rss-bridge 2026-03-01T17:30:16+00:00

I use Markdown instead of PowerPoint to make slideshows and it's fantastic

Markdown slides feel like cheating in the best way.

I use Markdown instead of PowerPoint to make slideshows and it's fantastic

[Laptop showing a slideshow made with Markdown in Obsidian]

Amir Bohlooli / MUO
Credit: Amir Bohlooli / MUO

Amir Bohlooli

Mar 1, 2026, 12:30 PM EST

Amir is the Segment Lead for Productivity and Creative at MUO. He's a PharmD student who's interested in clinical outcomes and Pharmacoeconomics. He loves looking at numbers and spreadsheets. His passion for data manipulation sparked during his early academic years, back when he used spreadsheets for lab reports.

Inspired by his father's hobbies, Amir developed a knack for DIY projects and built his first quadcopter in high school. At 18, he began writing about 3D printing, and now contributes to MUO where he writes and edits productivity, spreadsheets, photography, music, and more.

Amir also enjoys creating music, although its categorization as such remains open to interpretation. In addition to his academic pursuits, Amir is an avid gamer, car enthusiast, and proud owner of a 1993 Mitsubishi Galant.

To this day, slideshows remain the best ways to present an idea. It's always easier to explain or understand a concept when you have something visual to reference.

I'm a big fan of presentations and make one every opportunity I get (my colleagues can verify this). On top of that, I use Obsidian for everything. Traditionally, when I wanted to make a presentation, I would write the script in an Obsidian note and then take it to a platform like PowerPoint or Google Slides.

Recently, however, I discovered that you can build slideshows right inside Obsidian. I've been doing exactly that, and it's fantastic.

[A MacBook on a sofa showing an open view of Obsidian's graph view alongside a local LLM]

I hooked Obsidian to a local LLM and it beats NotebookLM at its own game

My notes now talk back and it’s terrifyingly useful.

Amir Bohlooli

###
Built-in Obsidian slides

####
No extra plugins required to get started

[A markdown note showing a presentation in Obsidian]

Amir Bohlooli / MUO

I know it sounds odd to make slideshows in Markdown, but it's incredibly efficient. You don't even need to install a third-party plugin to use slides in Obsidian.

Obsidian comes packed with a core Slides plugin. You just need to go to Settings > Core plugins and toggle it on. Once enabled, go to any note, type three dashes (--- is standard Markdown for a horizontal line), and press Enter. That marks a new slide.

You can create as many slides as you want. Of course, if you know what makes a good presentation, you'll want to keep it brief. Slideshows are not books — don't over-word them.

Once you have your slideshow's structure, just open the command palette (Ctrl or Cmd + P) and select the Start presentation command. This opens a full-screen window where you can view your slideshow.

If you use another Markdown editor, there might be plugins available for that, too. For example, if you write in VSCode, you can use Marp to create slideshows.

###
What can you do with Markdown slideshows?

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Markdown wins for slideshows

It gets better when you realize that all your Markdown elements are rendered exactly as they were written. You can use double asterisks for bold text, create bulleted lists, and, of course, use # for headings.

It keeps getting better. You can add images and tables the exact same way you would in standard Markdown. Even better, you can use code blocks — with full syntax highlighting! How easily could you get syntax highlighting in PowerPoint or Google Slides? Hm? The same applies to writing mathematic notations in Obsidian. Try writing math in PowerPoint!

Using Markdown really takes the pain out of designing a slideshow. Sure, you could grab your notes and have AI generate a presentation for you, but this somehow feels better. I prefer handmade slideshows.

The default theme is minimal and to the point, and the slide transitions are smooth and animated. With Markdown, every slide automatically looks uniform. There are no accidental, slightly different font sizes across slides. It seriously takes the design headache out of the process; you just need to separate your notes by adding horizontal lines.

###
B-but what about my PowerPoint animations?

####
You have more control in Markdown

I hear you. You might think you don't have the same control as you do in PowerPoint. How do you align an image to the left instead of the center? It must be nearly impossible without a drag-and-drop interface, right?

Wrong. You just need the Advanced Slides plugin. This community plugin adds a massive amount of control to Obsidian slideshows — mostly because it introduces HTML.

Advanced Slides provides themes (you can add them as properties to the note or pick a default from the plugin settings), various transition and animation styles, and the ability to manipulate any element in your slideshow. On top of that, it lets you preview the slideshow in real-time on a sidepane (click the icon on the toolbar).

Admittedly, using Advanced Slides to its maximum potential requires a bit of... advanced knowledge. But, as an example, you can use a grid layout to position elements perfectly. Here's what that looks like:

<grid drag="100 20" drop="top" bg="grey" align="center">
## The 100% Coordinate System
</grid>
<grid drag="40 60" drop="5 30" bg="gold" align="center">
### Left Side
`drop="5 30"`

Perfect for text or descriptions.
</grid>

<grid drag="40 60" drop="55 30" bg="royalblue" align="center">
### Right Side
`drop="55 30"`

Perfect for images or code blocks.
</grid>

Advanced Slides uses reveal.js, which is a massive library for presentations. It actually offers better programmatic animations than PowerPoint. You can even go as far as animating the syntax highlighting of a code block across your slides.

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Markdown covers the full spectrum of presentation needs

Once I've finished a slideshow, I can export it as either an HTML file or a PDF. However, since I usually share my screen or connect my laptop to a projector, I generally just present directly from Obsidian itself.

I'm not one for intricate animations, but it's great to know I have the option when needed. If you make a lot of slideshows and don't currently use Markdown, don't switch to Obsidian just for this. It's not meant for that. But, if you already live in Markdown, this might be the best thing to ever happen to your presentations.

Obsidian

Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, iPadOS

Developer

Dynalist Inc.

Pricing model

Free

Initial release

March 30, 2020

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