How FolderPress Works

FolderPress turns a Dropbox folder into a live website. Write Markdown files, organize them into folders, and they're published automatically—blog posts, pages, even slide presentations.

Your folder structure is your URL structure:

Dropbox/Apps/FolderPress/
└── My Blog/                    → my-blog.folderpress.com
    ├── posts/
    │   ├── hello.md            → /posts/hello
    │   ├── recipes/
    │   │   └── pasta.md        → /posts/recipes/pasta
    │   └── ideas.draft.md      → (not published)
    ├── decks/
    │   └── my-talk.md          → /decks/my-talk
    └── pages/
        └── about.md            → /about

Connect Dropbox. Each subfolder becomes a site. Every time you save a file, your website updates within seconds—new posts appear, edits go live, deleted files disappear. Use any editor that syncs with Dropbox: iA Writer, Obsidian, VS Code, or just Dropbox Paper.

Writing

Files in posts/ become blog posts. Files in pages/ become standalone pages like About or Contact. The first heading becomes the title. The filename becomes the URL. Subfolders become URL paths.

End a filename with .draft.md and it stays hidden. Set a future date and it publishes itself:

---
published_at: 2025-02-01
---

Drop images next to your Markdown files and reference them with relative paths. Remote URLs work too:

![Photo](./photo.jpg)
![In subfolder](./images/banner.png)
![Remote](https://example.com/image.jpg)

Embeds

Paste a YouTube or Twitter/X URL on its own line. It renders as a rich embed automatically—no special syntax needed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

https://x.com/naval/status/1002103360646823936

For other services, use an iframe directly. YouTube, Vimeo, Spotify, CodePen, Loom, Google Maps, and Figma are supported:

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/76979871"></iframe>

<iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/4PTG3Z6ehGkBFwjybzWkR8"></iframe>

Iframes from other domains are removed for security.

Presenting

Markdown in the decks folder becomes a presentation. Separate slides with --- on its own line, with an empty line before and after:

# My Talk Title

John Doe, ACME Inc

---

# Agenda

- Topic 1
- Topic 2
- Topic 3

---

# Topic 1

Details here.

![diagram](./diagram.png)

---

# Questions?

Thanks for listening!

Click Present to go fullscreen. Share the link and your audience sees the deck.

→ ↓ Space — Next step or slide
← ↑ — Previous step or slide
Alt + → / ← — Skip to next/previous slide
R — Toggle progressive reveal
Home / End — First / last slide
Esc — Exit

Swipe on touch. Deep link with #slide-3. Print with Cmd+P.

Progressive Reveal

Place  between items. They appear one at a time as you advance:

# Three Things

- First point

<!-- click -->

- Second point

<!-- click -->

- Third point

The ring in the bottom-left tracks your progress through each slide's steps.

Slide Visuals

![bg] sets a background. Text gets a dark overlay automatically. Use the image alone for full-bleed with no overlay:

![bg](./hero.jpg)

# Welcome to My Talk

contain fits without cropping. left or right splits the slide in half:

![bg contain](./diagram.png)

![bg left](./photo.jpg)

![bg right contain](./chart.png)

Automatic Layouts

You don't configure layouts. The content decides. A heading fills the slide. A blockquote becomes a quote card. A number becomes massive:

# Big Statement

---

> The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

---

$4.2B

Every site has a built-in newsletter. Visitors subscribe on your site, and new posts are delivered straight to their inbox.

Choose a mode in site settings:

Auto — New posts are emailed automatically after a 2-hour grace period (so you can fix typos first)
Manual — Posts are only emailed when you click Send in the dashboard
Off — Newsletter is hidden. No subscribe form, no emails

To skip the newsletter for a single post, add newsletter: false to its frontmatter:

---
newsletter: false
---

Drafts (.draft.md) are never emailed, even in Auto mode.

Create Presentations with AI

Use any AI assistant (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) to generate FolderPress slide decks. Copy this prompt, then ask it to create a presentation on any topic:

Preview prompt

# FolderPress Slide Deck Format

Write a Markdown file that renders as a slide presentation.

## Rules

- Separate slides with `---` on its own line, blank line before and after
- YAML frontmatter (optional) is stripped automatically
- Output raw Markdown only — no HTML, no custom CSS

## Layouts (auto-detected from content)

| Content pattern                        | Layout     |
|----------------------------------------|------------|
| Only an H1                             | statement  |
| H1 + short subtitle (≤2 lines)        | cover      |
| Only blockquote(s)                     | quote      |
| Short text with a number (<15 chars)   | big-number |
| Only a single image                    | full-bleed |
| Anything else                          | default    |

## Features

### Background images
`![bg](image.jpg)` — fullscreen cover background (text gets dark overlay)
`![bg contain](diagram.png)` — contain-fit, no crop
`![bg left](photo.jpg)` — image fills left half, content on right
`![bg right](chart.png)` — image fills right half, content on left

### Progressive reveal
Place `<!-- click -->` between items. Each advance reveals the next chunk:
```
- First point
<!-- click -->
- Second point
<!-- click -->
- Third point
```

### Rich content
- Fenced code blocks with language hint (syntax highlighted via Shiki)
- KaTeX math: inline `$E=mc^2$` or block `$$...$$`
- Images: `![alt](url)` — inline, not as background
- Tables, lists, bold, italic — standard Markdown

## Example

```markdown
# Why We Chose Rust

Jane Smith — RenderConf 2026

---

# Agenda

- The problem
- Our evaluation
- Results

---

![bg](./server-room.jpg)

# The Problem

Our Python services couldn't keep up with 10k req/s.

---

# Latency Comparison

| Language | p99 Latency |
|----------|-------------|
| Python   | 420ms       |
| Go       | 85ms        |
| Rust     | 12ms        |

---

99%

reduction in tail latency

---

> "The best performance optimization is the one you don't have to think about."

---

# Key Takeaway

- Memory safety without GC
<!-- click -->
- Zero-cost abstractions
<!-- click -->
- Ecosystem maturity (finally)

---

# Questions?

github.com/janesmith/rust-migration
```

## Guidelines

- One idea per slide. If it needs scrolling, split it.
- Statement slides for big moments. Default slides for detail.
- Use big-number for stats. Use quote for memorable lines.
- Progressive reveal for lists you want to walk through.
- Keep slides concise — the presenter fills in context verbally.

Good to Know

Custom domains — Set one in site settings, or use the free .folderpress.com subdomain
No lock-in — Your files never leave your Dropbox. Stop using FolderPress and nothing changes in your folder

What's Next

Themes
Analytics
Members-only content
API and SDK

Get Started →

How It Works