Creating Interactive Slideshow using Voila and Voila-Reveal

Voila is an open-source framework or we can say a web application, with the help of which one can convert Jupyter notebooks into dashboards and interactive online applications. Although it’s primarily responsible for creating web applications, it can also be used to create interactive slideshows for Jupyter notebooks.

On the other hand, Voila-Reveal is just an extension of voila. It allows to convert simple jupyter notebook into a Reveal.js based interactive slideshow.

In order to do so, one can follow the below mentioned steps:

Step 1: Install VOILA

To install voila, you can use Command Prompt

pip install voila

Step 2: Create the Slides

Then, create or open Notebook where you will build the presentation. If you want to customize the slides using Reveal.js features like slide backgrounds, transitions, and themes, then do so by adding appropriate metadata to Markdown cells.

Step 3: Run VOILA

Once you created the slides, close your notebook. Then, in the command prompt, navigate to the path where your notebook is stored.

cd C:\Users\hp

Replace C:\Users\hp with your folder path.

Then, start to run your notebook in the Command Prompt.

voila Voila.ipynb

Rename Voila.ipynb with the name of your notebook file.

Once you run your file, voila will start a local server and generate the Reveal.js-based presentation from your notebook. It will provide you with a URL, which is typically something like http://localhost:8866. Open this URL in a web browser to view your interactive slideshow presentation.

NOTE: Voila will convert all the slides in the cells in the notebook to a dashboard.

We all have been very well acquainted with the creation of slideshows by using Microsoft PowerPoint for our schools, colleges, or offices in our day-to-day lives. But, have we ever wondered how would it be to create a slideshow through the Jupyter Notebook? The advantages of creating slideshows with Python and Jupyter are its version control capability, dynamicity in the slideshows, easy sharing of codes with others in the groups, and a single presentation document, but the only con with this is that it doesn’t have many themes to apply in the slides, due to which it may look sort of a little plain.

In this article, we will walk through the different methods used for creating interactive slideshows in Jupyter Notebook like through RISE, with Jupyter’s built-in slideshow feature, Jupyter widgets, and ipywidgets and voila and voila-reveal. Also, we will read about the importance of creating interactive slideshows, how to customize our slides in the slideshows, and the processes involved in exporting the slideshow.

Now, coming to the basic query to ask everyone, and which every individual has in their mind is

Why Interactive SlideShow?

Some of the reasons why interactive slideshows are appreciated are mentioned below:

1. It easily helps in capturing audiences’ attention because of its interactive clickable elements, colours, images, videos, etc. making the presentation more memorable.

2. Users can delve further into data visualizations, charts, and graphs in interactive slideshows for data-driven presentations. To acquire deeper insights, they might filter data or zoom in on particular data points.

3. Interactive slideshows possess features like surveys and quizzes to collect feedback and gauge audience comprehension in real-time, which can be useful for training or instructional purposes.

4. Presenters can adapt their information to their audience’s demands by using interactive slideshows. Users can take their own route through the content by concentrating on the subjects that are most interesting or important to them, creating a more individualized experience.