Use Quarto and create a PowerPoint slideshow

Quarto can convert a Markdown file to a revealjs HTML slideshow but can also create a pptx file that you can open and play in Microsoft PowerPoint.

In this article, we'll create a pptx file from our Markdown documentation.

From Markdown to PowerPoint in one command​

Take a plain Markdown file called slides.md and run:

$ quarto render slides.md --to pptx▋

Open the .pptx that comes out, and this is your first slide:

The rule is worth remembering because it's the whole syntax: every ## heading becomes a slide title, and a --- line starts a new slide. Your document structure is your slide structure.

The source file​

Here is the slides.md that produced the deck — the content is filler, the structure is what matters:

---
title: "My thesis in Latin"
---

## Chapter 1
<!-- cspell:disable -->
Voluptatem minus labore architecto sed voluptas molestiae perferendis.

Expedita magni facere. Ullam non non sint qui provident.

## Chapter 2

Iure repudiandae perferendis maiores dolorem consequuntur exercitationem suscipit.

---

### Chapter 2.1

Quis voluptate est quis in ea veniam qui incididunt ad cillum nostrud.

And the three remaining slides it generates:

You'll find a lot of tips and tricks on the official documentation page.

Conclusion​

The nice thing here isn't that Quarto makes PowerPoint files — it's that your documentation and your slide deck become the same file. Update a chapter, re-render, and the presentation is up to date. No copy/paste into a slide editor, no two versions of the same content drifting apart.

And the very same slides.md renders as an online slideshow: run quarto render slides.md --to revealjs instead, put the result on a web server, and everyone can consult your work from a browser. See Quarto - revealjs tips for what you can do with it.