Grouping

The attributes section explained how to give attributes to a single block. However, it did not explain how to give attributes to multiple blocks at the same time.

This is because you cannot, what you can do is create a new block, that consists of a “group” of block. There are two main mechanisms for that.

The first one is “indentation-based”. The second one is pretty new, as far as I know, as it is a separator rather than a delimitor with a beginning and an end.

Using >

You can use > to group blocks together, just like it is used in Commonmark to group them in quotations. Here is an example:

> Two paragraphs
>
> Grouped in a block

Using ---

Like other markdown-to-slides generator, slipshow allows to use “horizontal lines” (such as ---) to group blocks together:

Two paragraphs

Grouped in a block

---

Another group

---

Yet another group

The example above defines three groups, one after the other. It is important that each horizontal lines have the same number of - (and at least three). The separators with the most numbers of dashes have priority:

A

---

B

----

C

will group the blocks above as (A, B) in one group, and C in the other.

You can attach metadata to a group by attaching metadata to the dashes (see the next section):

A

{#id}
---

B

This attaches metadata to B. Note that the a dash separation before the first block is optional, but possible to add metadata.

Combining both approaches

It is possible to mix-and-match both approaches.

The problem with > is that the identation level can quickly become out of control, making the result not very readable, and a pain to edit. The problem with --- is that you cannot easily see where it ends.

Sometimes, mixing the approach helps improve the experience of deeply nested blocks. If it does not, consider splitting in files.

Let’s see an example. Which one is more readable for you?

Here is are some colors:

{.columns}
----
# Red

Red is the color of the sun when it sets
---
# Green

Green is the color of the grass when it had a lot of water.
---
# Blue

Blue is the color of the sky when it's blue
----

They are all beautiful!

Here is are some colors:

{.columns}
> # Red
>
> Red is the color of the sun when it sets
> ---
> # Green
>
> Green is the color of the grass when it had a lot of water.
> ---
> # Blue
>
> Blue is the color of the sky when it's blue

They are all beautiful!

Here is are some colors:

{.columns}
> > # Red
> >
> > Red is the color of the sun when it sets
>
> > # Green
> >
> > Green is the color of the grass when it had a lot of water.
>
> > # Blue
> >
> > Blue is the color of the sky when it's blue

They are all beautiful!

.. code-block::

Here is are some colors:

{.columns}
----
> # Red
>
> Red is the color of the sun when it sets

> # Green
>
> Green is the color of the grass when it had a lot of water.

> # Blue
>
> Blue is the color of the sky when it's blue
----

They are all beautiful!