deckroadmap

deckroadmap adds PowerPoint-style roadmap footers to Quarto and R Markdown Reveal.js slides.

It helps audiences see what has been covered, what section they are currently in, and what comes next. The package supports multiple built-in styles, including pill, minimal, and progress, along with options for colors, size, and positioning.

Read the background story and design notes in the blog post. Documentation: codingtigertang.github.io/deckroadmap

Installation

Install the stable version from CRAN:

install.packages("deckroadmap")

Or install the development version from GitHub:

# install.packages("pak")
pak::pak("CodingTigerTang/deckroadmap")

Why use deckroadmap?

Many business, teaching, and conference presentations use a roadmap bar to help orient the audience during the talk. deckroadmap brings that pattern to Reveal.js slides in a simple R-friendly way.

With one function call, you can add a persistent footer that marks:

• completed sections
• the current section
• upcoming sections

Why not just use the Reveal.js progress bar?

The built-in Reveal.js progress bar shows how far you are through the slide deck. deckroadmap answers a different question: where are you in the structure of the talk?

Supported formats

deckroadmap currently supports:

• Quarto Revealjs presentations
• R Markdown Revealjs presentations

It is designed for Reveal.js-based HTML slides.

Basic usage

Add use_roadmap() near the top of your document, then tag slides with data-roadmap section names. Untagged slides inherit the most recent section by default.

library(deckroadmap)

use_roadmap(
  c("Intro", "Problem", "Analysis", "Recommendation", "Next Steps"),
  style = "pill"
)

Then use matching section labels on your slides, for example:

## Welcome {data-roadmap="Intro"}

## The problem {data-roadmap="Problem"}

## Analysis overview {data-roadmap="Analysis"}

## Recommendation {data-roadmap="Recommendation"}

## Next steps {data-roadmap="Next Steps"}

Inheriting section tags

By default, untagged slides inherit the most recent data-roadmap value. This makes it easier to tag only the first slide of each section.

## Intro {data-roadmap="Intro"}

## More intro content

## Problem {data-roadmap="Problem"}

## More problem detail

In this example, the second slide inherits Intro, and the fourth slide inherits Problem.

Roadmap-free slides

To hide the roadmap on a specific slide, use:

## Break slide {data-roadmap="none"}

This is useful for title slides, divider slides, or transitions where you do not want the roadmap to appear.

Full examples

Full working examples are included in the examples/ folder:

• Quarto demo
• R Markdown demo

These show complete Reveal.js slide documents for Quarto and R Markdown.

Previewing styles

You can preview a roadmap style locally before rendering slides by using preview_roadmap().

preview_roadmap(
  sections = c("Intro", "Problem", "Analysis", "Recommendation", "Next Steps"),
  current = "Analysis",
  style = "progress"
)

Because this README renders to GitHub Markdown, the live HTML preview is not shown here. The screenshots below were generated locally from the preview function.

Styles

deckroadmap currently includes three styles.

style = "pill"

A rounded floating footer with a soft background.

use_roadmap(
  c("Intro", "Problem", "Analysis", "Recommendation", "Next Steps"),
  style = "pill"
)

style = "minimal"

A lighter text-only roadmap with less visual weight.

use_roadmap(
  c("Intro", "Problem", "Analysis", "Recommendation", "Next Steps"),
  style = "minimal"
)

style = "progress"

A connected progress-style roadmap with section blocks.

use_roadmap(
  c("Intro", "Problem", "Analysis", "Recommendation", "Next Steps"),
  style = "progress"
)

Customization

You can control font size, bottom spacing, text colors, and, for progress, background colors.

Text styling

use_roadmap(
  c("Intro", "Problem", "Analysis", "Recommendation", "Next Steps"),
  style = "pill",
  font_size = "14px",
  bottom = "12px",
  active_color = "#2563eb",
  done_color = "#374151",
  todo_color = "#9ca3af"
)

Progress style with background colors

use_roadmap(
  c("Intro", "Problem", "Analysis", "Recommendation", "Next Steps"),
  style = "progress",
  active_color = "#ffffff",
  done_color = "#ffffff",
  todo_color = "#334155",
  active_bg_color = "#2563eb",
  done_bg_color = "#475569",
  todo_bg_color = "#e2e8f0"
)

Notes

• Section names in sections should match the data-roadmap values used on slides.
• Untagged slides inherit the most recent section by default.
• Use data-roadmap="none" to hide the roadmap on a specific slide.
• deckroadmap is designed for Reveal.js slide decks, not PowerPoint output.
• For best results, keep the section list short and readable.