API Reference

In Spectacle, presentations are composed of a set of base tags. We can separate these into three categories: Main tags, Typography tags & Layout tags.

Main Tags

These are the bare bones of a Spectacle presentation, the two most essential tags you'll need to assemble a slideshow.

Deck

Wraps the entire presentation and carries most of the overarching slide logic, like theme and template context. A template contains Layout tags (referred to as a template render function) and is supplied to the Deck component to apply to all subsequent Slides. The last three props are for print and export mode only, they have no effect on the audience or presenter views. The pageSize and pageOrientation props correspond to the size and orientation values for the CSS media print size selector. The pageSize is automatically set based on the deck theme slide size for a best-fit using export to PDF mode. If you need to print your deck, supply your paper size using the pageSize prop. The printScale is the ratio for the selected page size, orientation, and slide size. 0.958 is the best ratio for to ensure the PDF export fits the slide theme size. Currently, only Chrome and Chromium-based browsers fully implement the custom page size CSS media print specification. Other browsers such as Firefox and Safari can still export to PDF but the page size will not be a best fit.

Props	Type	Default
theme	Styled-system theme object
template	Templates
pageSize	PropTypes.string	"13.66in 7.68in"
pageOrientation	"landscape" or "portrait"	"landscape"
printScale	PropTypes.number	0.959
autoPlay	PropTypes.bool	false
autoPlayLoop	PropTypes.bool	false
autoPlayInterval	PropTypes.number (milliseconds)	1000
transition	Transition	slideTransition
backgroundImage	PropTypes.string

Slide

Wraps a single slide within your presentation; identifies what is contained to a single view. If a transition effect is applied to this slide, it will override the Deck-specified transition.

Props	Type
backgroundColor	PropTypes.string
backgroundImage	PropTypes.string
backgroundOpacity	PropTypes.number
backgroundPosition	PropTypes.string
backgroundRepeat	PropTypes.string
backgroundSize	PropTypes.string
scaleRatio	PropTypes.number
slideNum	PropTypes.number
template	PropTypes.func
textColor	PropTypes.string
transition	Transition

Typography Tags

These tags are for displaying textual content.

Tag Name	Theme Props	Additional Props	Default Props
Text	Space Color Typography	—	color: primary fontFamily: text fontSize: text textAlign: left margin: textMargin
FitText	Space Color Typography	—	color: primary fontFamily: text fontSize: text textAlign: center margin: textMargin
Heading	Space Color Typography	—	color: secondary fontFamily: header fontSize: h1 fontWeight: bold textAlign: center margin: headerMargin
Link	Space Color Typography	href: PropTypes.string	color: quaternary fontFamily: text fontSize: text textDecoration: underline textAlign: left margin: textMargin
Quote	Space Color Typography	—	color: primary fontFamily: text fontSize: text textAlign: left borderLeft: 1px solid secondary
OrderedList	Space Color Typography	—	color: primary fontFamily: text fontSize: text textAlign: left margin: listMargin
UnorderedList	Space Color Typography	—	color: primary fontFamily: text fontSize: text textAlign: left margin: listMargin
ListItem	Space Color Typography	—	margin: listMargin
CodeSpan	Space Color Typography	—	fontFamily: monospace fontSize: text

Templates

Templates are overlays that are present on every slide. Typically, they contain controls and deck progress. Spectacle contains a default template, shown below, ready to use that contains the full screen control and the animated progress dots. <DefaultTemplate /> also supports customizing the color using the prop color and CSS color values such as purple or #fff.

import { Deck, DefaultTemplate } from 'spectacle'

const Presentation = () => (
  <Deck theme={theme} template={<DefaultTemplate />}>
    {/* Your presentation here */}
  </Deck>
)

You can also create a custom template component. Props provided to the template component are:

Props	Type	Description
slideNumber	number	The current index of the active slide.
numberOfSlides	number	The total count of slides in the deck.

Layout Tags

These tags are for adding structure to your slides. A template render function consists of one or more Layout tags — it is supplied to the Deck component to apply to all subsequent Slides.

Tag Name	Theme Props	Additional Props	Default Props
Box	Space Color Layout Position Border	—	—
FlexBox	Space Color Layout Position Border Flex	—	—
Grid	Layout Position Grid	—	display: grid

Table Tags

These tags are for adding tables with content to your slides.

Tag Name	Theme Props	Additional Props	Default Props
Table	Space Color Layout Typography Border	-	color: primary fontFamily: text fontSize: text textAlign: left margin: listMargin
TableHeader	Space Color Layout Typography Border	-	color: primary fontFamily: text fontSize: text fontWeight: bold textAlign: left margin: listMargin
TableBody	Space Color Layout Typography Border	-	color: primary fontFamily: text fontSize: text textAlign: left margin: listMargin
TableRow	Space Color Layout Typography Border	-	color: primary fontFamily: text fontSize: text textAlign: left margin: listMargin
TableCell	Space Color Layout Typography Border	-	color: primary fontFamily: text fontSize: text textAlign: left margin: listMargin

useSteps

The useSteps hook allows a component to participate in the slide step sequence for a given Slide.

NOTE: the vast majority of use cases are covered by the Stepper and Appear components documented below- in fact, they are implemented via this hook. The only case in which you may need to use this hook explicitly is if you need more precise control over a component in your presentation.

Arguments and Options

• numSteps The first argument to this hook, numSteps, indicates how many steps your component will occupy in the slide step sequence. The second argument is an options object which accepts two options: id and stepIndex.
• options.id: (For debugging and testing purposes only.) Allows you to customize the step sequence ID for this component.
• options.priority: Allows fine-grained control over the sequencing of multiple step sequence participants in a given Slide. By default, participants will be activated in the order in which they are rendered. However, this option allows you to specify a "priority"- for instance, a participant with priority: -1 will run before any other participant, regardless of render order.

Return Values

This hook returns four values: stepId, isActive, step, and placeholder.

• stepId: (For debugging and testing purposes only.) Either the id option passed into the hook, or a randomly-generated ULID.
• step: the relative step within this participant's step sequence. Before the slide has reached this participant, this value is -1. When the slide reaches this stepper, it will increase at each step until it reaches numSteps - 1, and will remain there after the slide step has 'passed' it.
• isActive: Boolean value indicating whether the slide step sequence has reached this participant. Equivalent to the expression step >= 0.
• placeholder: DOM node which must be rendered by the consumer component- this is how a Slide detects step sequence participants.

Stepper

<Stepper> is a thin wrapper around useSteps. The length of its values list indicates the number of steps it occupies in the slide step sequence. Each of these values are passed in turn to the render function you provide. Additionally, it allows you to specify styles which should be applied before and after it is activated, and uses react-spring to interpolate between the 'active style' and the 'inactive style'.

The render function you provide (either via the render prop or as a 'children function') is called with three arguments:

• The element of the list passed to values which corresponds to the current step (or undefined if the Stepper is inactive)
• The current step relative to this Stepper's sequence (which will be -1 if the Stepper is inactive)
• A boolean value (isActive) indicating whether the Stepper is active.

For instance, suppose we render a slide like this:

<Slide>
  <p>Hello, world!</p>
  <Stepper tagName="p" alwaysVisible values={['foo', 'bar']}>
    {(value, step, isActive) =>
      isActive
        ? `The first stepper is active. Step: ${step} Value: ${value}`
        : `The first stepper is not active. Step: ${step} Value: ${value}`
    }
  </Stepper>
  <Stepper tagName="p" alwaysVisible values={['baz', 'quux']}>
    {(value, step, isActive) =>
      isActive
        ? `The second stepper is active. Step: ${step} Value: ${value}`
        : `The second stepper is not active. Step: ${step} Value: ${value}`
    }
  </Stepper>
</Slide>

The following output will be rendered as you step through the slide:

<!-- When the slide is first rendered (slide step 0) -->
<p>Hello, world!</p>
<p>The first stepper is not active. Step: -1 Value: undefined</p>
<p>The second stepper is not active. Step: -1 Value: undefined</p>

<!-- slide step 1 -->
<p>Hello, world!</p>
<p>The first stepper is active. Step: 0 Value: foo</p>
<p>The second stepper is not active. Step: -1 Value: undefined</p>

<!-- slide step 2 -->
<p>Hello, world!</p>
<p>The first stepper is active. Step: 1 Value: bar</p>
<p>The second stepper is not active. Step: -1 Value: undefined</p>

<!-- slide step 3 -->
<p>Hello, world!</p>
<p>The first stepper is active. Step: 1 Value: bar</p>
<p>The second stepper is active. Step: 0 Value: baz</p>

<!-- slide step 3 -->
<p>Hello, world!</p>
<p>The first stepper is active. Step: 1 Value: bar</p>
<p>The second stepper is active. Step: 0 Value: baz</p>

<!-- slide step 4 -->
<p>Hello, world!</p>
<p>The first stepper is active. Step: 1 Value: bar</p>
<p>The second stepper is active. Step: 1 Value: quux</p>

Props

• id: (For debugging and testing purposes only) Passed to useSteps.
• priority: Passed to useSteps.
• render: Render function (see above.)
• children: Render function (see above.)
• className: Class name applied to the animated container element.
• tagName: Tag which will be used as the animated container element. Defaults to div.
• values: Values array (see description above).
• alwaysVisible: Forces this stepper to always have its active style applied.
• activeStyle: Style object applied when this <Stepper> is active. Defaults to { opacity: 1 }.
• inactiveStyle: Style object applied when this <Stepper> is inactive. Defaults to { opacity: 0 }.

Appear

Appear is a thin wrapper around useSteps. It occupies a single step within the slide step sequence. It wraps its child elements in an animated container element, and uses react-spring to interpolate between its activeStyle and inactiveStyle.

Props

• id: (For debugging and testing purposes only) Passed to useSteps.
• priority: Passed to useSteps.
• children: Children rendered within this Appear.
• className: Class name applied to the animated container element.
• tagName: Tag which will be used as the animated container element. Defaults to div.
• activeStyle: Style object applied when this <Appear> is active. Defaults to { opacity: 1 }.
• inactiveStyle: Style object applied when this <Appear> is inactive. Defaults to { opacity: 0 }.

Code Pane

CodePane is a component for showing a syntax-highlighted block of source code. It will scroll for overflow amounts of code, trim whitespace and normalize indents. It will also wrap long lines of code and preserve the indent. CodePane uses the React Syntax Highlighter Component.

The theme prop accepts a configurable object or pre-defined theme object from the available Prism Themes. These themes are conveniently exported from Spectacle as codePaneThemes.

Additionally, the highlightRanges prop accepts an array that can be used to highlight certain ranges of code:

This array can contain a range of two numbers, where the first number indicates the start, and the second number the end of that range, e.g.,

[1, 3] will highlight lines 1 through 3.

It can also contain a list of sub-arrays which will be considered as a list of ranges, e.g.,

[[1, 3], [6, 8], [10, 15]].

Array values can even be mixed to include sub-arrays (for multiple lines) and numbers (for single lines), e.g.,

[[1, 3], 5, [6, 8], [10, 15], 20].

Note that each range will be considered as a step in your current slide's animation. Each range will be highlighted as you move forward or backwards on each step.

Props	Type	Example	Default Props
children	PropTypes.string	let name = "Carlos"	-
highlightRanges	PropTypes.arrayOf(PropTypes.number) or PropTypes.arrayOf(PropTypes.arrayOf(PropTypes.number))	[1, 3] or [[6, 8], [10, 15]]	-
language	PropTypes.string	javascript	-
theme	PropTypes.object or	Prism Theme	vs-dark Theme Object
showLineNumbers	PropTypes.bool	true, false	true
Layout
Position

import tomorrow from 'react-syntax-highlighter/dist/cjs/styles/prism/tomorrow';

() => (
  <Slide>
    <CodePane language="javascript" theme={tomorrow} highlightRanges={[1, 3]}>
      {`
      const App = () => (
        <Provider value={client}>
          <Todos />
        </Provider>
      );
      `}
    </CodePane>
  </Slide>
);

FullScreen

FullScreen is a button that takes the presentation in and out of the browser's full screen mode. It can have a different color and be re-sized.

Props	Type	Example
size	PropTypes.number	23
color	PropTypes.string	#abc123
Position

Image

Image is a component to display a picture within a slide. It is analogous to an <img> tag and conforms to Layout and Position props.

Props	Type
src	PropTypes.string
Layout
Position

Markdown Components

The Markdown components let you include a block of Markdown within a slide using <Markdown />, author a complete slide with Markdown using <MarkdownSlide />, or author a series of slides with Markdown using <MarkdownSlides />. Markdown tags get converted into Spectacle components. The --- three dash marker when used inside <MarkdownSlideSet /> is used to divide content into separate slides. Markdown also supports presenter notes using the Notes: marker. <Markdown /> must be a child of <Slide /> where <MarkdownSlide /> and <MarkdownSlideSet /> are children of <Deck />.

Props	Type	Example
children	PropTypes.string	# Hi there
componentProps	PropTypes.object	<MarkdownSlide componentProps={{ color: 'purple' }}># I'm purple!</MarkdownSlide>
animateListItems	PropTypes.boolean	<MarkdownSlide animateListItems />
Layout
Position

<Slide>
  <Markdown>
    # Urql
    A highly customizable and versatile GraphQL client
  </Markdown>
  <Text>Made by Formidable</Text>
</Slide>
<MarkdownSlide animateListItems>
  # Use Markdown to write a slide

  This is a single slide composed using Markdown.

  - It uses the `animateListItems` prop so...
  - it's list items...
  - will animate in, one at a time.
</MarkdownSlide>
<MarkdownSlideSet>
  # Markdown Slide Sets

  Let you write a sequence of slides using Markdown.

  ---

  # This is the Second Slide in the Set

  Using the `---` delimiter creates a new slide in the set.

  Notes: The easiest way to always display up-to-date data is to set the requestPolicy to 'cache-and-network'.
</MarkdownSlideSet>

v7 Migration Guide

In prior versions of Spectacle the <Markdown /> component was used for slides, set and markdown content. As noted above there are now three specific components for each of these use cases.

1. <Slide><Markdown /></Slide> remains the same.
2. <Markdown /> when used for a full slide is now <MarkdownSlide />.
3. <Markdown containsSlides /> is now <MarkdownSlideSet />.

Notes

Notes is a component that only renders in Presenter mode as presenter notes. It is used as the last component inside your slide but does not show on the deck.

Props	Type	Example
children	PropTypes.string	Presenter Notes

<Slide>
  <Heading>Urql</Heading>
  <Text>A highly customizable and versatile GraphQL client</Text>
  <Notes>
    Urql is a GraphQL client that exposes a set of React components and hooks.
  </Notes>
</Slide>

Progress

Progress is a component with no children that just shows dots for each slide in your deck. The current slide is represented by a filled circle. Visited and future slides are represented by a transparent, outlined circle. The size and color are customizable.

Props	Type	Example
size	PropTypes.number	23
color	PropTypes.string	#abc123
Position

AnimatedProgress

AnimatedProgress is similar to the Progress component, with an additional Pacman character that moves when the current slide changes. It looks like the Pacman is eating all of the circles that represent slides up to, and including, the new current slide. The size and color of the circles are customizable, as is the color of the Pacman.

Props	Type	Example
size	PropTypes.number	23
color	PropTypes.string	#abc123
pacmanColor	PropTypes.string	#abc123
Position