% $Header: /cvsroot/latex-beamer/latex-beamer/doc/beamerug-introduction.tex,v 1.16 2004/12/08 11:21:22 tantau Exp $ % Copyright 2003, 2004 by Till Tantau . % % This program can be redistributed and/or modified under the terms % of the GNU Public License, version 2. \section{Introduction} \beamer\ is a \LaTeX\ class for creating presentations that are held using a projector, but it can also be used to create transparency slides. Preparing presentations with \beamer\ is different from preparing them with \textsc{wysiwyg} programs like OpenOffice's Impress, Apple's Keynotes, or KOffice's KPresenter. A \beamer\ presentation is created like any other \LaTeX\ document: It has a preamble and a body, the body contains |\section|s and |\subsection|s, the different slides (called \emph{frames} in \beamer) are put in environments, they are structured using |itemize| and |enumerate| environments, and so on. The obvious disadvantage of this approach is that you have to know \LaTeX\ in order to use \beamer. The advantage is that if you know \LaTeX, you can use your knowledge of \LaTeX\ also when creating a presentation, not only when writing papers. \subsection{Main Features} The list of features supported by \beamer\ is quite long (unfortunately, so is presumably the list of bugs supported by \beamer). The most important features, in my opinion, are: \begin{itemize} \item You can use \beamer\ both with |pdflatex| and |latex|+|dvips|. \item The standard commands of \LaTeX\ still work. A |\tableofcontents| will still create a table of contents, |\section| is still used to create structure, and |itemize| still creates a list. \item You can easily create overlays and dynamic effects. \item Themes allow you to change the appearance of your presentation to suit you purposes. \item The themes are designed to be usable in practice, they are not just for show. You will not find such nonsense as a green body text on a picture of a green meadow. \item The layout, the colors, and the fonts used in a presentation can easily be changed globally, but you still also have control over the most minute detail. \item A special style file allows you to use the \LaTeX-source of a presentation directly in other \LaTeX\ classes like |article| or |book|. This makes it easy to create presentations out of lecture notes or lecture notes out of presentations. \item The final output is typically a \textsc{pdf}-file. Viewer applications for this format exist for virtually every platform. When bringing your presentation to a conference on a memory stick, you do not have to worry about which version of the presentation program might be installed there. Also, your presentation is going to look exactly the way it looked on your computer. \end{itemize} \subsection{History} I created \beamer\ mainly in my spare time. Many other people have helped by writing me emails containing suggestions for improvement or corrections or patches or whole new themes (by now I have gotten over a thousand emails concerning \beamer). Indeed, most of the development was only initiated by feature requests and bug reports. Without this feedback, \beamer\ would still be what it was originally intended to be: a small private collection of macros that make using the |seminar| class easier. I created the first version of \beamer\ for my PhD defense presentation in February 2003. Month later, I put the package on \textsc{ctan} at the request of some colleagues. After that, things somehow got out of hand. \subsection{Acknowledgments} Where to begin? \beamer's development depends not only on me, but on the feedback I get from other people. Many features have been implemented because someone requested them and I thought that these features would be nice to have and reasonably easy to implement. Other people have given valuable feedback on themes, on the user's guide, on features of the class, on the internals of the implementation, on special \LaTeX\ features, and on life in general. A small selection of these people includes (in no particular order and I have surely forgotten to name lots of people who really, really deserve being in this list): Carsten (for everything), Birgit (for being the first person to use \beamer\ besides me), Tux (for his silent criticism), Rolf Niepraschk (for showing me how to program \LaTeX\ correctly), Claudio Beccari (for writing part of the documentation on font encodings), Thomas Baumann (for the emacs stuff), Stefan M\"uller (for not loosing hope), Uwe Kern (for \textsc{xcolor}), Hendri Adriaens (for \textsc{ha-prosper}), Ohura Makoto (for spotting typos). People who have contributed to the themes include Paul Gomme, Manuel Carro, and Marlon Régis Schmitz. \subsection{How to Read this User's Guide} You should start with the first part. If you have not yet installed the package, please read Section~\ref{section-installation} first. If you are new to \beamer, you should next read the tutorial in Section~\ref{section-tutorial}. When you set down to create your first real presentation using \beamer, read Section~\ref{section-workflow} where the technical details of a possible workflow are discussed. If you are still new to creating presentations in general, you might find Section~\ref{section-guidelines} helpful, where many guidelines are given on what to do and what not to do. Finally, you should browse through Section~\ref{section-solutions}, where you will find ready-to-use solution templates for creating talks, possibly even in the language you intend to use. The second part of this user's guide goes into the details of all the commands defined in \beamer, but it also addresses other technical issues having to do with creating presentations (like how to include graphics or animations). The third part explains how you can change the appearance of your presentation easily either using themes or by specifying colors or fonts for specific elements of a presentation (like, say, the font used for the numbers in an enumerate). The last part contains ``howtos,'' which are explanations of how to get certain things done using \beamer. \medskip \noindent This user's guide contains descriptions of all ``public'' commands, environments, and concepts defined by the \beamer-class. The following examples show how things are documented. As a general rule, red text is \emph{defined}, green text is \emph{optional}, blue text indicates special mode considerations. \begingroup \noindexing \begin{command}{\somebeamercommand\oarg{optional arguments}\marg{first argument}\marg{second argument}} Here you will find the explanation of what the command |\somebeamercommand| does. The green argument(s) is optional. The command of this example takes two parameters. \example |\somebeamercommand[opt]{my arg}{xxx}| \end{command} \begin{environment}{{somebeamerenvironment}\oarg{optional arguments}\marg{first argument}} Here you will find the explanation of the effect of the environment |somebeamerenvironment|. As with commands, the green arguments are optional. \example \begin{verbatim} \begin{somebeamerenvironment}{Argument} Some text. \end{somebeamerenvironment} \end{verbatim} \end{environment} \begin{element}{some beamer element}\yes\yes\yes Here you will find an explanation of the template, color, and/or font |some beamer element|. A ``\beamer-element'' is a concept that is explained in more detail in Section~\ref{section-elements}. Roughly, an \emph{element} is a part of a presentation that is potentially typeset in some special way. Examples of elements are frame titles, the author's name, or the footnote sign. For most elements there exists a \emph{template}, see Section~\ref{section-elements} once more, and also a \beamer-color and a \beamer-font. For each element, it is indicated whether a template, a \beamer-color, and/or a \beamer-font of the name |some beamer element| exist. Typically, all three exist and are employed together when the element needs to be typeset, that is, when the template is inserted the \beamer-color and -font are installed first. However, sometimes templates do not have a color or font associated with them (like parent templates). Also, there exist \beamer-colors and -fonts that do not have an underlying template. Using and changing templates is explained in Section~\ref{section-templates}. Here is the essence: To change a template, you can say \begin{verbatim} \setbeamertemplate{some beamer element}{your definition for this template} \end{verbatim} Unfortunately, it is not quite trivial to come up with a good definition for some templates. Fortunately, there are often \emph{predefined options} for a template. These are indicated like this: \begin{itemize} \itemoption{square}{} causes a small square to be used to render the template. \itemoption{circle}{\marg{radius}} causes circles of the given radius to be used to render the template. \end{itemize} You can install such a predefined option like this: \begin{verbatim} \setbeamertemplate{some beamer element}[square] %% Now squares are used \setbeamertemplate{some beamer element}[cirlce]{3pt} %% New a circle is used \end{verbatim} \beamer-colors are explained in Section~\ref{section-colors}. Here is the essence: To change the foreground of the color to, say, red, use \begin{verbatim} \setbeamercolor{some beamer element}{fg=red} \end{verbatim} To change the background to, say, black, use: \begin{verbatim} \setbeamercolor{some beamer element}{bg=black} \end{verbatim} You can also change them together using |fg=red,bg=black|. The background will not always be ``honoured,'' since it is difficult to show a colored background correctly and an extra effort must be made by the templates (while the foreground color is usually used automatically). \beamer-fonts are explained in Section~\ref{section-fonts}. Here is the essence: To change the size of the font to, say, large, use: \begin{verbatim} \setbeamerfont{some beamer element}{size=\large} \end{verbatim} In addition to the size, you can use things like |series=\bfseries| to set the series, |shape=\itshape| to change the shape, |family=\sffamily| to change the family, and you can use them in conjunction. Add a star to the command to first ``reset'' the font. \end{element} \beamernote As next to this paragraph, you will sometimes find the word \textsc{presentation} in blue next to some paragraph. This means that the paragraph applies only when you ``normally typeset your presentation using \LaTeX\ or pdf\LaTeX.'' \articlenote Opposed to this, a paragraph with \textsc{article} next to it describes some behaviour that is special for the |article| mode. This special mode is used to create lecture notes out of a presentation (the two can coexist in one file). \lyxnote A paragraph with \textsc{lyx} next to it describes behaviour that is special when you use \LyX\ to prepare your presentation. \endgroup %%% Local Variables: %%% mode: latex %%% TeX-master: "beameruserguide" %%% End: