Document 716

The LaTeX Beamer document class

Version: 5.x - Scientific WorkPlace & Scientific Word

The LaTeX Beamer document class produces presentations, handouts, and transparency slides as typeset PDF files. The class provides global and local control of layout, color, and fonts; a variety of list and list display mechanisms; and many dynamic transitions between slides. Beamer presentations can contain text, mathematics, graphics, and animations.

A single SWP or SW file contains an entire Beamer presentation. You define global formatting with commands in the preamble. You create each slide in the presentation inside frame environments, which are defined with fragments provided as part of the support. Transitions are also defined with fragments.

This sample presentation illustrates many of the available features. If you have SWP or SW, you can open and examine the .tex document used to create the presentation.

Version 5.5

The Beamer support is included on the CD for program build 2953B and included with build 2960. If you have an earlier build of Version 5.5 you can apply the patch update. See Patch update 2960 for Version 5.5.

Version 5.0

You can download from our website a 5-MB self-extracting file that provides support for Beamer. The download includes the Slides - Beamer document shell, a sample presentation, the Beamer User Guide, and the associated fragments required to provided basic support for Beamer in Version 5.x.

To download and install Beamer support

Running the self-extracting program installs the User Guide in the TCITeX/TeX/LaTeX/contrib/beamer/doc directory of your program installation. The class is installed in the TCITeX/TeX/LaTeX/contrib/beamer directory.

1. Download the BeamerSupportFiles.exe file to your program directory, usually c:\swp55 or \sw55 for Version 5.5.

2. Run the program and enter your program directory as the extraction directory.

3. Follow the prompts that appear on your screen. When the process asks if you want to overwrite several files in the Typeset directory, choose Yes to All.

Using Beamer

Start a new document with the Slides - Beamer shell in the Other Documents shell directory. Replace text in the shell document with your text. Notice that the [BeginFrame] and [EndFrame] encapsulated TeX fields must be placed around the text for each slide. Additional information on creating Beamer slide shows can be found in the document PackageSample-beamer.tex in the SWSamples directory. The last page of the sample document includes a link to the Beamer documentation where technical details for using Beamer can be found.

Last revised 08/13/09

This document was created with Scientific WorkPlace.