generate Keynote presentation from text or Markdown?

Solution 1:

md2key

md2key is exactly what you want. md2key is an open source tool for converting markdown to Keynote presentations.

Install

Install md2key with the command:

gem install md2key

Usage

1. Create a keynote document
2. Create a first slide as a cover slide
3. Create a second slide to choose a slide layout
4. Then execute md2key markdown.md

Solution 2:

I don't know of any tools that convert from markdown to Keynote or Powerpoint.

If it is a simple presentation, that just consists of slides and bullet points, you can import it into Keynote by first converting it to an unordered list, with slide titles at the top level, e.g.,

-   First Slide
    -   Point 1
    -   Point 2
-   Second Slide
    -   Point 1
    -   Point 2

Then convert this to docx using pandoc. Open the docx file in Pages. Meanwhile, open a new slideshow in Keynote, and go to Outline View. Copy the list from Pages to your clipboard. Right click on the little blue square in the outline pane in Keynote, and "Paste and Match Style".

For a more detailed explanation of those last steps, with screenshots, see http://www.peterstagg.com/welcome/apple-inc/creating-outlines-for-keynote-in-pages-and-textedit/. For an explanation of how to do something similar with Powerpoint, see http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/learn/interface/creating-outlines-in-word-2011-mac.html.

Solution 3:

makeSlides

makeSlides is an commercial iPad app that allows you to convert a markdown file to Powerpoint or Keynote.

makeSlides will convert Markdown, OPML and Plain Text files into Microsoft PowerPoint format files. Once converted, the PowerPoint can be previewed, emailed, printed or sent to another app (such as MS PowerPoint, Dropbox, Keynote, GoodReader, Evernote etc.)