Metadata

Presentation metadata is defined in the first YAML block of the source file.

Supported keys

---
title:              My Talk
subtitle:           A Subtitle
authors:            ['Stefano Zaghi', 'John Doe']
authors_short:      ['S. Zaghi', 'J. Doe']
emails:             ['stefano.zaghi@cnr.it', 'jdoe@example.com']
affiliations:       ['CNR-INSEAN, Rome', 'Example University']
affiliations_short: ['CNR-INSEAN', 'Example U.']
location:           Rome, Italy
location_short:     Rome
date:               April 2026
conference:         My Conference 2026
conference_short:   MC2026
session:            Invited Talk
session_short:      Invited
logo:               images/logo.png
max_time:           25
dirs_to_copy:       ['images', 'data']
---

All keys are optional. String keys are plain values; keys marked with [] accept lists.

Key descriptions

Key	Type	Description
title	string	Presentation title
subtitle	string	Presentation subtitle
authors	list	Full author names
authors_short	list	Abbreviated author names (for headers/footers)
emails	list	Author email addresses
affiliations	list	Full affiliation names
affiliations_short	list	Abbreviated affiliation names
location	string	Venue location
location_short	string	Abbreviated location
date	string	Presentation date
conference	string	Conference name
conference_short	string	Abbreviated conference name
session	string	Session name
session_short	string	Abbreviated session name
logo	string	Path to a logo image (relative to source file)
max_time	integer	Presentation duration in minutes — drives the countdown timer
dirs_to_copy	list	Directories copied into the output directory (use for images, videos, etc.)
css_overtheme	list	Custom CSS files appended to the generated stylesheet

max_time and dirs_to_copy

max_time sets the countdown timer duration. If you include a timer widget in your theme it will count down from this value.

dirs_to_copy is essential when your presentation references files in subdirectories. MaTiSSe uses relative paths, so any directory containing images, videos, or data files must be listed here so it is copied alongside index.html:

---
dirs_to_copy: ['images', 'videos', 'data']
---

css_overtheme — custom CSS files

css_overtheme accepts a list of CSS file paths (relative to the source file). Each file is copied into the output css/ directory and linked from index.html. Use it to override generated styles, style callouts and theorems, or add presentation-specific CSS that would be awkward to express in the YAML theme:

---
css_overtheme: ['custom.css']
---

Example custom.css:

/* Style all theorem blocks with a subtle tint */
.theorem-thm  { background: rgba(74, 144, 217, 0.06); }
.theorem-def  { background: rgba(46, 139,  87, 0.06); }

/* Increase callout body font size */
.callout-body { font-size: 105%; }

/* Override Pygments code block border radius */
.highlight pre { border-radius: 6px; }

Auto-generated metadata

These keys are computed automatically — you cannot set them, but you can use them anywhere:

Key	Description
toc	Full table of contents (HTML)
sectiontitle	Title of the current section
sectionnumber	Number of the current section
subsectiontitle	Title of the current subsection
subsectionnumber	Number of the current subsection
slidetitle	Title of the current slide
slidenumber	Number of the current slide
total_slides_number	Total number of slides in the presentation

Interpolation in theme strings

Any metadata key becomes a $key placeholder in theme content strings:

---
theme_slide_header_1:
  active:  True
  height:  10%
  content: "$title — $authors"

theme_slide_footer_1:
  active:  True
  height:  6%
  content: "$conference | $location | $date"
---

Interpolation in slide content

Metadata can also be placed directly inside slide content using the $key[style] notation, where [style] is optional CSS:

#### Title Slide

Welcome! My name is $authors[font-size:150%;color:#003366]

This talk runs for $max_time minutes.

Multi-line values

Long list values can be broken across lines using the && line-break marker:

authors = ['NERD Laboratory, The World Most Uncool Research Center', &&
            'LOST Institute, Missed People Research Institute']

Title page

The $titlepage token generates a slide populated from metadata. A common pattern is to compose the title page with $box environments:

$titlepage

$box
$style[width:100%;height:35%;background:#4788B3;]
$content[color:white;text-align:center;]{
$title[font-size:200%;padding-top:2%;]
$subtitle[font-size:120%;padding-top:2%;]
$logo[height:50px;]
}
$endbox

$box
$style[width:100%;]
$content[text-align:center;]{
a presentation by $authors[font-size:150%]
$emails[font-size:90%;]
$affiliations
}
$endbox

$box
$style[width:100%;padding-top:2%;]
$content[text-align:center;color:#4788B3;]{
$conference[font-size:150%;]
$session[font-size:120%;]
$location[font-size:90%;text-align:right;]
$date[font-size:90%;text-align:right;]
}
$endbox