Marp vs PowerPoint for teaching: which to use for lectures
For a lecture course, Marp wins on everything that happens across a term: forty decks that are text can be searched, diffed, re-dated and regenerated; PowerPoint wins on the single slide that needs freeform layout, animation or the department's template. Most instructors are best served by writing in Marp and exporting to PowerPoint or PDF for the people who ask, rather than choosing one forever.
This is a comparison for teaching, not for sales decks. It goes through the work of a course in order and says which tool is better at each step, then gives the mixed setup.
Writing the deck
Marp. A deck is a Markdown file: one claim per slide, a source line at the bottom, notes as comments. Writing forty slides is typing, and the structure (headings, lists, tables) comes from the text. Layout is what the theme says, which is a constraint and a relief.
PowerPoint. A deck is objects on canvases. Freeform layout, drag anything anywhere, and every slide is a design decision. Fast for one visually rich slide; slow for forty similar ones.
For a lecture deck that is mostly claims, code, tables and figures, Marp is faster to write and impossible to make inconsistent.
Figures and diagrams
PowerPoint draws shapes, arrows and callouts in place; a diagram you build on the slide stays editable. Marp takes images: draw the diagram elsewhere (or generate it from Mermaid) and include the file. For decks with many bespoke diagrams, PowerPoint's drawing tools are real; for decks that use figures from papers and screenshots, it does not matter.
Notes, handouts and questions
Both have speaker notes. In Marp the notes are in the same file as the slides, so a search finds them and an assistant can write them from the sources; the handout and the questions are Markdown files next to the deck. In PowerPoint the notes are in the file but nowhere else, and the handout is a separate document in a separate application.
Over the term
This is where the tools diverge:
| Task | Marp | PowerPoint |
|---|---|---|
| Find every slide that mentions a term | grep across the folder |
open each file |
| See what changed since last year | git diff |
side-by-side by eye |
| Re-date fourteen decks for a new term | a script, or one click in a tool that knows the layout | fourteen files |
| Regenerate the handout after editing the deck | from the same text | by hand |
| Two instructors editing | merge as text | "final-v3-JD.pptx" |
| Change the course code on every slide | one line in the theme | the slide master, per file |
Presenting
PowerPoint's presenter view, animations, ink and laser pointer are mature. Marp's HTML export has a presenter view and transitions; the PDF has neither. For a room with a PC and a clicker, a PowerPoint export of the Marp deck presents like any other. Lecture Studio adds a presenter mode with a break countdown for Marp decks on a Mac.
Institutional templates
If the department requires its .potx, PowerPoint. A Marp theme can copy the look (colours, logo in the footer, fonts) but it is not the same file, and a compliance officer will not accept it. The mixed setup below handles this: export to PPTX with pandoc's --reference-doc when the template matters.
Accessibility
PowerPoint produces tagged, screen-reader-friendly files when the author uses the built-in layouts and alt text. Marp's PDF export is not tagged, and the HTML export is a set of SVGs; alt text on images carries through, but a screen reader does not get a document structure. For an accessible handout, produce it from the same Markdown as a document (pandoc to DOCX or HTML), not from the slides.
The mixed setup
- Write and keep every deck as Marp Markdown in the course folder.
- Export PDF for students (
marp deck.md --pdf). - Export PPTX only when someone needs it:
marp --pptxfor a faithful copy,pandoc --reference-docfor the department template. - Never edit the exports; edit the Markdown and export again.
That gives the term-long benefits of text with PowerPoint available on demand.
FAQ
Is Marp better than PowerPoint?
For a course: yes for writing, versioning, searching and regenerating many decks; no for freeform layout, drawing, animation and institutional templates. Most instructors do best writing in Marp and exporting when needed.
Can I convert Marp to PowerPoint?
Yes: marp deck.md --pptx produces a PPTX with each slide as an image and the notes kept; pandoc produces editable slides from plain Markdown. See the conversion guide.
Can students open Marp slides?
Give them the PDF or the HTML export; both open anywhere. They do not need Marp.
Does Marp have a presenter view?
The HTML export does (press P). PDFs do not. Lecture Studio has a presenter mode for Marp decks on macOS.