A Tour of Present
Slides, articles and everything in between
9 October 2026
Ada Example
Gopher Wrangler, Example Corp
Grace Example
Compiler Whisperer
Presenting
Key
Does
→ ↓ Space Enter next slide
← ↑ Backspace previous slide
PgDn PgUp next, previous, also in a code block
N open the presenter notes, with -notes
S show the source of the slide, with -doc
H hide the help text
present serve cli flagsDoes
-hotreload the slides when a file changes
-notesenable the presenter notes
-docserve the docs and these examples and source view
-play=falsedo not run the programs of .play
2
Text
Section text is CommonMark Markdown:
italic , bold , code and links .
bullet lists
with several items
continued on the next line
numbered lists
work too
3
Tables
GitHub-style tables line up with |;
colons in the separator row align the columns:
Command
Shows
Runs
.codesource from a file
no
.playsource from a file
yes
.imagea picture or a diagram
no
4
Code blocks and quotes
Indented or fenced blocks are shown as code, without running anything:
$ go run golang.org/x/tools/cmd/present@latest
Clear is better than clever.
.play and the other commands start with a period; a backslash before it shows the line as text.
5
Subsections
A subsection starts with ###
Text under the subsection.
Another subsection
Deeper levels use ####, ##### and so on
6
Font size
and .fontsize alone goes back to the default.
7
Links and HTML
The Go website
raw HTML from html/badge.html
8
Custom style sheets
Present loads style sheets from the directory automatically:
style.css for all presentations and articlesslide.css for slides, and article.css for articlesintro.slide.css for this presentation only
/* Custom styles loaded automatically for intro.slide */
.custom-card {
margin-top: 1em;
padding: 1em 1.5em;
border-left: 4px solid #00add8;
background-color: #e8f4f8;
border-radius: 4px;
}
This card is styled by rules in intro.slide.css .
9
What next
10
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examples/intro.slide
1 # A Tour of Present
2 Slides, articles and everything in between
3 10:00 9 Oct 2026
4 Tags: present, example
5 Summary: The basics of the present file format: header, authors, text and simple commands.
6 : Notes before the first slide belong to the title slide.
7 : Run present serve -notes and press N to see them.
8
9 Ada Example
10 Gopher Wrangler, Example Corp
11 ada@example.com
12 https://example.com/
13 @ada_example
14
15 Grace Example
16 Compiler Whisperer
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examples/intro.slide
18 ## Presenting
19
20 .fontsize 0.8
21
22 | Key | Does |
23 |-------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------|
24 | <kbd>→</kbd> <kbd>↓</kbd> <kbd>Space</kbd> <kbd>Enter</kbd> | next slide |
25 | <kbd>←</kbd> <kbd>↑</kbd> <kbd>Backspace</kbd> | previous slide |
26 | <kbd>PgDn</kbd> <kbd>PgUp</kbd> | next, previous, also in a code block |
27 | <kbd>N</kbd> | open the presenter notes, with `-notes` |
28 | <kbd>S</kbd> | show the source of the slide, with `-doc` |
29 | <kbd>H</kbd> | hide the help text |
30
31 | `present serve` cli flags | Does |
32 |---------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|
33 | `-hot` | reload the slides when a file changes |
34 | `-notes` | enable the presenter notes |
35 | `-doc` | serve the docs and these examples and source view |
36 | `-play=false` | do not run the programs of `.play` |
37
38 : Clicking the left or right edge of a slide, or swiping, also moves between slides.
39 : Exported pages, like the examples on GitHub Pages, have no notes;
40 : S works on them when they are exported with -source.
41 : present serve -h lists all the flags.
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examples/intro.slide
43 ## Text
44
45 Section text is [CommonMark](https://commonmark.org/help/) Markdown:
46 _italic_, **bold**, `code` and [links](https://go.dev/).
47
48 - bullet lists
49 - with several items
50 continued on the next line
51
52 1. numbered lists
53 2. work too
54
55 56
57 : Lines starting with ": " are speaker notes for this slide.
58 : Notes are Markdown: **bold**, `code` and [links](https://go.dev/) work.
59
60 ::: notes
61 A block of notes holds longer notes:
62
63 - several paragraphs, lists and code
64 - lines starting with `#`, `.` or `//` are Markdown here too
65
66 It ends at a line with three colons.
67 :::
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examples/intro.slide
69 ## Tables
70
71 [GitHub-style tables](https://github.github.com/gfm/#tables-extension-) line up with `|`;
72 colons in the separator row align the columns:
73
74 | Command | Shows | Runs |
75 |----------|------------------------|:----:|
76 | `.code` | source from a file | no |
77 | `.play` | source from a file | yes |
78 | `.image` | a picture or a diagram | no |
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80 ## Code blocks and quotes
81
82 Indented or fenced blocks are shown as code, without running anything:
83
84 ```
85 $ go run golang.org/x/tools/cmd/present@latest
86 ```
87
88 > Clear is better than clever.
89
90 \.play and the other commands start with a period; a backslash before it shows the line as text.
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92 ## Subsections
93
94 ### A subsection starts with ###
95
96 Text under the subsection.
97
98 ### Another subsection
99
100 #### Deeper levels use ####, ##### and so on
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102 ## Font size
103
104 .fontsize 3
105
106 fontsize 3
107
108 .fontsize 2
109
110 fontsize 2
111
112 .fontsize 0.8
113
114 fontsize 0.8
115
116 .fontsize 60%
117
118 fontsize 60%
119
120 .fontsize 0.45
121
122 fontsize 0.45
123
124 .fontsize
125
126 and `.fontsize` alone goes back to the default.
127
128 : Sizes are relative to the default size, not to the previous .fontsize.
129 : Absolute sizes work too: .fontsize 20px or .fontsize 14pt.
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examples/intro.slide
131 ## Links and HTML
132
133 .link https://go.dev/ The **Go** website
134
135 .html html/badge.html
136
137 .iframe html/frame.html 120 600
138
139 : .link shows a single link on a line of its own; its label is inline Markdown.
140 : .html includes a file as raw HTML; .iframe embeds a page.
Files used
html/badge.html 1 <p style="display: inline-block; padding: 0.3em 0.8em; border-radius: 1em; background: #00add8; color: white; font-weight: bold;">
2 raw HTML from html/badge.html
3 </p>
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examples/intro.slide
142 ## Custom style sheets
143
144 Present loads style sheets from the directory automatically:
145
146 - `style.css` for all presentations and articles
147 - `slide.css` for slides, and `article.css` for articles
148 - `intro.slide.css` for this presentation only
149
150 .code intro.slide.css
151
152 <div class="custom-card">
153 This card is styled by rules in <b>intro.slide.css</b>.
154 </div>
155
156 : Style sheets in the directory customize fonts, colors and layout.
File used
intro.slide.css 1 /* Custom styles loaded automatically for intro.slide */
2
3 .custom-card {
4 margin-top: 1em;
5 padding: 1em 1.5em;
6 border-left: 4px solid #00add8;
7 background-color: #e8f4f8;
8 border-radius: 4px;
9 }
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examples/intro.slide
158 ## What next
159
160 - [code.slide](code.slide): showing and running code
161 - [media.slide](media.slide): images, diagrams and video
162 - [notes.article](notes.article): the article format
No sourceS closes
present adds this slide itself; it has no source.
Use the left and right arrow keys or click the left and right
edges of the page to navigate between slides.