Navigation

MD-Slides is fully keyboard-driven. All shortcuts work in both the main window and speaker view.

Keyboard reference

Key	Action
→ / Space	Next slide
←	Previous slide
Home	First slide
End	Last slide
S	Open speaker view
B	Toggle break mode
G	Goto: type a slide number, press Enter
P	History back
N	History forward (or next slide if no forward history)
T	Pause / resume timer
R	Reset timer to 00:00:00

Break mode

Press B to hide the presentation from your audience while you take a break. The timer pauses automatically. Press B again to resume.

While break mode is active you still see your current slide and notes in speaker view.

Configure a custom break screen image in your theme JSON:

{
  "breakScreen": "images/break.png"
}

Or pass it at render time:

java -jar md-slides.jar render my-talk --break-screen ./images/break.png

Goto

Press G, type a slide number (1-indexed, matching the slide counter), then press Enter. Jumps directly to that slide — useful during Q&A when someone asks to revisit a specific slide.

History navigation

MD-Slides records your full navigation path — not just the slide sequence.

• P — back through your navigation history
• N — forward through history, or next slide if there is no forward history

History navigation is useful for non-linear Q&A sessions where you jump between slides out of order.

Timer

The elapsed timer starts on your first navigation (arrow key or space), not on page load.

• T — pause or resume without entering break mode
• R — reset to 00:00:00 (useful when rehearsing)

Display the live timer value on slides using the {{timer}} token in a header: or footer: frontmatter key.

Fullscreen

Use your browser's built-in fullscreen:

• Windows / Linux: F11
• macOS: Ctrl + Cmd + F

All MD-Slides keyboard shortcuts continue to work in fullscreen mode.

Recommended browsers: Chrome or Firefox — both support the BroadcastChannel API required for speaker view synchronization.