hmc_present provides a simple option to realise primitive presentations that consist of nothing but a single HTML-File. The advantages over conventional presentation software are obvious.
Advantages:
- no dedicated file format - every computer that has a modern web browser installed can run the HTML-based presentations
- smallest possible disk space - since HTML files consist of nothing but text, they only take up a few Kilobyte (included pictures take up extra space), while dedicated presentation software often takes up Gigabytes of disk space
- given advanced HTML skills, the presentation can be expanded to incorporate all features HTML, CSS and JavaScript provide, all the while maintaining the presentation functionality
Disadvantages:
- without intermediate knowledge of HTML, only very basic presentations can be made
- mistakes that might occur have to be fixed by the author of the presentation, as the HTML file represents both the presentation and the algorithm running the presentation
The core components of hmc_present are those:
- a div that serves as canvas for the page of the presentation being shown
- hidden divs that contain the actual pages of the presentation
- a small script showing the current page and enabling the user to switch between pages using the arrow keys [←] + [→]
Each page of the presentation has the following structure:
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The first page, (id="content_0") is automatically presented upon opening the file. The number of possible pages not limited, and the order in which the pages are written into the code does not matter.
As seen in the provided example, impress.htm (which may be modified to create presentations), the only requirements are a <div id="presentation"></div>, at least one page, and the actual script (included in the example or as a separate file). The pages may contain any HTML elements.
- The only requirement to run hmc_present is a computer with any web browser able to interpret JavaScript.