Create Online, In-Browser Presentations with Rvl.io

As someone who presents in many different contexts, I am always interested in finding new presentation tools that can make my presentations more visually engaging. One option that I have seen a few examples of recently is using Javascript, HTML and CSS to create presentations that play directly in a web browser. While this can be a visually engaging and interesting option, for those who aren’t completely comfortable with web programming, this option can seem overwhelming. Rvl.io eliminates this problem by providing a visual editor for reveal.js that makes it easy to create an in-browser presentation with no coding ability whatsoever.

The Rvl.io user interface allows you to take advantage of reveal.js to create a dynamic presentation that flows between “slides”, which are actually sections in a web page. You can navigate between slides in either the traditional linear manner or by moving up and down, which adds some versatility to the normal format of slideshows. Moving between slides is accomplished with CSS 3D transforms, which gives presentations a sense of animation, though it can be too much if it isn’t used sparingly. Presentations are private by default, but once a presentation is completed, you can publish it publicly online. I appreciate the fact that Rvl.io also makes it easy to “unpublish” a presentation if you no longer need or want it to be public. If you want to host your presentation elsewhere and feel comfortable with working directly with the code, there is a button to export your code and instructions on how to share it elsewhere.

While Rvl.io makes it possible to create an entire presentation that will display well in any CSS 3D-enabled browser, it does have fairly limited options that make it difficult to completely customize your slides as you would be able to in a a program like PowerPoint or Keynote. I also found that I couldn’t get some of the features, such as changing the background color of the slides, to work properly. Rvl.io does include the option to edit the code directly, which makes it possible to make many additional customizations, but this may be problematic for users who don’t feel comfortable with web programming languages. If you are looking for a unique new option for a relatively simple presentation, Rvl.io is a great tool to use, but for presentations that require specific types of formatting, the Rvl.io visual interface might not provide the required precision.