MagicPoint

MagicPoint
Developer	WIDE Project
Stable release	1.13a / February 13, 2008 (2008-02-13)
Operating system	Any Unix-like
Type	Presentation program
License	BSD license1
Website	http://member.wide.ad.jp/wg/mgp/

MagicPoint is one of several open-source presentation programs,² often used to produce slides for conferences.³ Unlike most presentation programs, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, where a GUI is used to create slides, MagicPoint slides are created by writing text files using a simple markup language. The resulting file is then displayed with MagicPoint's X11-based viewer.

MagicPoint was originally created in the autumn of 1997, at a WIDE Project camp. It was originally known as tp, standing for TinyPoint,⁴ but in December the name was changed to MagicPoint.⁵

• Content is written in text files and formatting is indicated by text features. For example, different level bullet points can be created by simply indenting the text with tabs⁶
• Many image formats are supported⁷
• Slides can be scaled to different screen sizes⁸
• External applications can be executed from inside the presentation
• A talk timer and slide guide are included⁷
• Presentations can be exported to HTML or PostScript files.⁹

Another feature of MagicPoint is the ability to draw on slides during a presentation.² By pressing x on the keyboard, the slide can temporarily be scribbled on with red "ink". Shift x allows you to cycle through other pen colours.