iA Presenter uses Markdown syntax to format documents.
Summary
Key Concepts
In common presentation, these are called "notes", they are squeezed in at the bottom of the page. They're an afterthought.
In iA Presenter, a regular paragraph is speech. Because speech is the core of your presentation. Visible elements are not the rule but the exception.
In Presenter you do not explain your visuals, the visuals help you getting people's attention to what you say.
To create a page break, you simply add thee hyphens on a new line, like this: ---
Images and videos are also visible to your audience. You can use regular markdown or the simpler content block syntax with the /andyourfilename.jpg
.
Putting a lot of text on a slide and reading it down to the audience is the #1 presentation killer. It's a very popular mistake. No one will listen to you if you do this. So no one will remember what you said. If this is your goal, you add a tab in front of all your paragraphs.
We believe that text should be spoken text by default and any visible element should be carefully chosen.
Overview
John Gruber, the author of Markdown:
Markdown is intended to be as easy-to-read and easy-to-write as is feasible.
Readability, however, is emphasized above all else. A Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it’s been marked up with tags or formatting instructions.
Markdown’s syntax is comprised entirely of punctuation characters, which have been carefully chosen so as to look like what they mean. E.g., asterisks around a word actually look like emphasis. Markdown lists look like, well, lists. Even blockquotes look like quoted passages of text, assuming you’ve ever used email.
Structure
Paragraphs
A paragraph is one or more lines of text separated by one or more blank lines.
First
paragraph.
Second paragraph.
To insert a line break within a paragraph, write two spaces or a backslash \
at the end of the line.
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat\
How I wonder what you’re at!
Headings
# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3
#### Heading 4
##### Heading 5
###### Heading 6
Lists
Unordered lists can use hyphens, pluses, and asterisks as list markers, interchangeably:
- Red
+ Green
* Blue
Ordered lists use numbers followed by periods:
1. Red
2. Green
3. Blue
To make a task list, use a space or a letter x between square brackets after a list marker:
- [ ] Milk
- [x] Bread
To make nested lists, indent list items by at least four spaces or a tab:
- Groceries
- [ ] Milk
To make a list item with more than one paragraph, indent additional paragraphs by extra fours spaces or a tab. You can use extra spaces after a list marker to align the first paragraph with subsequent paragraphs:
- First paragraph.
Second paragraph.
- First paragraph.
To make lists visible in the slide, prefix the items with a tab:
⇥- [ ] Milk
⇥- Green
⇥1. Red
Blockquotes
Blockquotes are speaker notes without a tab prefix
> First level, first paragraph.
>
> > Second level, first paragraph.
>
> First level, second paragraph.
To make block quotes visible, add a Tab prefix
⇥> First level, first paragraph.
⇥>
⇥> > Second level, first paragraph.
⇥>
⇥> First level, second paragraph.
Definition Lists
⇥Markdown
⇥: A lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax.
⇥: A deliberate reduction in the selling price of retail merchandise.
Horizontal Rules
Horizontal rules are use to split slides.
---
Formatting
Bold
You can use double asterisks or underscores to make bold text:
**bold**
__bold__
Italic
You can use single asterisks or underscores to make italic text:
*italic*
_italic_
Strikethrough
You can use double tildes to make strikethrough text:
~~strikethrough~~
Highlight
You can use double equals signs to highlight text:
==highlight==
Superscript
Simple superscript, without any whitespace or punctuation:
100m^2
More complicated superscript:
y^(a+b)^
Subscript
Simple subscript, without any whitespace or punctuation:
x~z
More complicated subscript:
x~y,z~
Links
Markdown supports inline and reference links:
This is an [inline link](https://example.com).
This is a [reference link][id].
[id]: https://example.com
Reference link identifier can be omitted:
[Google][]
[Google]: https://google.com
Notes
Footnotes
Markdown supports inline and reference footnotes:
This is an inline[^Footnote text.] footnote.
This is a reference[^id] footnote.
[^id]: Footnote text.
Footnotes are grouped at the end of the slide. They are visible only if the layout allow them.
Citations
This is a statement that should be attributed to
its source[p. 23][#Doe:2006].
[#Doe:2006]: John Doe. *Some Big Fancy Book*. Vanity Press, 2006.
You can use any text you want for the locator (e.g. p. 23), and it can also be omitted. Any citation key (e.g. #Doe:2006) format is allowed, as long as it begins with a hash sign:
This is a statement that should be attributed to its
source[][#Doe, 2006].
Use Not Cited
or notcited
as the locator to include a source that was not cited:
[Not Cited][#Doe, 2006]
Images
In addition to Content Blocks, iA Presenter supports Markdown image syntax and HTML image tags:

<img src="Flowchart.png">
Tables
| Name | Price | Tax |
|:--|--:|--:|
| Widget | 10$ | 1$ |
| Gift | 0$ ||
[Recent Transactions]
- There must be at least one
|
per line - Columns are separated by
|
- The separator between table header and content must contain only
|
:
-
and spaces - To align a column: left
:--
, right--:
, center:-:
- Cell content must be in one line
- The first line of the table, and the alignment/divider line, must start at the beginning of the line
- To merge cells add additional
|
at the end of the cell
Code
Use single backticks to indicate code within a line:
Keyword `func` indicates a function in Swift programming language.
Use three or more backticks with an optional code language on the first line on a line create a fenced code block:
```swift
class Shape {
var numberOfSides = 0
}
```
Indented code blocks are not supported.
Math
iA Presenter supports \(\LaTeX\) math expressions, which are typeset using \(\KaTeX\) (see supported features for more info).
Equations can be placed within a paragraph using $…$
or \\(…\\)
:
An example of math within a paragraph $x+y^2$.
Equations can placed on their own using $$…$$
or \\[…\\]
:
$$\displaystyle \frac{1}{\Bigl(\sqrt{\phi \sqrt{5}}-\phi\Bigr) e^{\frac25 \pi}} = 1+\frac{e^{-2\pi}} {1+\frac{e^{-4\pi}} {1+\frac{e^{-6\pi}} {1+\frac{e^{-8\pi}} {1+\cdots} } } }$$