Markdown to PowerPoint, explained
Write an outline in Markdown and get an editable PowerPoint deck. Pandoc builds the slides from your headings, so a simple outline becomes a presentation you can finish in PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides.
What is converted, and how
- Slides
- The highest heading level that is directly followed by text is the slide level, usually
#or##. Each heading at that level starts a new slide and becomes its title. - Sections
- Headings above the slide level become section title slides.
- Horizontal rules
---starts a new slide without a title.- Lists
- Become slide bullets, nesting included.
- Tables
- Become native PowerPoint tables.
- Front matter
- YAML
title,authoranddateproduce a title slide.
Limitations
- Images are only included when embedded as
data:URIs. - Slides use the default Office theme; pick a design after opening the file.
- Long content is not split for you. Text that does not fit runs off the slide.
- Speaker notes and multi-column layouts need pandoc's fenced divs, which GitHub-flavoured Markdown does not have.
Tips
- Aim for three to six bullets per slide, and use
---to split a slide that grows too long. - In PowerPoint, the Design tab (or Designer) restyles all slides at once.
- Not sure about the syntax? See the Markdown cheat sheet.
Other formats
- Markdown to PDFA4, clean typography, syntax-highlighted code.
- Markdown to WordHeadings map to Word heading styles, so the navigation pane works.
- Markdown to ExcelEach table becomes a sheet named after the heading above it. Numbers stay numbers. No tables? One paragraph per row.
- Markdown to ODTOpenDocument Text for LibreOffice Writer, with real heading styles.
- Markdown to RTFOpens almost everywhere, including WordPad and TextEdit.
- Markdown to EPUBTop-level headings become chapters.
- Markdown to HTMLSingle standalone page with styles inlined.
- Markdown to LaTeXStandalone .tex, ready for pdfLaTeX, XeLaTeX or Overleaf.
- Markdown to Plain textMarkdown syntax removed, structure kept readable.