Option to temporarily disable slide sync in RevealJS preview

[fretwurst]

Description

I originally posted this in the positron github discussions. Julia Silge recommended that I bring the discussion over here. She also pointed out that the issue was briefly touched upon in the quarto-cli/#1939, although that discussion has since been closed without resolution.

I'd also like to propose a possible solution, in case the synchronization behavior cannot be optimized.

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I frequently use Quarto with RevealJS to build presentation slides in Positron.
One issue I keep running into is the automatic slide synchronization during preview rendering:
After each quarto preview or render action, the Viewer pane jumps to the slide that presumably matches the current cursor position in the source.

Unfortunately, this matching is often inaccurate, especially in more complex decks. It jumps too far ahead or behind, and rarely hits the exact slide I’m working on.

This behavior makes it hard to fine-tune layouts or test for instance svg-animations because the preview keeps jumping away from the slide I'm currently working on.

Request: Please provide an option to temporarily disable this automatic synchronization:

Ideally as toggleable via command palette, so we can bind it to a keyboard shortcut.

That way, users could work on a specific slide without interruptions, and re-enable sync when they actually want to jump to a different position.

Thanks for considering this. I think it would be an improvement for anyone working with detailed RevealJS presentations.

[mcanouil]

Accessibility: For better accessibility, please ensure link text is descriptive and meaningful rather than using generic terms such as "here". This helps all users understand the link's destination. See Writing meaningful link text (WCAG).

Also be sure your links are valid.

[fretwurst]

Thanks for the advice. I’ve adjusted it as best I could and hope it’s okay now. I’m a bit puzzled about the links themselves, since they worked (and still work) on my end. Don’t they work for you?

[mcanouil]

That's odd. The second link does not work only inside the GitHub app.

[mcanouil]

Note that you could preview the slides using any http server using "live preview" from the VSCode marketplace or using Python.R or whatever language to serve the HTML.
Then use quarto render.

[mcanouil]

There is way to get automatic refresh but no "fickers". A refresh requires a reload of the page.
So you only left with the alternative, serve the slides using http methods (the edge extension on VSCode/Positron, Python, R, Julia, Node, etc. and do manual refresh.

[fretwurst]

(I'm not quite sure whether you mean that there is a or no way to get a automatic refresh but no "flickers".) From what I see, the only – and at the same time best – option is using the integrated Positron Viewer, because it triggers the page reload once after rendering ... if only the slides wouldn't jump away after each render. :-)

[mcanouil]

Simply change the "live preview" setting: vscode://settings/livePreview.autoRefreshPreview

[fretwurst]

Thanks a lot! The "Live Server (Five Server)" is less flickery during auto-refresh. But even with that, you basically need a second screen.

[mcanouil]

I personally use keyboards shorcuts to switch focus, sometimes using standalone/detached window (VSCode) or another virtual desktop.