Hello HN, here's an open source app I've been working on for the past few weeks.
I love Excalidraw[1], the virtual whiteboard (discussed recently here on HN[2]). Its UX is great - simple and intuitive - and really makes it easy for me to express my thoughts and explain complex concepts with a quick sketch. I want to use it to make slides!
However Excalidraw is not specifically designed for that. I used it for that many times actually, but the workflow is quite cumbersome: drawing a same-sized perimeter for each slide, adding to each slide watermarks and other common elements, exporting each slide as PNG into a powerpoint... it takes a long time!
So well, here's Excalideck to simplify that workflow. :)
It's still in early development, so it's not very polished. But you're welcome to give it a try, make some slides, and let me know how it goes!
Very cool! Even though the name suggests that Excalideck is for slide presentations, this is incredibly useful for me to organize multiple Excalidraw canvases for personal use. I often create system architecture diagrams that are separate but related. Rather than having to scroll around the infinite Excalidraw canvas or use multiple Excalidraw links (which I organize in a Google doc), now I can just flip through Excalideck slides. Small but very convenient
Oh, nice use case actually. Makes me think that a button to hide/collapse the slides miniatures might be useful then, to give more real estate to the drawing board.
Along these lines, it'd be nice to be able to make part of the diagram a hyperlink to another slide. (And the next thing you know, you've got folks making UX mockups in Excalideck, just like they do with Keynote/Powerpoint!)
I noticed some kind of error coming up in trying to export to pdf - other than that it seems to be working well.
I am using the following set up
```
uname -a
Linux arch-t460p 5.14.16-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue, 02 Nov 2021 22:22:59 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux
(base)
~ via 🅒 base
firefox --version
Mozilla Firefox 94.0
```
I am not sure, but this message that pops up seems to suggest that it might not be establishing a good naming convention for the save.
```
application/vdn.excalideck+pdf (92.6 KB)
```
I will put an issue on the github project if I see it persists in the next day or two.
Thanks for sharing - great work! Between presentation tools like this and reveal-md we have some nice options for building out presentations.
Thinking about it. It would be great if it was possible to export each of the slides as independent png/svg as well. That would allow some possibilities to open up for using it with reveal-md
> I noticed some kind of error coming up in trying to export to pdf
Ah sorry, not entirely unexpected actually, as for the moment the saving/loading functionality on Firefox and Safari is a bit broken.
The functionality relies on a newish Web API only fully supported by Chrome / Edge, and I haven't implemented proper fallbacks yet (the plan is to make an Electron app, which fully allows working with local files, but an adequate fallback should be provided for all browsers regardless).
> It would be great if it was possible to export each of the slides as independent png/svg as well.
Definitely an option. Supporting different export formats is on the horizon. Feel free to open an issue / discussion about independent png/svg as well!
Is there no way to start a slideshow? As in fullscreen slides? If there is such a control, it isn't obvious to me. If it isn't would be awesome to have it.
Haven't thought about the self-hosting story yet (or rather, I thought more in the direction of a desktop Electron app), but definitely an option. Added an issue[1].
Yes, it's a known bug[1] on all browsers. For the MVP I decided not to fix it, as copying-pasting from Excalidraw works, so there's a workaround for it.
This is amazing! As a student I am always looking for tools to make good presentations fast. Wonderful !
However, I am wondering is there any way to add equations through latex of mathjx? Write now I feel that only way to include equations is via images or hand draw them.
24 comments
[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 75.5 ms ] threadI love Excalidraw[1], the virtual whiteboard (discussed recently here on HN[2]). Its UX is great - simple and intuitive - and really makes it easy for me to express my thoughts and explain complex concepts with a quick sketch. I want to use it to make slides!
However Excalidraw is not specifically designed for that. I used it for that many times actually, but the workflow is quite cumbersome: drawing a same-sized perimeter for each slide, adding to each slide watermarks and other common elements, exporting each slide as PNG into a powerpoint... it takes a long time!
So well, here's Excalideck to simplify that workflow. :)
It's still in early development, so it's not very polished. But you're welcome to give it a try, make some slides, and let me know how it goes!
[1] https://excalidraw.com [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29109995
[1] https://github.com/excalideck/excalideck/issues/34
> And the next thing you know, you've got folks making UX mockups in Excalideck, just like they do with Keynote/Powerpoint!
Excalimock :P , could become a whole suite of tools!
I noticed some kind of error coming up in trying to export to pdf - other than that it seems to be working well.
I am using the following set up ``` uname -a Linux arch-t460p 5.14.16-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue, 02 Nov 2021 22:22:59 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux (base) ~ via 🅒 base firefox --version Mozilla Firefox 94.0
```
I am not sure, but this message that pops up seems to suggest that it might not be establishing a good naming convention for the save.
``` application/vdn.excalideck+pdf (92.6 KB) ```
I will put an issue on the github project if I see it persists in the next day or two.
Thanks for sharing - great work! Between presentation tools like this and reveal-md we have some nice options for building out presentations.
Thinking about it. It would be great if it was possible to export each of the slides as independent png/svg as well. That would allow some possibilities to open up for using it with reveal-md
Ah sorry, not entirely unexpected actually, as for the moment the saving/loading functionality on Firefox and Safari is a bit broken.
The functionality relies on a newish Web API only fully supported by Chrome / Edge, and I haven't implemented proper fallbacks yet (the plan is to make an Electron app, which fully allows working with local files, but an adequate fallback should be provided for all browsers regardless).
> It would be great if it was possible to export each of the slides as independent png/svg as well.
Definitely an option. Supporting different export formats is on the horizon. Feel free to open an issue / discussion about independent png/svg as well!
Is there no way to start a slideshow? As in fullscreen slides? If there is such a control, it isn't obvious to me. If it isn't would be awesome to have it.
For the MVP I though it'd be ok for the user to save the pdf file and use their OS viewer to present it. :)
[1] https://github.com/excalideck/excalideck/issues/29
[1] https://github.com/excalideck/excalideck/issues/33
It would be awesome if it would be using the JS API for presentations!
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29141090 [2] https://github.com/excalideck/excalideck/issues/29
Keep up the great work :-)
[1] https://github.com/excalideck/excalideck/issues/11
[1] https://github.com/excalideck/excalideck/issues/9
However, I am wondering is there any way to add equations through latex of mathjx? Write now I feel that only way to include equations is via images or hand draw them.
[0] - https://excalidraw-slides.netlify.app
[1] - https://github.com/scastiel/excalidraw-slides