Slides
Slides is in beta: pick a layout, type, present.
Why Slides is on rails
Slides is something I've been thinking about for a long time, since before cDox. I've spent my career at agencies and on projects where a good presentation could make or break the work. I've built more than I can count, in PowerPoint, Keynote and Google Slides, and I've seen a lot of bad ones: tools that let you put anything anywhere make it easy to end up with something that doesn't work.
So Slides is on rails. You don't drop a text box anywhere you like: every slide starts from a layout that's already designed, and your words settle into it. Write as much as you want and the slide makes room. It's there to help you make a good presentation, not to hand you a blank canvas.
If you're used to placing everything by hand, this will feel different, and that's on purpose. It's a beta, so try it and tell me what you need.
Barry
How it works
Slides is where you make presentations in cDox. Start from a template or a blank slide, then put in your content. Each slide starts from a layout: boxes for a title, some text, an image, a big number or a quote. When it's ready, it's one click to present and one click to download a PDF or a PowerPoint file. Even then, you can switch themes until you find the one you like: your words stay put.
Like everything in cDox, a presentation saves itself as you work.
Start a presentation
On the dashboard, click the round + button and choose Blank Presentation. Give it a title and it opens on a title slide. To start from something ready-made, choose From Template instead and pick A short pitch, Class presentation or, with Pro, Startup pitch deck: the thirteen slides of an investor pitch, with notes on what to say.
Add and arrange slides
Your slides are listed on the left. Click + (in the toolbar or under the list), or press Ctrl+ Enter, and pick a layout: the new slide arrives right after the one you're on.
To change the order, drag a slide in the list, or pick it and press Alt+ Shift+ ArrowUp or Alt+ Shift+ ArrowDown. Right-click a slide for Duplicate, Change layout, Move up, Move down and Delete.
Layouts
There are seventeen layouts: Title, Title over picture, Title beside picture, Title and text, Image left, Image right, Two columns, Section, Agenda, Three numbers, Big number, Quote, Table, Timeline, Team, Big image and Blank. The + button shows them as small slides: pick the one you want. To change a slide's layout, right-click it in the list and choose Change layout. Your words move into the new layout, so nothing is lost.
In a text box you have bold, italic, underline, colour, lists, alignment and links. A box grows with its words and makes room around it; only when the slide is full does the text shrink to fit.
Themes
The Theme button shows every theme as small slides: pick one and the whole presentation takes its look. At the top, pick one of its Colours. You can switch any time, even once the presentation is done. All six themes are free. Each theme has its own picture, which fills the image boxes until you put in your own.
Images
Layouts with a picture show the theme's own. To put in yours, point at the picture and use the buttons in its top right corner. Anyone can put in a picture from its web address. As in Pages, uploading your own images comes with Pro.
Speaker notes
The notes button in the toolbar opens a panel under the slide for what you want to say. Your audience never sees them. They go with the PowerPoint file.
Present
Click Present at the top right, or press Ctrl+ Shift+ Enter. The presentation fills the screen. Move on with the arrow keys, the space bar or a click; go back with the left arrow. Escape takes you back to the editor.
What's in beta
Slides is very much a beta, and I want to build the rest with you. While it's in beta:
- presentations are edited on a computer (a tablet works too); on a phone and in the iPhone and Android apps you can only look through them and present;
- it isn't a drawing tool: no boxes to place freely, no shapes;
- search finds presentations by their title;
- you can't bring in a PowerPoint file yet.