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How to Create Beautiful HTML & CSS Presentations with WebSlides

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Getting Started with WebSlides

Create a web presentation with webslides.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Creating Beautiful HTML & CSS Presentations with WebSlides

This article was peer reviewed by Ralph Mason , Giulio Mainardi , and Mikhail Romanov . Thanks to all of SitePoint’s peer reviewers for making SitePoint content the best it can be!

Presentations are one of the best ways to serve information to an audience. The format is short and sharp, made up of small, digestible chunks, which makes any topic under discussion engaging and easier to understand. A presentation can contain all kinds of data, represented by many different elements, such as tables, charts, diagrams, illustrations, images, videos, sounds, maps, lists, etc, all of which lends great flexibility to this medium of expression.

Particularly on the web, presentations come in handy on many occasions, and there are loads of tools at your disposal to create some nifty ones. Today, I’ll introduce you to WebSlides — a small and compact library with a nice set of ready-to-use components, which you can leverage to build well-crafted and attractive web presentations:

WebSlides “is about telling the story, and sharing it in a beautiful way.”

In fact, one of WebSlides’ main benefits is that you can share your story beautifully and in a variety of different ways. With one and the same architecture — 40+ components with semantic classes, and clean and scalable code — you can create portfolios, landings, longforms, interviews, etc.

Besides, you can also extend WebSlides’ functionality by combining it with third-party services and tools such as Unsplash , Animate.css , Animate On Scroll , and so on.

WebSlides is easy to learn and fun to use. Let’s see it in action now.

To get started, first download WebSlides . Then, in the root folder, create a new folder and call it presentation . Inside the newly created presentation folder, create a new file and call it index.html . Now, enter the following code, which contains the needed references to the WebSlides’ files (make sure the filepaths correspond to the folder structure in your setup):

In this section you’re going to create a short, but complete presentation, which explains why SVG is the future of web graphics. Note: If you are interested in SVG, please check my articles: SVG 101: What is SVG? and How to Optimize and Export SVGs in Adobe Illustrator .

You’ll be working step by step on each slide. Let’s get started with the first one.

The first slide is pretty simple. It contains only one sentence:

Each parent <section> inside <article id="webslides"> creates an individual slide. Here, you’ve used two classes from WebSlides’ arsenal, i.e., bg-gradient-r and aligncenter , to apply a radial gradient background and to align the slide content to the center respectively.

The second slide explains what SVG is:

The code above uses the content-left and content-right classes to separate the content into two columns. Also, in order to make the above classes work, you need to wrap all content by using the wrap class. On the left side, the code uses text-subtitle to make the text all caps, and text-intro to increase the font size. The right side consists of an illustrative image.

The next slide uses the grid component to create two columns:

The snippet above shows how to use the grid and column classes to create a grid with two columns. In the first column the style attribute aligns the text to the left (Note how the aligncenter class on the <section> element cascades through to its .column child element, which causes all text inside the slide to be center aligned). In the second column, the browser class makes the illustrative image look like a screenshot.

In the fourth slide, use the grid component again to split the content into two columns:

In this slide, place half of the content to the left and the other half to the right using the content-left and content-right classes respectively:

In this slide, use the background class to embed an image as a background with the Unsplash service . Put the headline on light, transparent background by using the bg-trans-light class. The text’s color appears white, because the slide uses a black background with the bg-black class, therefore the default color is inversed, i.e., white on black rather than black on white. Also, for the text to be visible in front of the image, wrap it with <div class="wrap"> :

In this slide, put the explanation text on the left and the illustrative image on the right at 40% of its default size (with the alignright and size-40 classes on the <img> element). For this and the next three slides, use slideInRight , which is one of WebSlides’ built-in CSS animations:

Do a similar thing here:

This slide also uses a similar structure:

Here, divide the content into left and right again. In the second <p> tag, use the inline style attribute to adjust the font-size and line-height properties. Doing so will override the text-intro class styles that get applied to the element by default. On the right side, use <div class="wrap size-80"> to create a container for the SVG code example:

Here, leverage some of the classes you’ve already used to illustrate browser support for SVG:

In this slide, show some of the use cases for SVG in the form of an image gallery. To this end, use an unordered list with the flexblock and gallery classes. Each item in the gallery is marked up with a li tag:

This section shows a typical SVG workflow, so you need to use the flexblock and steps classes, which show the content as a sequence of steps. Again, each step is placed inside a li tag:

For each step after the first one, you need to add the process-step-# class. This adds a triangle pointing to the next step.

In the last slide, use another one of WebSlides’ built-in CSS animations, i.e., zoomIn :

Congratulations! You’re done. You can see the final outcome here:

See the Pen HTML and CSS Presentation Demo with WebSlides by SitePoint ( @SitePoint ) on CodePen .

Et voilà! You have just created a beautiful, fully functional and responsive web presentation. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, there’s a lot more you can quickly create with WebSlides and many other WebSlides features which I didn’t cover in this short tutorial.

To learn more, explore the WebSlides Components and CSS architecture documentation , or start customizing the demos already available to you in the downloadable folder.

Then, focus on your content and let WebSlides do its job.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Creating Beautiful HTML & CSS Presentations with WebSlides

How can i customize the design of my webslides presentation.

WebSlides allows you to customize your presentation to suit your style and needs. You can change the color scheme, fonts, and layout by modifying the CSS file. If you’re familiar with CSS, you can easily tweak the styles to create a unique look. If you’re not, there are plenty of online resources and tutorials that can help you learn. Remember, the key to a great presentation is not only the content but also the design. A well-designed presentation can help keep your audience engaged and make your content more memorable.

Can I add multimedia elements to my WebSlides presentation?

How can i share my webslides presentation with others.

Once you’ve created your WebSlides presentation, you can share it with others by hosting it on a web server. You can use a free hosting service like GitHub Pages, or you can use your own web server if you have one. Once your presentation is hosted, you can share the URL with anyone you want to view your presentation. They’ll be able to view your presentation in their web browser without needing to install any special software.

Can I use WebSlides for commercial projects?

Yes, WebSlides is free to use for both personal and commercial projects. You can use it to create presentations for your business, for your clients, or for any other commercial purpose. However, please note that while WebSlides itself is free, some of the images and fonts used in the templates may be subject to copyright and may require a license for commercial use.

How can I add interactive elements to my WebSlides presentation?

You can add interactive elements to your WebSlides presentation by using JavaScript. For example, you can add buttons that the user can click to navigate to different slides, or you can add forms that the user can fill out. This can be done by adding the appropriate HTML and JavaScript code to your slides. If you’re not familiar with JavaScript, there are plenty of online resources and tutorials that can help you learn.

Can I use WebSlides offline?

Yes, you can use WebSlides offline. Once you’ve downloaded the WebSlides files, you can create and view your presentations offline. However, please note that some features may not work offline, such as loading external images or fonts. To ensure that all features work correctly, it’s recommended to host your presentation on a web server.

How can I add transitions and animations to my WebSlides presentation?

You can add transitions and animations to your WebSlides presentation by using CSS. CSS allows you to control the appearance and behavior of elements on your slides, including transitions and animations. For example, you can use the transition property to animate the change of a property from one value to another, or you can use the animation property to create more complex animations.

Can I use WebSlides on mobile devices?

Yes, WebSlides is designed to be responsive and works well on both desktop and mobile devices. However, please note that due to the smaller screen size, some elements may not display as intended on mobile devices. It’s recommended to test your presentation on different devices to ensure that it looks and works well on all platforms.

How can I add navigation controls to my WebSlides presentation?

You can add navigation controls to your WebSlides presentation by using the built-in navigation options. You can add arrows to navigate between slides, or you can add a slide counter to show the current slide number and the total number of slides. This can be done by adding the appropriate HTML and CSS code to your slides.

Can I use WebSlides with other web development tools?

Yes, you can use WebSlides with other web development tools. For example, you can use it with a text editor to write your HTML and CSS code, or you can use it with a version control system like Git to manage your project files. You can also use it with a build tool like Gulp or Grunt to automate tasks like minifying your code or compiling your CSS.

I am a web developer/designer from Bulgaria. My favorite web technologies include SVG, HTML, CSS, Tailwind, JavaScript, Node, Vue, and React. When I'm not programming the Web, I love to program my own reality ;)

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HTML: HyperText Markup Language

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the most basic building block of the Web. It defines the meaning and structure of web content. Other technologies besides HTML are generally used to describe a web page's appearance/presentation ( CSS ) or functionality/behavior ( JavaScript ).

"Hypertext" refers to links that connect web pages to one another, either within a single website or between websites. Links are a fundamental aspect of the Web. By uploading content to the Internet and linking it to pages created by other people, you become an active participant in the World Wide Web.

HTML uses "markup" to annotate text, images, and other content for display in a Web browser. HTML markup includes special "elements" such as <head> , <title> , <body> , <header> , <footer> , <article> , <section> , <p> , <div> , <span> , <img> , <aside> , <audio> , <canvas> , <datalist> , <details> , <embed> , <nav> , <search> , <output> , <progress> , <video> , <ul> , <ol> , <li> and many others.

An HTML element is set off from other text in a document by "tags", which consist of the element name surrounded by < and > . The name of an element inside a tag is case-insensitive. That is, it can be written in uppercase, lowercase, or a mixture. For example, the <title> tag can be written as <Title> , <TITLE> , or in any other way. However, the convention and recommended practice is to write tags in lowercase.

The articles below can help you learn more about HTML.

Key resources

If you're new to web development, be sure to read our HTML Basics article to learn what HTML is and how to use it.

For articles about how to use HTML, as well as tutorials and complete examples, check out our HTML Learning Area .

In our extensive HTML reference section, you'll find the details about every element and attribute in HTML.

Beginner's tutorials

Our HTML Learning Area features multiple modules that teach HTML from the ground up — no previous knowledge required.

This module sets the stage, getting you used to important concepts and syntax such as looking at applying HTML to text, how to create hyperlinks, and how to use HTML to structure a web page.

This module explores how to use HTML to include multimedia in your web pages, including the different ways that images can be included, and how to embed video, audio, and even entire other webpages.

Representing tabular data on a webpage in an understandable, accessible way can be a challenge. This module covers basic table markup, along with more complex features such as implementing captions and summaries.

Forms are a very important part of the Web — these provide much of the functionality you need for interacting with websites, e.g. registering and logging in, sending feedback, buying products, and more. This module gets you started with creating the client-side/front-end parts of forms.

Provides links to sections of content explaining how to use HTML to solve very common problems when creating a web page: dealing with titles, adding images or videos, emphasizing content, creating a basic form, etc.

Advanced topics

The crossorigin attribute, in combination with an appropriate CORS header, allows images defined by the <img> element to be loaded from foreign origins and used in a <canvas> element as if they were being loaded from the current origin.

Some HTML elements that provide support for CORS , such as <img> or <video> , have a crossorigin attribute ( crossOrigin property), which lets you configure the CORS requests for the element's fetched data.

The preload value of the <link> element's rel attribute allows you to write declarative fetch requests in your HTML <head> , specifying resources that your pages will need very soon after loading, which you therefore want to start preloading early in the lifecycle of a page load, before the browser's main rendering machinery kicks in. This ensures that they are made available earlier and are less likely to block the page's first render, leading to performance improvements. This article provides a basic guide to how preload works.

HTML consists of elements , each of which may be modified by some number of attributes . HTML documents are connected to each other with links .

Browse a list of all HTML elements .

Elements in HTML have attributes . These are additional values that configure the elements or adjust their behavior in various ways.

Global attributes may be specified on all HTML elements , even those not specified in the standard . This means that any non-standard elements must still permit these attributes, even though those elements make the document HTML5-noncompliant.

HTML elements are usually "inline-level" or "block-level" elements. An inline-level element occupies only the space bounded by the tags that define it. A block-level element occupies the entire space of its parent element (container), thereby creating a "block box".

HTML comments are used to add explanatory notes to the markup or to prevent the browser from interpreting specific parts of the document.

The <audio> and <video> elements allow you to play audio and video media natively within your content without the need for external software support.

HTML is comprised of several kinds of content, each of which is allowed to be used in certain contexts and is disallowed in others. Similarly, each context has a set of other content categories it can contain and elements that can or can't be used in them. This is a guide to these categories.

Historical information on quirks mode and standards mode.