S5

S5 is an XHTML/JavaScript based presentation system.

Python's docutils package now has a script that generates S5 pages from ReST (AKA ReStructured Text, a nice text format).

I fiddled with the default S5 theme's CSS a bit to create a theme with a Chandler graphic and the OSAF logo.

• Take a quick look at the vobject PyCon2006 presentation
• The text file source for this presentation is here
• Here's a slide show about docutils' S5 capabilities

You can use the theme by following the following steps:

Install docutils

• Either download a .tar.gz file, uncompress it, and run python setup.py install, or
• Use pje's easy_install (you'll need the latest version, or it won't work) and run

  easy_install docutils

• The executable script rst2s5.py should now be in your path

Install the custom theme

• Download the .tar.gz file
• Change directories to your docutils folder (Python_dir/site-packages/docutils), uncompress the .tar.gz file there

Create your slideshow

• Create a ReST text file, look here for examples. The OSAF logo image is included with the theme, you can put it on your title slide just like in the example if you want to
• Run the command

  rst2s5.py --theme chandler my_rest_file.txt my_slideshow.html 

Testing and displaying the slideshow

• Note that font sizes don't change perfectly continuously, and the aspect ratio of your projector is important, so it's worth testing at 800x600 and 1024x768
• If you resize your browser, you need to refresh your browser, even if you're just switching to full-screen. In Firefox, command-R refreshes