invoke-Expression

2. Install Go Task

scoop install task

3. Install pnpm

npm i -g pnpm
pnpm setup

⚠️ Close and reopen PowerShell after running pnpm setup so PATH is updated.

4. Clone the project

git clone <your-repo-url>
cd presentations

5. Run setup

task setup

This installs all dependencies (including local themes), approves Playwright build scripts, and installs the Chromium browser used for PDF/PPTX export.

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⚙️ Configuration

Edit config.json in the project root. These values are automatically injected into every new presentation:

{
  "theme": "my-theme-name",
  "author": "Your Name",
  "date": "01.01.2026",
  "subject": "Presentation Subject",
  "company": "Your Company / School"
}

• theme — default theme used when no t= is passed to task new
• All other fields appear in the header, footer, cover slide, and thank-you slide automatically

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📁 Project structure

presentations/
├── Taskfile.yml            ← all commands live here
├── config.json             ← your name, date, subject, company, default theme
├── template.md             ← base template for new presentations (with examples)
├── template_empty.md       ← minimal blank template
├── package.json
├── pnpm-workspace.yaml     ← registers all themes/ as local packages
│
├── themes/                 ← your custom Slidev themes
│   ├── emerald-theme/
│   │   ├── package.json    ← declares name
│   │   ├── global-top.vue
│   │   ├── global-bottom.vue
│   │   └── styles/
│   │       └── index.css
│   └── lightblue-theme/
│       ├── package.json
│       ├── global-top.vue
│       ├── global-bottom.vue
│       └── styles/
│           └── index.css
│
├── slides/                 ← your .md source files
│   ├── my-talk.md
│   └── react/
│       └── hooks.md
│
├── output/                 ← built files land here (gitignored)
│
└── scripts/                ← internal Node scripts
    ├── new.cjs
    ├── inject.cjs
    ├── inject_theme.cjs
    ├── list.cjs
    ├── rename.cjs
    └── duplicate.cjs

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🛠️ Commands

All commands use short single-letter parameters — no long flags to remember.

Parameter	Meaning	Example
n=	presentation name / path	n=react/hooks
t=	theme name	t=custom-slidev-theme-1
o=true	open file after export	o=true
doc=false	skip documentation template	doc=false
s=	source (for rename/duplicate)	s=old-name
to=	to (for rename/duplicate)	to=new-name

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Create a new presentation

task new n=my-talk
task new n=subfolder/my-talk
task new n=my-talk t=custom-slidev-theme-1
task new n=my-talk doc=false
task new n=my-talk t=custom-slidev-theme-1 doc=false

• Creates slides/my-talk.md from template.md (with usage examples)
• Pass doc=false (or doc=0 / doc=f) to use template_empty.md instead — a clean blank slate with no documentation
• Pass t=theme-name to override the default theme from config.json
• Injects all values from config.json automatically

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Live preview

task watch n=my-talk
task watch n=subfolder/my-talk
task watch n=subfolder/my-talk t=custom-slidev-theme-1

Opens a browser at http://localhost:3030. Edit the .md file and slides update instantly in the browser.

Useful browser shortcuts while presenting:

Key	Action
→ / Space	Next slide / animation
←	Previous slide
P	Presenter mode (notes + timer)
O	Slides overview
F	Fullscreen

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Export to PDF

task pdf n=my-talk
task pdf n=subfolder/my-talk
task pdf n=my-talk o=true
task pdf n=my-talk o=true t=custom-slidev-theme-1

Output: output/my-talk.pdf
Pass o=true to open the file immediately after export.

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Export to PPTX

task pptx n=my-talk
task pptx n=my-talk o=true
task pptx n=my-talk o=true t=custom-slidev-theme-1

Output: output/my-talk.pptx
Slides are exported as images — layout is pixel-perfect but not editable in PowerPoint.
Pass o=true to open the file immediately after export.

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List all presentations

task list

Prints a table of all presentations with their subject, author, date, theme, and which exports already exist.

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Re-inject config

If you update config.json while task watch is running, open a second terminal and run:

task inject n=my-talk
task inject n=my-talk t=custom-slidev-theme-1

The browser will hot-reload automatically.

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Rename a presentation

task rename s=old-name to=new-name
task rename s=react/hooks to=react/hooks-v2

Renames the .md file and any existing output files (PDF, PPTX, HTML folder) to match.

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Duplicate a presentation

task duplicate s=source-talk to=new-talk
task duplicate s=react/hooks to=vue/hooks

Copies the source .md to a new path and injects fresh config values into it.

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🎨 Themes

Themes live in the themes/ folder. Each is a local Slidev theme — a small npm package registered via pnpm-workspace.yaml.

Switching themes

Set the default in config.json:

{
  "theme": "custom-slidev-theme-1"
}

Or override per presentation when creating:

task new n=my-talk t=custom-slidev-theme-2

Customising a theme

Each theme has its own CSS variables in themes/your-theme/styles/index.css:

:root {
  --c-bg:        #F8FAFC;   /* slide background  */
  --c-primary:   #0F766E;   /* headings, accents */
  --c-secondary: #0D9488;   /* sub-headings      */
  --c-text:      #0F172A;   /* body text         */
  --c-muted:     #CCFBF1;   /* borders, dividers */
  --c-accent:    #F0FDFA;   /* subtle backgrounds */
}

The header (global-top.vue) and footer (global-bottom.vue) inside each theme folder control what is shown on every slide. Changes take effect immediately in task watch without restarting.

Adding a new theme

1. Copy an existing theme folder and rename it
2. Update name in the theme's package.json to match the folder name
3. Run pnpm install from the project root to register it
4. Use it with t=your-theme-name

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🔧 Troubleshooting

pnpm not found after install
Run pnpm setup, then close and reopen PowerShell completely.

task not found in VS Code terminal
Press Ctrl+Shift+P → Terminal: Select Default Profile → choose PowerShell. Reopen the terminal.

PDF/PPTX export fails with Playwright error

pnpm approve-builds   # select playwright-chromium
pnpm exec playwright install chromium

Theme not applying (no styling, no header/footer)
Run pnpm install from the project root — this registers all local theme packages. Then restart task watch.

Config values not updating on slides
Run task inject n=your-talk in a second terminal while watch is running.

Slidev tries to install theme from npm and fails
Your theme name in config.json or the slide frontmatter doesn't match the folder name in themes/. Check that the name field in themes/your-theme/package.json exactly matches what you have in config.json.

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📦 Tech stack

Tool	Role
Slidev	Markdown → presentations
Go Task	Task runner / automation
pnpm	Package manager with workspace support
Playwright	Headless browser for PDF/PPTX export
Node.js	Config injection and management scripts

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📄 License

MIT