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Distribution & Analytics

Self-contained output​

Every render produces one folder you can open, copy or host as it is:

my-talk/
  index.html          ← the presentation (share this)
  speaker.html        ← speaker view
  sync.js             ← speaker view sync
  *.js                ← timer, goto, history, break mode, header/footer, session log
  images/             ← copied images

It works straight from disk (file://) or from any web server. Syntax highlighting and Google Fonts (if your theme uses them) load from the internet; everything else works offline.

Sharing options​

Zip and email:

zip -r my-talk.zip my-talk/

Web server:

scp -r my-talk/ user@server:/var/www/html/

GitHub Pages — put the output in a docs/ folder or push it to a gh-pages branch.

Presenting from a phone or tablet — host the output on GitHub Pages or a web server, then open the URL on the device. Add #N to the URL to open a specific slide, for example https://example.com/my-talk/#5. See Navigation for touch controls. The live demo is hosted this way.

Local HTTP server (also avoids pop-up blockers for speaker view):

python3 -m http.server 8080
# open http://localhost:8080/my-talk/

PDF export​

Browser print — simplest option. Each slide prints on its own landscape page, without the on-screen controls:

  1. Open my-talk/index.html
  2. File → Print (Ctrl/Cmd + P)
  3. Destination → Save as PDF
  4. Print

Headless Chrome:

chromium --headless --print-to-pdf=my-talk.pdf my-talk/index.html

Speaker notes are in speaker.html — they are not included in the PDF.

Session analytics​

While you present, the page records every slide change and how it happened (keyboard, swipe, tap, button, goto, history, speaker view, link), timer pauses and breaks. Nothing is sent anywhere; the record stays in the page until you save it.

  1. Present. Open the deck however you like, or with display:

    java -jar md-slides.jar display my-talk

  2. Save the log. Press L at the end (or at any point). The browser saves my-talk-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.log.json, usually to your Downloads folder, and the page confirms it on screen.

  3. Read the report:

    java -jar md-slides.jar report my-talk

    report uses the newest log for that deck in the deck's output folder, the current folder, or ~/Downloads. To use a specific file:

    java -jar md-slides.jar report my-talk --log path/to/my-talk-20261017-143000.log.json

The report shows:

  • Session length, presenting time and breaks
  • Time per slide (breaks excluded), with slide titles and number of visits
  • The five longest slides
  • The path you took through the deck
  • How you navigated (keyboard, swipe, goto, ...)

A log saved part-way through is marked as such. Review after each rehearsal to find the slides that run long.

Smart default​

Run MD-Slides with just the deck name:

java -jar md-slides.jar my-talk
  1. If a saved session log exists, it shows that session's report first.
  2. It renders the deck if my-talk.md changed since the last render (or was never rendered).
  3. It opens the presentation in your browser.

That makes a rehearsal loop: run it, present, press L, run it again.