Complex presentations require a lot of effort to create and maintain them anyway, so why not go all the way? Content Management has become popular for HTML quite a while ago (and for very good reasons!), why not apply the same principles to presentation material?

• Presentation programs often are based on a sales pitch perspective
• it is important to have fancy layouts and animations
• it is important to be able to quickly put together a presentation
• it is not important to be able to manage complex presentations
• it is not important to support presentations as evolving content
• Current solutions for creating presentations are not satisfying
• they are purely based on a presentation perspective
• tools for a content perspective are hard to find

 
 Erik Wilde
 
 
  
   

  This is an introductory presentation …
   
    
     
      
      
       
Popular use case are lectures and courses
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XSLidy is an XSLT 2.0 program (a.k.a. stylesheet)
					
The input is an XML document according to the XSLidy XML Schema
					
						
which may refer to other XSLidy files or styles (XSLidy or Slidy)
					
					
The output is a set of Slidy XHTML presentations
					
						
and an optional presentation navigator (an HTML snippet)
					
					
XSLidy is designed for reusable content and accessible presentations
					
						
XML as source means easy to generate and process
						
Slidy XHTML as output means accessible and portable presentations
					
					
Detailed information available at: 
					
				
			
		
		
			
			
				
XSLidy is probably not interesting for you if you …
				
					
… want to use a graphical user interface
					
… have small and not heavily structured presentations
				
				
XSLidy is probably interesting for you if you …
				
					
… can live with manually creating XML
					
… are capable of running a Java program
					
… routinely deal with large and complex presentations
				
				
If you think XSLidy is good, but not good enough …
				
					
… then you can easily write your own 
				
				
Available at http://dret.net/projects/xslidy/
				
			
		
	
	
		
		The XSLidy User's Manual describes everything there is to know about XSLidy. It may not be as complete as it should be, but there always is the XSLidy documentation XML which uses all features and can be used as a template for your own experiments with XSLidy.
		
			
			
This user's manual is an attempt to make the work invested in XSLidy accessible to more than just the people involved in the planning and programming of XSLidy. So if you find any errors, omissions, or other good candidates for improvements, your feedback is very welcome. As usual, the most valuable feedback is constructive criticism, stating what you found that could be improved, and how to would suggest to improve it. Please note that XSLidy is a by-product of trying to use non-proprietary ways of managing presentations and the resulting frustration, and not a professional product.
			
Thanks to Philippe Cattin for all the discussions (mostly while running), ideas, and test drives of my code!
		
		
			
			
				
				
					
XSLidy is implemented in XSLT 2.0 as a single XSLT stylesheet
					
						
get the XSLidy XSLT program
					
					
There also is an XML Schema defining XSLidy's elements
					
						
get the XSLidy XML Schema
						
the schema will not find all errors, but at least some of them
					
					
You can also get everything in a single ZIP file
					
						
the ZIP contains the XSLT and the XML Schema
						
as well as the complete contents of the XSLidy Web page
					
					
For running XSLidy, you need an XSLT 2.0 processor
					
						
XSLT 2.0 is still under development (but almost finished)
						
Saxon is a freely available implementation
						
for running Saxon, a Java runtime environment is required (1.5 or higher recommended)
					
				
			
			
				
				
					
The input is an XML document according to the XSLidy XML Schema
					
						
this is the XSLidy XML which created this presentation
						
basically, XSLidy files are a mix of XSLidy markup and XHTML markup
					
					
The XSLidy XML Schema can be used to validate the input
					
						
an XML Schema processor is required to perform this validation
						
validation will find some, but not all errors (strange things may still occur)
					
				
			
			
				
				
					
The output is a set of Slidy XHTML presentations
					
						
and an optional presentation navigator (an HTML snippet)
					
					
The generated Slidy presentations need an environment to work properly
					
						
a Slidy installation containing the Slidy CSS and JavaScript
						
layout definitions to control how individual slides are displayed
					
				
			
		
		
			
			
				
				
					
The XSLidy XSLT can be controlled with parameters
					
						
how parameters are passed to the XSLT processor depends on the processor
						
XSLT 2.0 does not define how stylesheet parameters are being passed
					
					
Parameters can be used to control various aspects of XSLidy
					
The following command line shows how Saxon accepts parameters
				
				
java -jar saxon8.jar xslidy.xml xslidy.xsl presentation=intro,manual
			
			
				
				

					
The presentation parameter specifies which presentations to generate
					

						
XSLidy structures every document into one or more presentations
					
					
By default, XSLidy generates all presentations
					

						
the default value of the presentation parameter is *
					
					
If required, only a subset of all presentations can be generated
					

						
comma-separated list of presentation ids such as intro,manual
					
					
Caution: Changes in one presentation may affect other presentations!
					

						
if a presentation changes, links into it may have to be re-generated
						
be careful when re-generating only a subset of all presentations
					
				
				
java -jar saxon8.jar xslidy.xml xslidy.xsl presentation=intro,manual
			
			
				
				

					
The messages parameter controls processing messages
					

						
error is the default and suppresses warning messages
						
warning selects that warnings should be printed, too
					
				
				
java -jar saxon8.jar xslidy.xml xslidy.xsl messages=warning
			
			
				
				

					
The notes parameter controls 
					

						
include is the default and includes all 
						
remove removes  from generated Slidy files
					
					
 by default are included in generated Slidy files
					

						
they can always be revealed by using n
						
confidential or personal notes therefore should be removed when generating Slidy files
					
				
				
java -jar saxon8.jar xslidy.xml xslidy.xsl notes=remove
			
		
		
			
			
				
				

					
XSLidy picks up XSLidy elements during processing
					

						
they are transformed to XHTML elements
						
the output of XSLidy does not contain any XSLidy elements
					
					
XSLidy elements can broadly be classified into two categories
					

						
elements which are representing special XSLidy structures
						
elements which serve as shortcuts to more cumbersome XHTML code
					
				
			
			
				
				

					

						

						
xslidy, presentation, part, slide, note
					
					

						

						
title, author, affiliation, date, copyright, location, occasion
					
					

						

						
toc, slides, for-each-presentation, presentation-link
					
					

						

						
index, category
					
					

						

						
list (ul/ol), image
					
					

						

						
listing, counter, link, layout
					
				
			
			
				
				

					
…
					

						
xslidy, presentation, part, and slide may carry xml:lang information
					
				
			
			
				
				
					
					
						
Each XSLidy document contains one or more 
						
							
usually a lecture or one block of a course
						
						
Each presentation contains a sequence of  and/or 
						
							
parts are optional, but are useful to structure the presentation
							
 are generated for all parts
						
						
Each slide is processed and yields one Slidy slide
						
 and  carry 
						
Tables of Contents can be created listing all presentations
						
							
these are created as individual files and can be included or further processed
						
					
				
				
					
					

						
Each presentation will become an individual Slidy XHTML document
						

							
presentations may be interlinked with other presentations
						
						
Presentations will be written to XHTML files
						

							
the file extension will be set as defined by extension-file
							
if a name attribute is set, it will be used as the file name
							
if an id attribute is set (but no name attribute), it will be used as the file name
							
if neither a name nor an id attribute is set, a file name will be generated
						
						
An id attribute can be used for 
						
A presentation cover slide is generated if there is a cover attribute
						

							
there must be a presentation style with this name
							
this means either a layout element or a CSS class
						
						
Each presentation is described by 
						
The contents of a presentation are  and/or 
					
				
				
					
					

						
Some presentations may be delivered without the help of XSLidy
						

							
these presentations should also be part of the Table of Contents
							
for these presentations, the  can be included in XSLidy
						
						
external specifies the URI of the presentation material
						

							
it must be specified on the presentation element
							
external presentations may not contain content (i.e.,  and/or )
							
the external URI will be used as the (unprefixed!) presentation-link in the Table of Contents
						
						
It is possible to link to external presentations
						

							
the link will point to the external attribute's URI
						
					
				
				
					
					
						
A part groups related  and/or parts
						
Parts can be nested as deeply as required
						
							
However, only two levels are supported when generating 
						
						
An id attribute can be used for 
						
Each part can be described by 
					
				
				
					
					
						
…
						

						
							
…
						
					
				
				
					
					
						
Slides are parts of  or 
						
Each slide is processed and yields one Slidy slide
						
							
 look very much like Slidy slides
							
but they have an explicit title
							
they may contain special XSLidy elements
						
					
				
				
					
					
						
Slides may contain notes which are not intended for presentation
						
							
note is used to mark up slide notes (they are formatted as a block)
							
notes contain additional information about a slide's content
							
they are particularly useful when 
						
						
Notes can be revealed and hidden by pressing the n key
						
							
usually, they are not revealed during presentations
							
when printing, a and n show all slides and reveal their notes
							
for printing without notes, just do a without n
						
						
Notes can be removed when 
						
							
public notes can be made public (and used for printing)
							
private notes should be removed from the Slidy files
							
the notes parameter controls how to handle notes
						
					
					
						

							
This is a note demonstrating the note element
							
note formatting can be changed if required
							

								
the default is defined in xslidy.css
								
it can be overridden by layout-specific stylesheets
							
						
					
				
				
					
					
						
It may be necessary to use additional styles and/or scripts
						
							
first check whether they should not be part of the layout
						
						
XSLidy supports styles/scripts for all or single presentations
						
style and script can be used as in XHTML
						
							
style may even have a src attribute (then the element is mapped to XHTML's link)
						
						
Both elements may appear within xslidy or presentation elements
						
							
each generated Slidy presentation contains the xslidy and the presentation styles/scripts
						
					
				
			
			
				
				
					
				

					

						
title
						
The title, e.g. 
					
						
Cover slides (and maybe others) may want to reference title information
						
An empty element on a slide produces the most recent definition
						
							
<title/> : 
					
						
Title information from different levels may be interesting
						
							
e.g., displaying the XSLidy and the presentation title on a cover slide
						
						
Using level it is possible get specific levels
						
							
<title level="xslidy"/> : 
					
						
Title information may use mixed content and short forms
						
Depending on the context, different forms of title information may be required
						
Using form it is possible to get specific forms of title information
						
							
<affiliation form="full"/> :  (default)
							
<affiliation form="text"/> :  (only the textual content)
							
<affiliation form="short"/> :  (the short value)
						
					
<affiliation form="full"/> :  (default)
<affiliation form="text"/> :  (only the textual content)
<affiliation form="short"/> :  (the short value)
]]>
				
			
			
				
				
					
					

						
XSLidy documents usually contain more than one presentation
						
Providing an ToC over all presentations can be automated
						
The exact format of the ToC is hard to predict
						

							
it may be a complete Web page
							
it may be an HTML snippet to be included on some Web page
							
it may be XML which is intended for further processing
							
or it maybe that all of the above are required!
						
						
Each toc contains a template for a ToC
						

							
id identifies the ToC format for 
							
name specifies the name of the generated ToC file
						
					
				
				
					
					

						
The toc template may contain any markup
						

							
elements in the XSLidy namespace will be transformed to XHTML elements
						
						
for-each-presentation contains markup which is repeated for each presentation
						
within for-each-presentation, the following elements are recognized
						

							
all  can be used as usual (generating presentation-level content)
							
slides is expanded to the number of slides in the presentation (replacing an asterisk in its content with the actual number)
							
presentation-link is used to generate 
							
slides and presentation-link are ignored for empty or external presentations
						
					
				
					

 
   

  

    

					

						
presentation-link
						
element
						
attribute
						
prefix
					
				
				
					
					

						
toc can also be used inside presentation
						

							
id then specifies the toc where these contents should be included
						
					
				

				
				
					
					

						
It may be necessary to generate ToC markup selectively
						

							
some presentation-specific information may only occur for some presentations
							
it may be necessary to only generate markup when this information is present
						
						
if-toc tests whether a certain toc is present
						

							
id specifies to which toc the test applies
							
if-toc's content is only generated if the toc is present
							
if-toc makes most sense inside for-each-presentation
							
most likely, a toc will appear as part of if-toc's content
						
						
The following code tests for <toc id="abstract"/>
					
				

 
]]>
				
			
			
				
				
					
					

						
index
						
category
					
				
			
			
				
				
					
					
						
Not all XHTML elements are easy to use
						
XSLidy can provide shortcuts
						
							
these can be used if they seem to be useful
							
they can be ignored and the XHTML can be entered directly
							
new ones can be implemented in 
						
					
				
				
					
					
						
HTML lists are a sequence of one or more li elements
						
							
nested lists must appear within li elements
						
					
				
				
					
					
						
img-prefix processing instruction
					
				
				
					
					
						
HTML supports transclusion only for images
						
Using listing, you can transclude content from text files
						
							
by default, a link to the included file will be generated
						
						
line
						
							
…
						
						
href
						
							
if href is set to the empty string, no link will be generated
							
if href is set to anything else, a link to this URI will be generated
						
						
tab
						
							
replace
							
retain
						
						
title
						
							
…
						
					
				
			
			
				
				
					
					

						
link
						
class style
						

						

					
				
				
					
					

						
XSLidy supports href on all elements
						

							
this means every element can be turned into a link
							
the same approach is featured in XHTML 2.0
						
						
If an element carries an href attribute, it is a hyperlink
						

							
XSLidy will wrap such an element in an a element
							
if there is a title attribute, it will also be moved to the a element
							
the original element becomes a child of the generated a element
						
						
A more compact solution for frequently used link anchors
						

							
img frequently also acts as a link
							
using img src="…" href="…"/ is easier to type and understand
						
						
Generated links can be styled depending on their content
						

							
they will be assigned a class which has the name of their child element
							
for example, a href="…" class="img" is generated for img links
							
a.img { … } CSS code can then use this class for specialized styling
						
					
				
				
					
					

						
HTML supports document relationships (part of the document head)
						

							
a very useful feature for better navigable sites (standardized site navigation)
							
poorly supported by today's browsers (only Opera provides native support)
							
Firefox's cmSiteNavigation extension provides support in Firefox
						
						
XSLidy automatically inserts links between presentations
						

							
next and prev to navigate through presentations
							
start and last to navigate to the first and last presentation
							
for all these links, the presentation titles are added as link descriptions
						
						
Additional links can be configured and are then added to all presentations
						

							
link-author is a link to a resource about the author
							
link-contents is a link to the table of contents
							
link-glossary is a link to a glossary
							
link-home is a link to the home page
						
					
				
				
					
					
						
Using a counter, you can count anything you like
						
							
a counter has a name for grouping items being counted: <counter name="tables" …
							
a counter has an id for identifying one of these items: <counter name="tables" id="elements" …
						
						
The title of the counted thing should be the counter's content
						
							
this makes it possible to use titles for lists and links
							
the title as content outputs counter and title, separated by counter-separator: Example
							
the title attribute only outputs the number:  (the title attribute is set as tool tip, though)
						
						
Counters are reset at the beginning of each presentation
						
							
the number format is defined by counter-format (full or short)
							
full yields , short yields 
							
this global setting may be overwritten by using the form attribute on the counter
						
						
References to the counter use a ref attribute
						
							
<counter name="tables" ref="elements" … generates the table's number
							
the number is a link to the referenced item, its title is set as tool tip
						
					
				
				
					
					

						
layout
						
CSS
					
				
			
		
		
			
			
				
			
			
				
				
					
XSLidy generates files and within these links to generated files
					
						
generated files are Slidy XHTML presentations
						
links may point to other slides or presentations
					
					
extension-file controls the file name extension of the generated files
					
						
the default of html is useful in most cases
						
the separator dot does not have to be included
					
					

						extension-link controls the file name extension of the links
					
						
the default of html is useful for file-based testing
						
the separator dot does not have to be included
						
for publication on decent Web Servers use the empty string
					
				
			
			
				
				
					
XSLidy is designed to produce Slidy presentations
					
slidy-prefix
				
			
			
				
				
					
XSLidy presentations require additional resources
					
xslidy-prefix
				
			
			
				
				
					
Outlinks are links leaving the current presentation (i.e., the current Slidy XHTML page)
					
This may happen in two cases:
					
						
normal HTML links (<a>) within XSLidy files
						
cross-presentation links generated by XSLidy
					
					
outlink-mark controls whether outlinks should be marked
					
						
no: no outlink marking
						
link: only mark outlinks made by 
						
a: only mark HTML outlinks (made with a)
						
all: mark all outlinks
					
				
			
			
				
				
					
outlink-style controls how outlinks should be marked
					
						
the style only applies to outlinks selected by outlink-mark
					
					
outlink-style can use a text style of the form → * (the default)
					
						
a text style is only applied if there are text nodes inside the link
						
the * is replaced with the link's content
						
the text before and after the * is inserted before and after this content
					
					
outlink-style can use a class style of the form class(outlink)
					
						
a class style is only applied if the link does not have a class attribute
						
the contents are set as the link's class attribute
						
there should be CSS code defining the formatting for the specified class
					
				
			
			
				
				
					
Outline slides are automatically created for each part
					
						
down to the second level, other parts are ignored in the outline
						
but they may still be useful as containers and structuring aid
						
<part outline="no"> suppresses outline slides (default is "yes")
					
					
The outline-title is used as the title of these slides
					
						
each outline slide will have this title (Presentation Outline by default)
					
					
The outline-class is set as the Slidy layout class for each outline slide
					
						
it is easy to create a custom layout for outline slides
						
each outline slide is marked as being of class outline by default
					
					
The outline-current CSS class is used for formatting the current part
					
						
XSLidy layouts should define this class (as shown in the )
					
				
			
			
				
				
					
Outline slides may contain the slide count for each listed part
					
						
counting can be controlled on a per-level basis
						
part-slide-count is set to 1 per default (only include counts in topmost parts)
						
setting part-slide-count to all enables counting for all parts
					
					
The generated text can be controlled by using part-slide-text
					
						
the default  (* Slides) generates texts like 
			
		
		
			
			
				
			
			
				
			
		
	
	
		
		This is the download and release information which is also written in XSLidy. Here you can get an overview of XSLidy releases and download the latest version.
			
				
				
					
Always available from http://dret.net/projects/xslidy/latest
					
Current release: 
				
			
		
			
			
				
Send bug reports to xslidy-bug@dret.net
				
Send feature requests to xslidy-feature@dret.net
				
If you like XSLidy, please tell others!
			
		
		
			
			
				
				
					
Available from http://dret.net/projects/xslidy/0.5
					
You are currently reading the documentation
					
The core files for using XSLidy are the following files:
					
						
xslidy.xsl : the XSLT stylesheet implementing XSLidy
						
xslidy.xsd : the XML Schema defining XSLidy
					
					
All files can be obtained as xslidy.zip
					
						
the ZIP contains all sources, the generated files, and a complete version of Slidy
						
you might want to get the latest version of Slidy
					
				
			
		
		
			
			
				
				
					
XSLidy is designed to be easily extensible
					
						
XSLT makes it easy to add new elements and their processing
						
XSLidy supports features which are of general interest
						
more specific functionality can be supported by 
						
					
					
Features can be anything that can be implemented in XSLT
					
						
inclusion of external presentations/parts/slides (maybe just use XInclude?)
						
support of basic layouts such as two-column layouts
					
					
Suggestions are welcome!
				
			
			
				
							
		
	
	
		
		XSLidy is designed to be extensible so that others can easily contribute and integrate their own tools for creating presentations. In this document, the extension mechanism is described, and links to known extensions are provided.
		
			
			
				
XSLidy provides basic support for generating presentation sets
				
XSLidy does not provide support for creating specific content
			
		
		
			
			
				
XSLT provides a built-in mechanism for reusing code
			
		
		
			
			
				
Since XSLidy generated Slidy presentations, everything should work
				
Some additional settings may yield better results
				
					
provide a layout outline-class for outline slides
					
handle the outline-current CSS class for outline slides
				
			
		
		
			
			
				
			
		
		
			
			
				
				

					
FormuLaTeX
				
			
		
	
	
		This is a very boring set of test slides. It has been created to test new Slidy layouts, and contains various combinations of HTML elements, so that new layout can be more easily tested.
		
		
			
			
				
				

					
ul item level 1
					

						
ul item level 2
						

							
ul item level 3
						
					
					
ul item level 1
					

						
ul item level 2
						

							
ol item level 3
						
					
				
			
			
				
				

					
ul item level 1
					

						
ol item level 2
						

							
ul item level 3
						
					
					
ul item level 1
					

						
ol item level 2
						

							
ol item level 3
						
					
				
			
			
				
				

					
ol item level 1
					

						
ul item level 2
						

							
ul item level 3
						
					
					
ol item level 1
					

						
ul item level 2
						

							
ol item level 3
						
					
				
			
			
				
				

					
ol item level 1
					

						
ol item level 2
						

							
ul item level 3
						
					
					
ol item level 1
					

						
ol item level 2
						

							
ol item level 3