iA Presenter Skill

iA Presenter is a Mac presentation app that uses Markdown files (.md). The core philosophy: write your story first, then let iA Presenter render it as slides. Speaker notes and slide content live in the same file but are distinguished by indentation.

Workflow

Step 1 — Gather Requirements

Ask or infer before writing. What you need:

• Topic and goal — What is the presentation about? Inform, persuade, pitch, teach?
• Audience — Technical, executive, general public?
• Duration — How long? (~1.5–2 min/slide is typical)
• Content — Outline, draft, or just a topic?
• Tone — Formal, casual, technical?
• Theme preference — See theme guide in references/themes.md

If the user provides content, adapt it. If they give only a topic, generate the full narrative.

Step 2 — Structure the Narrative Arc

Every presentation follows a shape:

1. Cover — Title, subtitle, presenter name
2. Hook — First slide surprises or provokes a question; never start with an agenda
3. Setup — Establish the problem, situation, or context
4. Body — 3–5 main points; each point gets 2–4 slides
5. Resolution — What the audience should now believe or understand
6. Call to action — Specific, concrete next step

Agenda slides are optional; only include for presentations over 20 slides.

Step 3 — Write the Markdown

See the complete syntax reference in references/syntax.md. Core rules:

• Slides are separated by ---
• Headings always appear on the slide
• Regular paragraphs are speaker notes (invisible to the audience)
• Tab-indented paragraphs appear on the slide

Step 4 — Output

Deliver a complete, ready-to-use .md file. Add a brief header comment with theme recommendation and estimated duration. Name the file clearly (e.g., product-launch.md).

Design Principles

Apply these — they make the difference between a mediocre and a great deck:

One idea per slide. If you find yourself writing "and also..." on a slide, split it into two slides. Slides are cheap; clarity is not.

Headlines carry the message. Every slide title should be a complete statement that makes sense on its own: "Revenue grew 40% YoY" beats "Revenue". If the audience remembers only the titles, they should still understand your talk.

Show, don't list. Bullet lists are the enemy of attention. Prefer a single strong image + headline, a quote, or a chart over a bulleted list of four things. If you must list, put items on separate slides.

Sparse slide content. The audience reads at 250 wpm and you speak at 150 wpm. If your slide has 50 words, they stop listening while they read. Put the detail in speaker notes; put the anchor in the slide content.

Vary the rhythm. Alternate heavy text slides with full-image slides, quote slides, and chart slides. A uniform presentation is a boring presentation.

Section breaks signal transitions. Use an ## slide to give the audience a breath and signal a new chapter.

End with energy. Close with a strong call to action or a memorable image. Never end on "Questions?" — that's a dead stop.

Quick Syntax Reference

Slide separator

---

Text visibility

# This heading appears on the slide

This paragraph is speaker notes — not visible to the audience.
Write what you'll say aloud here.

    This indented paragraph appears on the slide.

    - This indented list appears on the slide
    - Item two

Kicker (small text above the title)

    Product Launch 2024

# The Future of Payments

(Tab before the kicker line — no #)

Section header slide

## Part 2: The Solution

H2 headings alone trigger the section layout.

Image

![A person using the app](demo.jpg)

With Content Blocks syntax (preferred for layout control):

/assets/hero.jpg
size: cover
layer: background

Side-by-side layout (two elements, double blank line between them)

# Before vs. After

![](before.jpg)

![](after.jpg)

Grid layout (four or more elements)

# Four Core Values

    Speed

    Quality

    Trust

    Openness

Quote slide

    > "Move fast and break things was never about moving fast."

    — Sheryl Sandberg

Table / Chart

| Metric  |    Q3 |     Q4 |
| :------ | ----: | -----: |
| Revenue | $2.1M |  $2.9M |
| Users   | 8,400 | 12,200 |
Chart: Bar
yLabel: Revenue (€)

Chart: Bar, Chart: Line, or Chart: Pie immediately after the table sets the chart type inline. xLabel: / yLabel: add axis labels. Any table can also be converted interactively via the iA Presenter toolbar.

Placeholder image (use while writing, replace before presenting)

/Theme/image2.webp
title: "Placeholder"

/Theme/ references assets bundled with the active theme. title: labels the placeholder so it's easy to find and swap later.

Two-column split (two ### headings on same slide, no ---)

### Option A
    Fast to implement, low cost.

### Option B
    More robust, scales better.

Image positioning with x: / y:

https://example.com/photo.jpg
x: left
y: top

Equivalent to align: left top. Both syntaxes work.

Speaker notes with private comment

# Key Insight

Audience sees only the heading. This sentence is your spoken narrative.
Tell the story behind the data. Give the anecdote. Make the connection.

// Remind yourself to pause here for questions.

Output Template

// Recommended theme: [theme name] ([light|dark])
// Estimated duration: ~[X] minutes ([N] slides × ~[Y] min each)

# [Presentation Title]

    [Subtitle or tagline]
    [Presenter name] · [Date or event]

---

# [Hook slide — surprising statement, provocative question, or striking fact]

[Speaker note: Why does this matter? What problem does this introduce?]

---

Continue from there, following the narrative arc.

Quality Checklist

Before delivering the output, verify each:

• Every slide has a heading (exception: full-bleed image slides)
• Speaker notes written for every slide — what exactly you'd say
• No slide has more visible text than the audience can absorb in 5 seconds
• ## section break slides mark major transitions
• Opening slide uses a hook, not a list of topics
• Closing slide has a concrete call to action
• All --- separators present between slides
• Theme recommendation included in header comment

Reference Files

• references/syntax.md — Full iA Presenter syntax with all options
• references/themes.md — Theme guide with visual characteristics and best uses