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Introduction to org-re-reveal

Yujie Wen and others

Created: 2024-04-21 Sun 07:18

org-re-reveal-badge.svg org-re-reveal-badge.svg

Notes

The project org-re-reveal is a fork of org-reveal. It provides an export back-end for HTML presentations with reveal.js from Org mode source files.

Being a fork means that org-re-reveal and org-reveal are two independent projects from which you need to choose one. I created org-re-reveal during a period when org-reveal was unmaintained, in particular to add support for the audio-slideshow plugin of reveal.js-plugins. Nowadays, both projects have diverged considerably. If someone could suggest how to merge the forks, please go ahead!

Note that this Readme is written in the lightweight markup language Org mode, for which browser support on GitLab is limited. In particular, internal hyperlinks won’t work. I suggest to either open the Org source file of this Readme in Emacs or to view the generated Readme for org-re-reveal as reveal.js presentation in your browser.

Generated reveal.js presentations for test cases are available as well: https://oer.gitlab.io/org-re-reveal/

Emacs-reveal

If you are interested in org-re-reveal, I suggest that you take a look at emacs-reveal, which embeds org-re-reveal, reveal.js, and useful plugins as submodules, combined with suitable Emacs configuration. A Howto for the generation of reveal.js presentations (slides with audio) with emacs-reveal exists as well.

I use emacs-reveal to generate Open Educational Resources (OER). In particular, macros coming with emacs-reveal simplify license attribution for embedded figures considerably: OER presentations for a course on operating systems

Relationships between packages

Package Description
org-reveal Origin of org-re-reveal
Package ox-reveal on MELPA Another name for org-reveal
org-re-reveal Fork of org-reveal, initially to add audio fragments, now with various changes
org-re-reveal-ref Addon to org-re-reveal for bibliography slide based on org-ref
org-re-reveal-citeproc Alternative to org-re-reveal-ref for bibliography slide based on syntax of Org mode 9.5
oer-reveal Export backend derived from org-re-reveal; functionality for installation of reveal.js and plugins; simplification of licensing for OER
emacs-reveal Bundling of org-re-reveal, org-re-reveal-citeproc, org-re-reveal-ref, and oer-reveal

Originally, emacs-reveal was created to enhance org-reveal, and it contained the code of what is now maintained separately as org-re-reveal-ref and oer-reveal. Those packages were separated to make as much of emacs-reveal available on MELPA as possible. Whether anyone wants to use those package in isolation, is up to them.

Changelog

See file CHANGELOG for changes of org-re-reveal compared to org-reveal and onward

Side note: Customization of variables

  • GNU Emacs can be customized in various ways, and org-re-reveal is no exception in that regard.
    • This Readme frequently suggests “to customize” some variables.
  • You may want to read the Emacs manual entry on customization.
  • As shortcut
    • Type C-h v (which means press the Ctrl key and h simultaneously, then v). You are asked for a variable name. Enter it, e.g., org-re-reveal-revealjs-version. You wind up in a help buffer, showing the current value and a “customize” link. Enter/press the link, leading to a customization buffer, where you can change the value and “Apply” (or “Apply and Save”) it.

Reveal.js and org-re-reveal

  • Reveal.js is a tool for creating good-looking HTML presentations, authored by Hakim El Hattab.
  • Org-re-reveal exports your Org mode documents to reveal.js presentations.

    With org-re-reveal, you can create beautiful presentations with 3D effects from simple but powerful Org contents.

Local presentations and CORS security

  • Generated presentations can be opened and viewed in browsers (without the need for a web server)
    • Some features may be prohibited based on cross-origin request security settings
      • E.g., with audio, the browser console of Firefox may show: Cross-Origin Request Blocked: The Same Origin Policy disallows reading the remote resource at file:///... (Reason: CORS request not http)
      • Maybe use option --allow-file-access-from-files with chromium
    • Maybe serve presentations with local web server

Local presentations with web server

  • As alternative to overriding CORS settings, start a web server for generated presentations on localhost, e.g.:
  • Suggestion
    • Embed resources (e.g., reveal.js, CSS, plugins) with relative paths into presentation (instead of absolute file paths)
    • Then, presentation works not only locally but also on public web server

Requirements and Installation

  • Reveal.js
  • GNU Emacs, version 24.4 or later
  • Org mode
  • Org-re-reveal
  • Htmlize.el or highlight.js (plugin of reveal.js)
    • For source code highlighting, which is explained below
      • Depending on your version of Org mode, htmlize.el may be necessary even if you want to use highlight.js

Install reveal.js

Note: This is only necessary if you do not use emacs-reveal, which installs and configures reveal.js with several of its plugins.

Install org-re-reveal

You can install org-re-reveal as MELPA package or from GitLab (both options are explained subsequently).

In any case, this package defines the Org export back-end re-reveal. As usual for export back-ends, you can either customize org-export-backends to include re-reveal or add the following to your .emacs file.

(require 'org-re-reveal)

Note: It is suggested to use a recent version of Org mode with org-re-reveal. Installation of Org mode. (Emacs-reveal also includes Org mode.)

Install org-re-reveal from MELPA

Package org-re-reveal is available on MELPA. Use of MELPA requires some setup code in your .emacs file. See here how to get started with MELPA.

After installation of org-re-reveal, you still need to activate it as suggested on the previous slide.

Install org-re-reveal from GitLab

You can download org-re-reveal as archive from GitLab (zip archive and several tar variants; note the download icon on the project page). (The disadvantage is that you need to keep track of new versions yourself.)

Alternatively, you can clone the repository of org-re-reveal (and later execute git pull in the cloned directory to retrieve updates):

git clone https://gitlab.com/oer/org-re-reveal.git

Add the directory of org-re-reveal.el to your Emacs's load-path, and add the following statement to your .emacs file.

(require 'org-re-reveal)

Licensing

I suggest that you think about “good” licensing terms for the presentations that you create for and with org-re-reveal (the source files as well as generated ones). I recommend that you publish them under free and open licenses as Open Educational Resources (OER). This process is simplified with oer-reveal and emacs-reveal.

Besides, org-re-reveal-tdm-reservation offers support for the TDM Reservation Protocol (TDMRep), which enables European rightsholders to restrict the use of their contents for text and data mining (TDM) purposes in a machine readable way.

Configuration

Options and Plug-ins

All options and keywords with their customizable variables are shown in the following table, with hints and more customizable variables afterwards.

Option Keyword Variable
reveal_center nil org-re-reveal-center
reveal_control nil org-re-reveal-control
reveal_defaulttiming nil org-re-reveal-defaulttiming
reveal_embed_local_resources nil org-re-reveal-embed-local-resources
reveal_fragmentinurl nil org-re-reveal-fragmentinurl
reveal_generate_ids nil org-re-reveal-generate-custom-ids
reveal_hashonebasedindex nil org-re-reveal-hashonebasedindex
reveal_height nil org-re-reveal-height
reveal_history nil org-re-reveal-history
reveal_inter_presentation_links nil org-re-reveal-inter-presentation-links
reveal_keyboard nil org-re-reveal-keyboard
reveal_klipsify_src nil org-re-reveal-klipsify-src
reveal_mobile_app nil org-re-reveal-mobile-app
reveal_mousewheel nil org-re-reveal-mousewheel
reveal_overview nil org-re-reveal-overview
reveal_pdfseparatefragments nil org-re-reveal-pdfseparatefragments
reveal_progress nil org-re-reveal-progress
reveal_rolling_links nil org-re-reveal-rolling-links
reveal_show_notes nil org-re-reveal-show-notes
reveal_single_file nil org-re-reveal-single-file
reveal_slide_global_footer nil org-re-reveal-global-footer
reveal_slide_global_header nil org-re-reveal-global-header
reveal_slide_number nil org-re-reveal-slide-number
reveal_slide_toc_footer nil org-re-reveal-toc-footer
reveal_subtree_with_title_slide nil org-re-reveal-subtree-with-title-slide
reveal_totaltime nil org-re-reveal-totaltime
reveal_width nil org-re-reveal-width
reveal_with_tts nil org-re-reveal-with-tts
nil REVEAL_ACADEMIC_TITLE nil
nil REVEAL_ADD_PLUGIN nil
nil REVEAL_CODEMIRROR_CONFIG org-re-reveal-klipse-codemirror
nil REVEAL_DEFAULT_FRAG_STYLE org-re-reveal-default-frag-style
nil REVEAL_DEFAULT_SLIDE_BACKGROUND nil
nil REVEAL_DEFAULT_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_SIZE nil
nil REVEAL_DEFAULT_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_OPACITY nil
nil REVEAL_DEFAULT_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_POSITION nil
nil REVEAL_DEFAULT_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_REPEAT nil
nil REVEAL_DEFAULT_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_TRANSITION nil
nil REVEAL_EXPORT_NOTES_TO_PDF org-re-reveal-export-notes-to-pdf
nil REVEAL_EXTERNAL_PLUGINS org-re-reveal-external-plugins
nil REVEAL_EXTRA_ATTR org-re-reveal-extra-attr
nil REVEAL_EXTRA_CSS org-re-reveal-extra-css
nil REVEAL_EXTRA_OPTIONS org-re-reveal-extra-options
nil REVEAL_EXTRA_SCRIPTS org-re-reveal-extra-scripts
nil REVEAL_HEAD_PREAMBLE org-re-reveal-head-preamble
nil REVEAL_INIT_SCRIPT org-re-reveal-init-script
nil REVEAL_HIGHLIGHT_CSS org-re-reveal-highlight-css
nil REVEAL_HIGHLIGHT_URL org-re-reveal-highlight-url
nil REVEAL_HLEVEL nil
nil REVEAL_KLIPSE_CSS_URL org-re-reveal-klipse-css
nil REVEAL_KLIPSE_EXTRA_CONFIG org-re-reveal-klipse-extra-config
nil REVEAL_KLIPSE_JS_URL org-re-reveal-klipse-js
nil REVEAL_KLIPSE_SETUP org-re-reveal-klipse-setup
nil REVEAL_MARGIN org-re-reveal-margin
nil REVEAL_MATHJAX_URL org-re-reveal-mathjax-url
nil REVEAL_MAX_SCALE org-re-reveal-max-scale
nil REVEAL_MIN_SCALE org-re-reveal-min-scale
nil REVEAL_MISCINFO nil
nil REVEAL_MULTIPLEX_ID org-re-reveal-multiplex-id
nil REVEAL_MULTIPLEX_JS_URL org-re-reveal-multiplex-js-url
nil REVEAL_MULTIPLEX_SECRET org-re-reveal-multiplex-secret
nil REVEAL_MULTIPLEX_SOCKETIO_URL org-re-reveal-multiplex-socketio-url
nil REVEAL_MULTIPLEX_URL org-re-reveal-multiplex-url
nil REVEAL_PLUGINS org-re-reveal-plugins
nil REVEAL_POSTAMBLE org-re-reveal-postamble
nil REVEAL_POSTSCRIPT org-re-reveal-postscript
nil REVEAL_PREAMBLE org-re-reveal-preamble
nil REVEAL_ROOT org-re-reveal-root
nil REVEAL_SLIDE_CONTAINER org-re-reveal-slide-container
nil REVEAL_SLIDE_GRID_DIV org-re-reveal-slide-grid-div
nil REVEAL_SLIDE_HEADER org-re-reveal-slide-header
nil REVEAL_SLIDE_FOOTER org-re-reveal-slide-footer
nil REVEAL_SPEED org-re-reveal-transition-speed
nil REVEAL_TALK_QR_CODE nil
nil REVEAL_TALK_URL nil
nil REVEAL_TDM_RESERVATION org-re-reveal-tdm-reservation
nil REVEAL_THEME org-re-reveal-theme
nil REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE org-re-reveal-title-slide
nil REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_BACKGROUND nil
nil REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_EXTRA_ATTR nil
nil REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_STATE nil
nil REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_TIMING nil
nil REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_SIZE nil
nil REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_OPACITY nil
nil REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_POSITION nil
nil REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_REPEAT nil
nil REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_TRANSITION nil
nil REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_NOTES org-re-reveal-title-slide-notes
nil REVEAL_TOC_SLIDE_STATE nil
nil REVEAL_TOC_SLIDE_TIMING nil
nil REVEAL_TOC_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_SIZE nil
nil REVEAL_TOC_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_OPACITY nil
nil REVEAL_TOC_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_POSITION nil
nil REVEAL_TOC_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_REPEAT nil
nil REVEAL_TOC_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_TRANSITION nil
nil REVEAL_TOC_SLIDE_CLASS nil
nil REVEAL_TOC_SLIDE_TITLE org-re-reveal-toc-slide-title
nil REVEAL_TRANS org-re-reveal-transition
nil REVEAL_TTS_DIR org-re-reveal-tts-dir
nil REVEAL_TTS_NAME_PREFIX org-re-reveal-tts-name-prefix
nil REVEAL_TTS_SENTENCE_GAP org-re-reveal-tts-sentence-gap
nil REVEAL_TTS_START_SLIDE_GAP org-re-reveal-tts-start-slide-gap
nil REVEAL_TTS_END_SLIDE_GAP org-re-reveal-tts-end-slide-gap
nil REVEAL_VERSION org-re-reveal-revealjs-version
nil REVEAL_VIEWPORT org-re-reveal-viewport

For documentation of variables, see their doc strings. E.g., either invoke C-h v followed by the name of the variable or browse the customization group org-export-re-reveal: enter M-x customize-group, then org-export-re-reveal.

For examples, please refer to the heading part of this document and to test-cases in the GitLab repository.

Options and keywords that do not have a variable documenting their effects are explained in this document. Search in reveal.js presentations is invoked with C-S-f (which means “Control” and “Shift” and “f”; curiously, “f” is shown as “F” on keyboards, which actually is “Shift f”).

Note that #+REVEAL_EXTRA_OPTIONS: your_comma_separated_options and org-re-reveal-extra-options allow to specify arbitrary configuration options of reveal.js.

In addition, the following customizable variables are available (without options/keywords):

org-re-reveal-body-attrs, org-re-reveal-client-multiplex-filter, org-re-reveal-keys, org-re-reveal-klipse-extra-css, org-re-reveal-multiplex-client-ext, org-re-reveal-no-htmlize-src, org-re-reveal-note-key-char, org-re-reveal-notes-format-string, org-re-reveal-plugin-config, org-re-reveal-tts-normalize-table

Set the location of reveal.js

Package org-re-reveal must know where reveal.js is on your computer before exporting Org contents. You do not have to worry about any of this with emacs-reveal.

The location of reveal.js is the path to the top directory of the reveal.js installation, the directory which contains file README.md, but not the one that contains the file reveal.js.

The default location is ./reveal.js, relative to the generated HTML presentation.

Customize org-re-reveal-root to change the location globally, or use keyword #+REVEAL_ROOT in an individual Org file. For example, add the following statement to your .emacs file:

(setq org-re-reveal-root "file:///d:/reveal.js")

In general, a presentation may embed lots of resources (JavaScript, CSS, images), and Org mode distinguishes the publication of projects (with multiple files) from the export of an individual Org source file. The publication process usually creates a self-contained directory with all necessary resources, including the exported presentation(s). Such directories can then be served from any web server.

See publish.el, which defines a publication process that exports this Readme and selected test cases (executed in that CI/CD pipeline on GitLab, using functionality of oer-reveal), with the result being served as GitLab Pages.

You can also set REVEAL_ROOT to a URL (a CDN) to use reveal.js from the web instead of downloading a local copy. The reveal.js documentation does not mention this alternative, though, and your privacy policy should inform your audience that they download files from that CDN (quite likely with their IP address and browser characteristics being tracked)…

URL form for file location

For example if you cloned this repository to your home directory, this file in Mac OS X might be referred to as file:///Users/username/org-re-reveal/Readme.org. This file in GNU/Linux could be file:///home/username/org-re-reveal/Readme.org, in Windows file:///c:/Users/username/org-re-reveal/Readme.org. For more details on this standard please refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_URI_scheme.

First Try

The library org-re-reveal needs to be loaded first. That can happen either by adding (require 'org-re-reveal) to your .emacs file or manually: Type "M-x load-library", then "org-re-reveal".

Now you can export this manual, Readme.org, into a reveal.js presentation by typing "C-c C-e v v". That key binding can be changed by customizing org-re-reveal-keys.

Open the generated "Readme.html" in your browser and enjoy the cool slides. (Of course, the location of reveal.js must be configured properly, as explained earlier.)

Configure your version of reveal.js

Org-re-reveal supports reveal.js 3.x and 4.x, which are incompatible with each other. You can customize org-re-reveal-revealjs-version (or use keyword #+REVEAL_VERSION) to indicate your version. With the default value of nil, org-re-reveal tries to guess your version, which works when org-re-reveal-root (or keyword #+REVEAL_ROOT) points to a local directory: Based on the contents of that directory, your version is inferred. However, if org-re-reveal-root is a remote URL, this does not work.

Error about head.min.js

Older versions of reveal.js included an initialization file head.min.js, which does not exist with newer versions. If org-re-reveal cannot determine that you use a newer version, it tries to load all files of older versions. If that leads to errors, customize org-re-reveal-revealjs-version.

The HLevel

org-re-reveal maps each heading and its contents to one reveal.js slide. Since reveal.js arranges slides into a 2-dimensional matrix, org-re-reveal use a HLevel value to decide whether to map headings to horizontal or vertical slides.

  • Headings of level less than or equal to HLevel are mapped to horizontal slides.
  • Headings with a deeper level are mapped to vertical slides.

HLevel's default value is 1, means only level 1 headings are arranged horizontally. Deeper headings are mapped to vertical slides below their parent level 1 heading.

HLevel's Effects on Slides Layout

Assume we have a simple Org file as below:

* H1
* H2
** H2.1
*** H2.1.1
* H3

If HLevel is 1, the default value, headings H2.1 and H2.1.1 will be mapped to vertical slides below the slides of heading H2.

hlevel.png

If HLevel is changed to 2, slides of heading H2.1 will be changed to the main horizontal queue, and slides of heading H2.1.1 will be a vertical slide below it.

hlevel2.png

Configure HLevel's Value

  • Change variable org-re-reveal-hlevel's value to set HLevel globally. For example, add the following statement to your .emacs file.

    (setq org-re-reveal-hlevel 2)
    
  • Set HLevel within individual Org file with option REVEAL_HLEVEL:

    #+REVEAL_HLEVEL: 2
    

Subheadings

If you want one slide to have its usual heading followed by a subheading, you can add a NOSLIDE property (and make sure that the subheading does not appear in the table of contents):

* A normal slide
** A subheading
   :PROPERTIES:
   :UNNUMBERED: notoc
   :NOSLIDE: t
   :END:

Images

Add images as usual to Org documents (see above HLevel visualizations), with attributes (e.g., for resizing) as shown in the Org manual.

For SVG images, resizing seems to be more complicated. See that issue for some options.

That issue also points to image macros with emacs-reveal (defined ca. line 130 in this file, using meta-data for captions and license information, particularly suitable for OER). Note that those macros make use of special height specifications (to prevent overflowing images when the screen’s resolution is larger than the slide height with reveal.js).

Force Split

If one heading has too many things to fit into one slide, you can split the contents into multiple vertical slides manually, by inserting

#+REVEAL: split

Now a new slide begins after the #+REVEAL keyword.

By default, any background attributes of a slide should remain in effect for the split parts. In addition, you can add HTML attributes after #+REVEAL: split, e.g., this slide uses #+REVEAL: split data-background="#555555" to set a background color.

Select Theme and Transition

Themes and transition styles are set globally throughout the whole file by setting options REVEAL_THEME, REVEAL_TRANS, and REVEAL_SPEED.

For an example, please check the heading part of this document. Note that some themes access remote servers to download fonts. Your privacy policy should explain this.

Available themes can be found in "css/theme/" in the reveal.js directory and customized via org-re-reveal-theme.

Custom themes can be selected by setting REVEAL_THEME to a string ending with .css. E.g. #+REVEAL_THEME: /my/theme.css.

Available transitions can be found in the documentation of reveal.js and customized via org-re-reveal-transition.

Set The Title Slide

By default, org-re-reveal generates a title slide displaying the title, the author, the Email, the date and the time-stamp of the Org document, controlled by Org's export settings.

Variable org-re-reveal-title-slide determines the title slide. The default auto leads to a minimal title slide (with title, author, e-mail, date, and timestamp—if enabled by Org export options).

To avoid a title slide, set variable org-re-reveal-title-slide to nil or add the following header line: #+REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE:

Customize the Title Slide

To customize the title slide, set org-re-reveal-title-slide to a string with HTML code. Escape sequences are documented for variable org-re-reveal-title-slide; they can be used to retrieve document information. See test-title-slide.org for an example including REVEAL_ACADEMIC_TITLE, REVEAL_TALK_URL, REVEAL_TALK_QR_CODE and test-title-slide-notes.org for a title slide including speaker notes (obsolete since version 3.25.0; see test-title-slide-notes-2.org for the simpler alternative of using a notes block).

Alternatively, you can write the title slide's HTML code (with escape sequences) into a separate file and set org-re-reveal-title-slide to the name of that file.

Set Slide Background

Keywords REVEAL_DEFAULT_SLIDE_BACKGROUND, REVEAL_DEFAULT_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_OPACITY, REVEAL_DEFAULT_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_POSITION REVEAL_DEFAULT_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_REPEAT, REVEAL_DEFAULT_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_SIZE, and REVEAL_DEFAULT_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_TRANSITION can be used to specify default values for options explained subsequently for individual slides.

Additional keywords REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_BACKGROUND and REVEAL_TOC_SLIDE_BACKGROUND as well we variants for position, size, etc. set those options for the title slide and the TOC slide (e.g., REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_POSITION or REVEAL_TOC_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_SIZE).

Colored Background

Set property reveal_background to either an RGB color value, or any supported CSS color format.

*** Colored Background
   :PROPERTIES:
   :reveal_background: linear-gradient(to left, #910830, #521623)
   :END:

Single Image Background - Instructions

Set property reveal_background to a URL of background image. Set property reveal_background_trans to slide to make background image sliding rather than fading.

*** Single Image Background - Result
    :PROPERTIES:
    :reveal_background: ./images/adult-education-3258944_640.jpg
    :reveal_background_trans: slide
    :END:

Single Image Background - Result

Repeating Image Background - Instructions

Resize background image by setting property reveal_background_size to a number.

Set property reveal_background_repeat to repeat to repeat image on the background.

*** Repeating Image Background - Result
    :PROPERTIES:
    :reveal_background: ./images/adult-education-3258944_640.jpg
    :reveal_background_size: 200px
    :reveal_background_repeat: repeat
    :END:

Repeating Image Background - Result

Title Slide Background Image

To set the title slide's background image, please specify the following options:

  • REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_BACKGROUND: A URL to the background image.
  • REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_SIZE: HTML size specification, e.g. 200px.
  • REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_BACKGROUND_REPEAT: set to repeat to repeat the image.

For backgrounds on the TOC slide, replace TITLE with TOC in the above keywords.

Inherited backgrounds

Customize org-use-property-inheritance to inherit the background for child headlines from a parent.

Slide Size

Reveal.js scales slides to best fit the display resolution, but you can also specify the desired size by settings the option tags width and height.

The scaling behavior can also be constrained by setting following options:

#+REVEAL_MARGIN:
a float number, the factor of empty area surrounding slide contents.
#+REVEAL_MIN_SCALE:
a float number, the minimum scaling down ratio.
#+REVEAL_MAX_SCALE:
a float number, the maximum scaling up ratio.

Slide Numbering

By default, the slide number is shown at the lower-right corner of each slide.

To disable slide numbering, please add reveal_slide_number:nil to the #+OPTIONS: line.

From reveal.js 3.1.0, slide numbering can have several custom formats. To choose one format, please set reveal_slide_number to its proper string. For example, reveal_slide_number:h/v.

Supported format strings can be found in the reveal.js manual.

Slide Header/Footer

Specify a header/footer to be used on all slides by #+REVEAL_SLIDE_HEADER: and #+REVEAL_SLIDE_FOOTER:. To set the footer for an individual slide, use a REVEAL_SLIDE_FOOTER property:

* Slide
  :PROPERTIES:
  :REVEAL_SLIDE_FOOTER: Footer
  :END:
  Text

By default, header/footer content will only display on content slides. To show them additionally on the title and toc slide use reveal_global_header:t and reveal_global_footer:t among #+OPTIONS:. To show the footer on the toc slide but not on the title slide, use option reveal_toc_footer:t.

Slide Containers

Use #+REVEAL_SLIDE_CONTAINER: (org-re-reveal-slide-container) to define an HTML container element for the contents (excluding headlines) of all slides.

Alternatively, use #+REVEAL_SLIDE_GRID_DIV: (org-re-reveal-slide-grid-div) to define an HTML container div element for entire slides (including headline, contents, header, footer).

See this slide container test case and that slide grid test case.

Fragmented Contents

Make contents fragmented (show up one-by-one) by setting option ATTR_REVEAL with property ":frag frag-style", as illustrated below.

Paragraphs can be fragmented.

  • Lists can
  • be fragmented.

Pictures, tables and many other HTML elements can be fragmented.

Fragment Styles

Available fragment styles include (see reveal.js documentation):

  • grow
  • shrink
  • fade-out
  • highlight-red
  • highlight-green
  • highlight-blue

Setting :frag t will use reveal.js default fragment style, which can be overridden by local option #+REVEAL_DEFAULT_FRAG_STYLE or global variable org-re-reveal-default-frag-style.

Fragment Index

Fragment sequence can be changed by assigning adding :frag_idx property to each fragmented element.

And, this paragraph shows at last.

This paragraph shows secondly.

This paragraph shows at first.

List Fragments

#+ATTR_REVEAL: :frag frag-style above a list defines fragment style for the list as a whole.

  1. All items grow.
  2. As a whole.

To define fragment styles for every list item, please enumerate each item's style in a lisp list.

none in the style list will disable fragment for the corresponding list item.

Custom fragment sequence should also be enumerated for each list item.

An example:

#+ATTR_REVEAL: :frag (grow shrink zoom-in fade-out none) :frag_idx (4 3 2 1 -)
   * I will grow.
   * I will shrink.
   * I zoomed in.
   * I will fade out.
   * I don't fragment.
  • I will grow.
  • I will shrink.
  • I zoomed in.
  • I will fade out.
  • I don't fragment.

When there is :frag_idx specified, insufficient fragment style list will be extended by its last element. So a :frag (appear) assigns each item of a list the appear fragment style (which is not necessary with reveal.js 4.x any more but does not hurt).

#+ATTR_REVEAL: :frag (appear)
   * I appear.
   * I appear.
   * I appear.
  • I appear.
  • I appear.
  • I appear.

List Fragments with Audio

You can also use org-re-reveal in combination with the audio-slideshow plugin of reveal.js-plugins. For example, when the audio-slideshow plugin is configured properly, the following plays 1.ogg when the first list item appears, 2.ogg for the second list item, and no audio for the third. (You need to add audio files to the current directory first—as in the emacs-reveal howto.)

#+ATTR_REVEAL: :frag (appear) :audio (1.ogg 2.ogg none)
   * I appear with audio 1.ogg.
   * I appear with audio 2.ogg.
   * I appear without audio.
  • I appear with audio 1.ogg.
  • I appear with audio 2.ogg.
  • I appear without audio.

Data State and Classes for Headlines and Slides, including generated ones

Set property reveal_data_state to a headline to change this slide's display style. (In the past, reveal.min.css defined classes alert, blackout, soothe, which were activated by the data state.) In any case, property reveal_data_state adds a data-state attribute to the slide's section element, which is called “Slide State” by reveal.js; this might also be useful with reveal.js plugins.

To add a data-state attribute to a generated title slide or table of contents slide, you can use the following options:

  • REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_STATE
  • REVEAL_TOC_SLIDE_STATE

To add a class attribute to the section element of a generated table of contents slide, you can use the option REVEAL_TOC_SLIDE_CLASS.

To add a class attribute to a slide's h-element, add property html_headline_class to the headline.

Activate Plugins

Set option REVEAL_PLUGINS or variable org-re-reveal-plugins to a lisp list to activate additional reveal.js functionality.

Variable org-re-reveal-plugins allows the selection of available plugins.

The following example selects markdown, highlight, and search.

#+REVEAL_PLUGINS: (markdown highlight search)

External plugins

Starting with version 3.4.0 of org-re-reveal and reveal.js version 4, you can use keyword REVEAL_ADD_PLUGIN to enable external plugins (which you need to install yourself). E.g., copy the directory of the Chalkboard plugin to the plugin directory of reveal.js; then activate the plugin as follows, where chalkboard is an internal name, RevealChalkboard is the JavaScript name of the plugin, and plugin/chalkboard/plugin.js is the path with code for the plugin (a CDN URL works as well):

#+REVEAL_ADD_PLUGIN: chalkboard RevealChalkboard plugin/chalkboard/plugin.js

See also this test file for CSS with plugins

Plugin configuration

Starting with version 3 of org-re-reveal, which supports reveal.js 4, you can customize org-re-reveal-plugin-config to enable additional plugins. As an alternative to external plugin configuration shown on the previous slide, you can also add (chalkboard "RevealChalkboard" "plugin/chalkboard/plugin.js") to org-re-reveal-plugin-config, e.g., with that line in your .emacs:

(add-to-list 'org-re-reveal-plugin-config '(chalkboard "RevealChalkboard" "plugin/chalkboard/plugin.js"))

Then, activate the plugin in your presentation:

#+REVEAL_PLUGINS: (chalkboard highlight search)

Third-Party Plugins

Plugins were initialized differently before version 4 of reveal.js. Several plugins are included and configured with emacs-reveal.

" {src: \"%srelative/path/toplugin/from/reveal/root.js\"}"

If you need the async or callback parameters, include those too.

If org-re-reveal-external-plugins is a filename, that file must contain strings of the above format, one per line (without names of plugins, just the src information embedded in braces); this can also be configured within your Org presentation with a line like this:

#+REVEAL_EXTERNAL_PLUGINS: external_plugins.js

In any case, org-re-reveal will add the plugins to the dependencies parameter when Reveal.js is initialized.

Highlight Source Code

There are three options to highlight source code (or not), see doc string of customizable variable org-re-reveal-no-htmlize-src.

  1. Use your Emacs theme with htmlize.el
  2. Use highlight.js
  3. Disable htmlize with above variable, enable on selected source code blocks

To use your Emacs theme, please make sure htmlize.el is installed. Then no more setup is necessary.

If indentation is wrong, maybe set variable org-html-indent to nil and/or org-src-preserve-indentation to t. Then export again.

Using highlight.js

You can also use highlight.js, by adding highlight to the reveal.js plugin list.

#+REVEAL_PLUGINS: (highlight)

The default highlighting theme is zenburn.css brought with reveal.js. To use other themes, please specify the CSS file name by #+REVEAL_HIGHLIGHT_CSS or the variable org-re-reveal-highlight-css.

A %r in the given CSS file name is replaced by the root directory of reveal.js.

If you use highlight.js, org-re-reveal exports the source code inside an HTML code element, to which you can assign attributes (understood by reveal.js) with code_attribs, e.g., add line numbers and highlight lines 1 and 5: #+ATTR_REVEAL: :code_attribs data-line-numbers="1,5"

Editable and Executable Source Code

Thanks to klipse, it is possible to embed code blocks in CodeMirror instance in order to edit and execute code during a presentation. Note that klipse support has been rewritten in org-re-reveal 1.1.11. Previously, code was displayed in iframes, which does not allow sharing state between different pieces of code; in particular, SQL did not work (see this issue).

At present code editing is supported in: clojure, html, javascript, js, php, python, ruby, scheme, sql

MathJax

\({n! \over k!(n-k)!} = {n \choose k}\)

LaTeX equations are rendered in native HTML5 contents.

IMPORTANT: Displaying equations requires an internet connection to load JavaScript or a local MathJax installation.

If you use MathJax from a remote location, your privacy policy should explain this.

As explained next, two options exist to activate MathJax.

Use MathJax

Two alternatives exist.

  1. Reveal.js added the math plugin in version 4. Add that to org-re-reveal-plugins.
  2. If org-re-reveal detects LaTeX math code and the math plugin is not used, a script element loads the MathJax library. Set option REVEAL_MATHJAX_URL to a remote or local MathJax location (if you are not happy with the default value of org-re-reveal-mathjax-url).

Configuration of MathJax

The Reveal.js documentation explains how to configure MathJax with the math plugin.

If you do not use the math plugin, you may configure MathJax, with REVEAL_HEAD_PREAMBLE (that keyword and related ones are documented on subsequent slides).

#+REVEAL_HEAD_PREAMBLE: <script>MathJax = { chtml: {scale: 0.85} };</script>

Preamble and Postamble

You can define preamble and postamble contents which will not be shown as slides, but will be exported into the body part of the generated HTML file, at just before and after the slide contents.

All pre- and postamble contents are treated as format strings, with %-sequences of org-re-reveal-title-slide. In particular, single percent signs need to be escaped (two percent signs).

Change preamble and postamble contents globally by setting variable org-re-reveal-preamble and org-re-reveal-postamble.

Change preamble and postamble contents locally by setting options REVEAL_PREAMBLE and REVEAL_POSTAMBLE, as illustrated at the heading part of this document.

Preamble in <head> element

To add custom contents into the HTML <head> element, set variable org-re-reveal-head-preamble or option REVEAL_HEAD_PREAMBLE.

Postscript after reveal.js initialization

To add a script (or HTML code) at the end of the generated document (just before the closing body tag), use REVEAL_POSTSCRIPT or variable org-re-reveal-postscript.

Generating Pre/Postamble by Emacs-Lisp Functions

If the contents of pre/postamble is the name of an evaluated Emacs-Lisp function, which must accept an argument of Org mode info and return a string, the returned string will be taken as pre/postamble contents.

So you can embed the Emacs-Lisp function as an Org Babel source block and mark it to be evaluated when exporting the document.

Raw HTML in Slides

Besides the Org contents, you can embed raw HTML contents into slides by placing a #+REVEAL_HTML keyword.

A talk by Linus Torvalds on Git (the source code to embed that video makes use of attribute data-src for lazy loading of the video):

Speaker Notes

Reveal.js supports speaker notes, which are displayed in a separate browser window. Press 's' to open a popup window that displays the current slide with its speaker notes, a timer, and a preview of upcoming contents. (You need to enable popup windows in your browser. If the popup window appears but does not work properly, try this: close the popup window, then press 's' again.)

To configure timing, see org-re-reveal-defaulttiming and org-re-reveal-totaltime. The following example shows how to define speaker notes for a slide with an estimated talk time of 120s.

* Heading 1
   :PROPERTIES:
   :reveal_extra_attr: data-timing="120"
   :END:
   Some contents.
#+BEGIN_NOTES
  Enter speaker notes here.
  - With /markup/ and bullet points
    - If necessary
#+END_NOTES

Speaker note functionality requires that notes is configured as plugin (which is true by default with org-re-reveal-plugins) and that popup windows are permitted.

Due to a bug in reveal.js, sometimes the speaker notes window does not initialize properly. As workaround, close the speaker notes windows and press ’s’ again; notes should be working then. If this does not work, you may need to put the presentation HTML file into the reveal.js root directory and reopen it in the browser.

Besides, reveal.js has a configuration option showNotes, which allows to show the notes during the presentation. Customize org-re-reveal-show-notes or use the option reveal_show_notes to enable this option.

Easy-Template for Speaker Notes

Org-re-reveal registers 'n' as key for the speaker notes template: You can press '<' followed by 'n' and then press TAB, which inserts #+begin_notes and #+end_notes. For this to work with Org version 9.2 or newer, you need to place (require 'org-tempo) into your .emacs or add org-tempo to org-modules. (Besides, function org-insert-structure-template allows the insertion of different kinds of block structures.)

Customize org-re-reveal-note-key-char to change the default key 'n'. Set to nil to avoid auto-completion for speaker notes.

PDF Export of Speaker Notes

To export speaker notes to PDF (with ?print-pdf after .html, see https://revealjs.com/pdf-export/), customize org-re-reveal-export-notes-to-pdf or use the keyword REVEAL_EXPORT_NOTES_TO_PDF with the string separate-page.

Text-To-Speech (TTS) for Speaker Notes

Version 3.19.0 of org-re-reveal introduces support for TTS, which is complemented by functionality in emacs-reveal.

Briefly, org-re-reveal can export notes from presentations to text files, from which audio files can be generated (e.g., with emacs-reveal). The audio-slideshow plugin can then play generated audio. The result can serve as video mode for presentations, without the hassle of audio recording/cutting (and with the usual usability advantages of reveal.js presentations over videos).

See variable org-re-reveal-with-tts, whose doc string points to this sample presentation and this TTS howto for emacs-reveal, both of which document various aspects of the TTS process.

If you do not want to use emacs-reveal (or its Docker images), the script in that comment may help you getting started.

Multiplexing

Reveal.js supports multiplexing, which allows your audience to view the slides of the presentation you are controlling on their own phone, tablet or laptop. As the main presentation navigates the slides, all client presentations will update in real time.

Please see this sample presentation for instructions. Briefly, you need to configure multiplex as plugin, with URL, ID and Secret of a socket.io server. Then, generate main (with Secret) and client presentations and publish the client presentation for your audience. Customize org-re-reveal-multiplex-client-ext to influence the name of the client presentation. Maybe customize org-re-reveal-multiplex-js-url (see this issue).

Extra Stylesheets

Add stylesheet file path (or remote URL) with REVEAL_EXTRA_CSS in order to load extra custom styles after loading a theme. This keyword can be used multiple times.

#+REVEAL_EXTRA_CSS: url-to-custom-stylesheet.css

Extra JavaScript Libraries

Set REVEAL_EXTRA_SCRIPTS to a list of extra JavaScript libraries of script elements.

#+REVEAL_EXTRA_SCRIPTS: ("filename.js" "<script>Your code here\n</script>")

Extra Slide Attributes

Set REVEAL_EXTRA_ATTR to add any additional attributes to all slides if required (such attributes are added to section elements).

#+REVEAL_EXTRA_ATTR: data-autoslide=20000

This global default value can also be overridden per heading by setting a reveal_extra_attr property on the heading:

*** Heading with overriden autoslide
   :PROPERTIES:
   :reveal_extra_attr: data-autoslide=10000
   :END:

In particular, extra attributes allow to configure slide backgrounds of reveal.js such as images and videos, e.g.:

* Headline
  :PROPERTIES:
  :reveal_extra_attr: data-background-video="https://static.slid.es/site/homepage/v1/homepage-video-editor.mp4" data-background-video-loop data-background-video-muted
  :END:

Use keyword REVEAL_TITLE_SLIDE_EXTRA_ATTR to add extra attributes to the title slide.

Export into Single File

By setting option reveal_single_file (or variable org-re-reveal-single-file) to t, images and basic reveal.js scripts are embedded into the exported HTML file, to create a self-contained, portable HTML. Please note that remote images cannot be used with single-file export (maybe reveal_embed_local_resources does what you want then, see below).

#+OPTIONS: reveal_single_file:t

Limitations of single file export

  • Some functions provided by reveal.js libraries will be disabled, including PDF export. With reveal.js 3.x, all plugins are disabled, while with reveal.js 4.x, those in org-re-reveal-plugin-config should still work.
    • Code highlighting by Emacs works in any case.
  • Plugins are not enabled.
  • CSS needs to be self-contained. Neither @import rules nor other forms of URLs work (images need to be embedded as data URIs).
  • If you use org-re-reveal-title-slide with custom HTML code and images, you need to embed images in the form of data URIs yourself.

Option reveal_embed_local_resources provides an alternative to reveal_single_file: Here, local resources are embedded if possible. Where the export with reveal_single_file would fail, it continues with given (potentially remote) resources.

See this issue for a use case.

Export Current Subtree

Use menu entry "C-c C-e v s" to export only current subtree, without the title slide and the table of content, for a quick preview of your current edition.

Customize org-re-reveal-subtree-with-title-slide to also export a title slide.

Tips

En-/Disable Heading Numbers

Use Org export option num, e.g., num:t or num:nil:

#+OPTIONS: num:nil

With heading numbers (i.e., without num:nil), depending on org-re-reveal-generate-custom-ids, (more) stable slide IDs can be generated (instead of hash values that change with content changes). See doc string (C-h v) of variable org-re-reveal-generate-custom-ids for more details.

Disable Table of Contents

Add toc:nil to #+OPTIONS to disable the table of contents:

#+OPTIONS: toc:nil

This is actually an option recognized by org-export.

Table of Contents at Specified Position

When using option toc:nil, you can also insert a slide with the table of contents at a position of your choice with keyword REVEAL_TOC (where the number after headlines defines the depth of headlines to include) in a section of its own (see this test file):

** Table of Contents
   :PROPERTIES:
   :UNNUMBERED: notoc
   :END:
#+REVEAL_TOC: headlines 1

WARNING: Previous versions of org-re-reveal used keyword TOC (which generates the table of contents in a section with default headline) instead of REVEAL_TOC. Keyword TOC may or may not work for you. Its use is discouraged as it may break some presentations.

Internal Links

Reveal.js only supports jumps to entire slides, but not to specific elements on slides. Thus, we can only link to headlines in an Org document.

You can create links pointing to a headline's text, or its custom-id, as in the examples below:

If you add reveal_inter_presentation_links:t to #+OPTIONS, such links also work between presentations on the same server, e.g., [[file:somefile.org::#anchor][link text]].

Reveal.js advertises to use broken internal links, which are used in org-re-reveal by default. (Those links work with reveal.js, but are not understood by search engines.) If you change org-re-reveal--href-fragment-prefix from its default to the value of org-re-reveal--slide-id-prefix, valid links are generated:

(setq org-re-reveal--href-fragment-prefix org-re-reveal--slide-id-prefix)

Whether this change is a good idea might be discussed under this reveal.js issue.

Custom JS

To pass custom JS code to Reveal.initialize, state the code by #+REVEAL_INIT_SCRIPT (multiple statements are concatenated) or by custom variable org-re-reveal-init-script.

Executable Source Blocks

To allow live execution of code in some languages, enable the klipse plugin with variable org-re-reveal-klipsify-src (or with option reveal_klipsify_src:t)

Src blocks with the languages contained in org-re-reveal-klipse-setup will be executed with output shown in a console-like environment. See the README of klipse for more details.

Additional examples (e.g., Python and SQL) can be found in a test file.

HTML Src Block


<h1 class="whatever">hello, what's your name</h1>

Javascript Src Block


console.log("success");
var x='string using single quote';
x

Perl Src Block (not klipsified)

I don't know perl!

Multiple columns

If you need multiple columns (in multi-column slide layouts), that issue demonstrates how to use grid layouts with div wrappers.

Alternatively, with emacs-reveal, a special environment is available for left and right columns, see its howto for an example.

Thanks

Courtesy to:

The powerful Org mode,

the impressive reveal.js

and the precise MathJax

Based upon work by yjwen.