---
title: "Papers and decks"
description: "The parts of a long document, and its frames."
canonical: papers.html
navigation-title: "Papers and decks"
---

<a id="papers-and-decks"></a>

# Papers and decks

- [part](#part)
- [outline](#outline)
- [decision](#decision)
- [answer](#answer)
- [slide](#slide)

The parts of a long document, and its frames.

<a id="directive-part"></a>

<a id="part"></a>

## part

Where a part of a paper begins. The argument names the part. It stands
before the first heading of the part, and takes no body.

```text
.. part:: Problem

The problem
===========
```

The name stands over that heading. In `:layout: paper`, the outline in the
panel groups the sections under it, up to the next part. See
[Configuration](../configuration.md).

<a id="directive-outline"></a>

<a id="outline"></a>

## outline

The short name the outline of a paper gives the next section. It stands
before the heading, as `part` does, and takes no body.

```text
.. outline:: Overview

In short: the whole concept on one page
=======================================
```

A heading says what a section claims. A list of claims reads slowly, so the
outline can name a section in a word.

<a id="directive-decision"></a>

<a id="decision"></a>

## decision

The question a concept puts, with the answers it can take. The question is
the argument. The answers stand between the tags as `answer`, each with
what it means.

**Open: What is the name of the TCA key?**

By The core team, 2026-11-30

- A. **primaryFields** (recommended)

     Neutral, and close to "primary" in the backend.

- B. **contentFields**

     Clear for content elements, wrong for pages.

<a id="confval-decision-label"></a>

**`label`**

- Type: string
- Default: Decision

The word over the block: `Open` while the question stands, `Decided`
once it fell.

<a id="confval-decision-by"></a>

**`by`**

- Type: string

Who decides.

<a id="confval-decision-due"></a>

**`due`**

- Type: string

By when, as written. Once an answer is `:decided:`, the day it fell.

<a id="confval-decision-lead"></a>

**`lead`**

- Type: string

A sentence about the question, before the answers. Blocks before the
first answer do the same for more than a sentence.

<a id="confval-decision-name"></a>

**`name`**

- Type: string

The address of the decision, and a target of `:ref:`, as the
`:name:` of every directive here is.

**The letters count themselves.** An answer with no `:key:` takes the next
letter. So an answer put in the middle renames the ones after it, and no
page changes in two places. The element is `sds-decision` in
[sds-decision, sds-answer](../../frontend/components/content.md#component-sds-decision).

<a id="directive-answer"></a>

<a id="answer"></a>

## answer

One answer a decision can take, and what it means. The answer in a few
words is the argument.

<a id="confval-answer-recommended"></a>

**`recommended`**

- Type: flag

The answer the paper proposes.

<a id="confval-answer-decided"></a>

**`decided`**

- Type: flag

The answer the decision took. The block then speaks in the past at its
foot.

<a id="confval-answer-key"></a>

**`key`**

- Type: string

The letter or number the paper cites the answer by. Without it, the
decision counts.

<a id="directive-slide"></a>

<a id="slide"></a>

## slide

One frame of a deck, in the text of a paper. The heading is the argument.
On the page the slide is a picture at the width of the column. A paper with
`:deck:` plays all its slides, in their order, from the press under its
title. See [Configuration](../configuration.md).

**Every question of the concept is decided.**

A figure slide holds its picture between the tags: a diagram, an image, or
markup. With a `:caption:` it is a figure of the paper and counts as one.
A label in front of it is the target of `:ref:`.

```text
.. _figure-needs:

.. slide:: Needs met and open
   :kind: figure
   :lead: Nine needs are met, twenty-three are open.
   :caption: The needs, met and open.

   .. diagram::

      tiles
      title "Needs met and open"
      description "Two counts of needs."
      tile "9" "met"
      tile "23" "open"
        emphasis
```

<a id="confval-slide-kind"></a>

**`kind`**

- Type: string
- Default: content

`cover`, `section`, `statement`, `content`, `figure` or
`closing`. A `section` slide whose heading is the name of a
`.. part::` lists the parts of the paper and marks its own.

<a id="confval-slide-eyebrow"></a>

**`eyebrow`**

- Type: string

The line over the heading.

<a id="confval-slide-lead"></a>

**`lead`**

- Type: string

The sentence under the heading.

<a id="confval-slide-legend"></a>

**`legend`**

- Type: string

The key of the drawing, at the right of the heading. Entries stand
apart by ` | `, and each is a key and its words. `■` is a filled
square, `□` an outlined one, `[ID]` an id on a plate. Any other key
is an id in mono: `■ MVP | □ First version | ID after the MVP`.

<a id="confval-slide-note"></a>

**`note`**

- Type: string

What the speaker says. The slide does not show it.

<a id="confval-slide-layout"></a>

**`layout`**

- Type: string

The room a figure takes: `wide`, `full`, `headed`, `row` or
`text-start`. `full` shows the picture alone. `headed` gives it
the frame under a short head and a rule. `row` stands the
drawings between the tags side by side, each under the `:label:` of
its `.. diagram::`.

<a id="confval-slide-ground"></a>

**`ground`**

- Type: string

The ground of the frame. `terminal` is the dark one a cover stands on.

<a id="confval-slide-caption"></a>

**`caption`**

- Type: string

The caption under the slide. The slide then counts as a figure.

<a id="confval-slide-page-only"></a>

**`page-only`**

- Type: flag

The slide stands in the page, and the deck does not play it. For a
figure that reads as a slide in the text and has no place in the talk.

<a id="confval-slide-name"></a>

**`name`**

- Type: string

The address of the slide.

The element is `sds-slide` in [sds-slide](../../frontend/components/content.md#component-sds-slide). The Markdown
twin writes the heading in bold, the lead and what the slide holds.