latex export and beamer columns

latex export and beamer columns

[Eric S Fraga]

Recently, in September, there was a discussion about exporting org
files to latex using the beamer class and generating slides with
multiple columns:

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/17546

No solution was presented at that time but I think I've managed to
create one that is quite reasonable.  I define a beamer entry in
org-export-latex-classes which has the following definitions for the
different headings in an org-mode file:


--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
	 ("\\section{%s}" . "\\section*{%s}")
	 ("\\begin{frame}\\frametitle{%s}" "\\end{frame}"
	  "\\begin{frame}\\frametitle{%s}" "\\end{frame}")
	 ("\\begin{columns} \% %s" "\\end{columns}"
	  "\\begin{columns} \% %s" "\\end{columns}")
	 ("\\begin{column}{%s\\textwidth}" "\\end{column}"
	  "\\begin{column}{%s\\textwidth}" "\\end{column}")
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---


Then, if I have a 3rd level heading (whose actual text is ignored),
multiple columns mode is entered and the level 4 headings indicate the
widths (relative to \textwidth although obviously one could generalise
this) of each subsequent column.

*Note*: for this to work, you have to specify H:4 in the document
OPTIONS or else the 4th level headings are turned into items in an
itemized list.

So, for instance, this will generate a slide with two columns of text
(noting that I use odd levels only for my headings):


--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
# -*- coding: utf-8; -*-
#+TITLE:     Beamer column test
#+AUTHOR:    Eric
#+OPTIONS:   H:4 num:t toc:nil \n:nil @:t ::t |:t ^:t -:t f:t *:t <:t
#+OPTIONS:   TeX:t LaTeX:t skip:nil d:nil todo:t pri:nil tags:not-in-toc
#+LaTeX_CLASS: beamer

* Main heading
*** An interesting slide
***** columns (this text is ignored)
******* 0.3
      	- Some text on the left of the slide
      	- make sure we have at least two bullet points
      	- this is a narrow column
******* 0.7
      	- text on the right side of the slide
      	- and more
      	- and even more
      	- and this is a much wider column
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---


I can now create the slides for presentations and lectures completely
within org-mode so I'm a very happy camper!

eric

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Carsten Dominik]

Hi Eric,

this looks very nice!  I just tried beamer for the first time,
this is very simple now.  Maybe I can drop powerpoint, at least
for some stuff.

I think we need a good beamer tutorial on Worg, including this
column stuff, and some text about image treatment.

Any volunteers?  Anything missing in Org that we should implement to
support this better?

- Carsten

On Nov 21, 2009, at 1:49 PM, Eric S Fraga wrote:

> Recently, in September, there was a discussion about exporting org
> files to latex using the beamer class and generating slides with
> multiple columns:
>
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/17546
>
> No solution was presented at that time but I think I've managed to
> create one that is quite reasonable.  I define a beamer entry in
> org-export-latex-classes which has the following definitions for the
> different headings in an org-mode file:
>
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> 	 ("\\section{%s}" . "\\section*{%s}")
> 	 ("\\begin{frame}\\frametitle{%s}" "\\end{frame}"
> 	  "\\begin{frame}\\frametitle{%s}" "\\end{frame}")
> 	 ("\\begin{columns} \% %s" "\\end{columns}"
> 	  "\\begin{columns} \% %s" "\\end{columns}")
> 	 ("\\begin{column}{%s\\textwidth}" "\\end{column}"
> 	  "\\begin{column}{%s\\textwidth}" "\\end{column}")
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
>
> Then, if I have a 3rd level heading (whose actual text is ignored),
> multiple columns mode is entered and the level 4 headings indicate the
> widths (relative to \textwidth although obviously one could generalise
> this) of each subsequent column.
>
> *Note*: for this to work, you have to specify H:4 in the document
> OPTIONS or else the 4th level headings are turned into items in an
> itemized list.
>
> So, for instance, this will generate a slide with two columns of text
> (noting that I use odd levels only for my headings):
>
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> # -*- coding: utf-8; -*-
> #+TITLE:     Beamer column test
> #+AUTHOR:    Eric
> #+OPTIONS:   H:4 num:t toc:nil \n:nil @:t ::t |:t ^:t -:t f:t *:t <:t
> #+OPTIONS:   TeX:t LaTeX:t skip:nil d:nil todo:t pri:nil tags:not-in- 
> toc
> #+LaTeX_CLASS: beamer
>
> * Main heading
> *** An interesting slide
> ***** columns (this text is ignored)
> ******* 0.3
>      	- Some text on the left of the slide
>      	- make sure we have at least two bullet points
>      	- this is a narrow column
> ******* 0.7
>      	- text on the right side of the slide
>      	- and more
>      	- and even more
>      	- and this is a much wider column
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
>
> I can now create the slides for presentations and lectures completely
> within org-mode so I'm a very happy camper!
>
> eric
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Remember: use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
> Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode

- Carsten

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Eric S Fraga]

At Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:34:18 +0100,
Carsten Dominik wrote:
> 
> Hi Eric,
> 
> this looks very nice!  I just tried beamer for the first time,
> this is very simple now.  Maybe I can drop powerpoint, at least
> for some stuff.

Thanks Carsten!  Definitely drop powerpoint... I would highly
recommend org-mode to you ;-)

Seriously, the arguments for beamer versus PP are the same as (IMO)
latex versus Word and, for me, come down to text versus binary and
open versus proprietary...

> I think we need a good beamer tutorial on Worg, including this
> column stuff, and some text about image treatment.
> 
> Any volunteers?  Anything missing in Org that we should implement to
> support this better?

I may be able to help write such a tutorial (although not before xmas
as I'm bogged down with lectures [and hence my interest in getting
columns working in beamer!] at the moment).

At the moment, the only thing that is missing in org-mode to beamer is
some way to specify arguments to the \frame command, options such as
[shrink] or [t].  At the moment, there is no mechanism that supports
this.  Something like attr_frame may be necessary just as we do with
figures, as in:

,----
| #+attr_frame: shrink=20                
| *** This is a slide with a lot of text 
|     ...
`----

I have no idea how easy or difficult this would be to implement, mind
you.

There is also the issue of animation, specifically the <N> tags for
items in lists but most behaviour like this can be handled with \pause
statements so I'm not too worried about this.

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Eric S Fraga]

> At Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:34:18 +0100,
> Carsten Dominik wrote:

> > Anything missing in Org that we should implement to support this
> > better?

Actually, going through the set of lectures I am currently preparing,
I am finding that there is one thing missing that I haven't needed
before in latex export: the ability to centre a figure without having
to use a float environment.  

Back in September, early October, there was a thread about image
placement in latex export:

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/18174/

There was a number of use cases discussed: inline placement versus
float placement.  There is one use case missing, one that is
particularly useful for presentations, although not often necessary
for articles say, namely a figure centred on a line without a caption
and without floating.  This seemed to be present at some point in the
past but has disappeared, unless I have misunderstood the state of
play...

Basically, I would like to do something like:

,----
|   In a double pipe heat exchanger,
| 
|   [[file:images/double-pipe-heat-exchanger.png]]
| 
|   the heat transfer etc. ad nauseum...
`----

and have that figure centred on the line instead of left aligned as it
would currently appear.

If I add a #+label: the image does appear centred but as this is done
by using a latex figure environment, a Figure: caption (empty) is
added which isn't particularly useful in this case!

There *is* a solution, but it's a bit messy, e.g.:

,----
| 
| \hfill
| #+attr_latex: width=0.6\textwidth
| [[file:images/double-pipe-heat-exchanger.png]]
| \hspace*{\fill} \\
| 
`----

By the way, an \hfill at the end is not sufficient to centre the image.

I have no solution to propose for incorporating something like this
into org-mode other than possibly making use of a placement=centre
(oops, center if you prefer american spelling) option on attr_latex
which would put the includegraphics within a \centerline or \centering
environment.

Thanks,
eric

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Matt Lundin]

Eric S Fraga <ucecesf@ucl.ac.uk> writes:

>> At Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:34:18 +0100,
>> Carsten Dominik wrote:
>
>> > Anything missing in Org that we should implement to support this
>> > better?
>
> Actually, going through the set of lectures I am currently preparing,
> I am finding that there is one thing missing that I haven't needed
> before in latex export: the ability to centre a figure without having
> to use a float environment.  
>
> Back in September, early October, there was a thread about image
> placement in latex export:
>
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/18174/
>
> There was a number of use cases discussed: inline placement versus
> float placement.  There is one use case missing, one that is
> particularly useful for presentations, although not often necessary
> for articles say, namely a figure centred on a line without a caption
> and without floating.  This seemed to be present at some point in the
> past but has disappeared, unless I have misunderstood the state of
> play...
>
> Basically, I would like to do something like:
>
> ,----
> |   In a double pipe heat exchanger,
> | 
> |   [[file:images/double-pipe-heat-exchanger.png]]
> | 
> |   the heat transfer etc. ad nauseum...
> `----
>
> and have that figure centred on the line instead of left aligned as it
> would currently appear.
>
> If I add a #+label: the image does appear centred but as this is done
> by using a latex figure environment, a Figure: caption (empty) is
> added which isn't particularly useful in this case!
>
> There *is* a solution, but it's a bit messy, e.g.:
>
> ,----
> | 
> | \hfill
> | #+attr_latex: width=0.6\textwidth
> | [[file:images/double-pipe-heat-exchanger.png]]
> | \hspace*{\fill} \\
> | 
> `----
>
> By the way, an \hfill at the end is not sufficient to centre the image.
>
> I have no solution to propose for incorporating something like this
> into org-mode other than possibly making use of a placement=centre
> (oops, center if you prefer american spelling) option on attr_latex
> which would put the includegraphics within a \centerline or \centering
> environment.

I've only used Beamer a few times, but I use the "center" environment to
center images. Could you perhaps use the following?

,----
| In a double pipe heat exchanger,
| 
| #+begin_center
| [[file:images/double-pipe-heat-exchanger.png]]
| #+end_center
|  
| the heat transfer etc. ad nauseum...
`----

Best,
Matt

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Eric S Fraga]

At Sun, 22 Nov 2009 10:29:47 -0500,
Matt Lundin wrote:

[...]

> I've only used Beamer a few times, but I use the "center" environment to
> center images. Could you perhaps use the following?
> 
> ,----
> | In a double pipe heat exchanger,
> | 
> | #+begin_center
> | [[file:images/double-pipe-heat-exchanger.png]]
> | #+end_center
> |  
> | the heat transfer etc. ad nauseum...
> `----
> 
> Best,
> Matt

Excellent suggestion!  I didn't know about begin_center (sigh).  I
think this will work well in general.  

There is one case where it won't and that's within a list as the latex
generated is wrong in the same way it is for a figure environment
within a list (cf. the message earlier today from me).

Many thanks,
eric

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Carsten Dominik]

Hi Eric,

I am now getting interested in beamer support.  I think this is  
interesting enough to implement special support for making beamer  
slides.

Can I ask you to think about it in general terms, what would be useful  
to have?

One of the problems with your most recent solution for the columns  
problem is that the document no longer exports really well to a normal  
LaTeX document - or is this no issue because beamer has its own way to  
produce handouts, so that the LaTeX export of a document intended for  
beamer is not so interesting?

But also in a broader sense:  What would be useful?  I think making  
slides in this way, through org, could be extremely fast and useful.

- Carsten


On Nov 22, 2009, at 4:15 PM, Eric S Fraga wrote:

>> At Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:34:18 +0100,
>> Carsten Dominik wrote:
>
>>> Anything missing in Org that we should implement to support this
>>> better?
>
> Actually, going through the set of lectures I am currently preparing,
> I am finding that there is one thing missing that I haven't needed
> before in latex export: the ability to centre a figure without having
> to use a float environment.
>
> Back in September, early October, there was a thread about image
> placement in latex export:
>
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/18174/
>
> There was a number of use cases discussed: inline placement versus
> float placement.  There is one use case missing, one that is
> particularly useful for presentations, although not often necessary
> for articles say, namely a figure centred on a line without a caption
> and without floating.  This seemed to be present at some point in the
> past but has disappeared, unless I have misunderstood the state of
> play...
>
> Basically, I would like to do something like:
>
> ,----
> |   In a double pipe heat exchanger,
> |
> |   [[file:images/double-pipe-heat-exchanger.png]]
> |
> |   the heat transfer etc. ad nauseum...
> `----
>
> and have that figure centred on the line instead of left aligned as it
> would currently appear.
>
> If I add a #+label: the image does appear centred but as this is done
> by using a latex figure environment, a Figure: caption (empty) is
> added which isn't particularly useful in this case!
>
> There *is* a solution, but it's a bit messy, e.g.:
>
> ,----
> |
> | \hfill
> | #+attr_latex: width=0.6\textwidth
> | [[file:images/double-pipe-heat-exchanger.png]]
> | \hspace*{\fill} \\
> |
> `----
>
> By the way, an \hfill at the end is not sufficient to centre the  
> image.
>
> I have no solution to propose for incorporating something like this
> into org-mode other than possibly making use of a placement=centre
> (oops, center if you prefer american spelling) option on attr_latex
> which would put the includegraphics within a \centerline or \centering
> environment.
>
> Thanks,
> eric

- Carsten

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Eric S Fraga]

At Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:55:53 +0100, Carsten Dominik wrote:
> 
> Hi Eric,
> 
> I am now getting interested in beamer support.  I think this is
> interesting enough to implement special support for making beamer
> slides.

Excellent!

> Can I ask you to think about it in general terms, what would be useful
> to have?

I've been using org-mode for my presentations for a few months now and
intensively the past week or so for a set of lectures (70+ slides) I
have to give starting tomorrow (yikes!  had better get them
finished...!).  It's working remarkably well.

Beamer has many many features and I think it would violate the ethos
of org-mode if we attempted to support the majority of them.  Although
I can suggest a number of features I think would be nice to support,
I'm sure others will have a different subset they think is
critical... however, I will give it a go:

1. being able to easily specify columns.  I've proposed a solution
   works well for me but it is a bit clumsy and does impose a meaning
   on the 3rd and 4th level headings.  This might conflict with other
   potential uses for these headings obviously (cf. next point). Also,
   please see my response to your comment on the impact of this on
   normal latex export below.  The nice thing about using headings to
   indicate columns is the ease with which the columns can be
   re-ordered.

2. it would be nice to support the block environment in beamer.  The
   obvious way would be to use 3rd level headings to indicate blocks.
   In my case, I use these less frequently than columns which is why I
   chose to use 3rd level headings to indicate columns.  However, a
   solution that catered for both would be great.

   one solution I am playing with, given that I often have blocks
   within columns, is to use the 5th level headings for block
   headings:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
   ("\\section{%s}" . "\\section*{%s}")
   ("\\begin{frame}\\frametitle{%s}" "\\end{frame}"
    "\\begin{frame}\\frametitle{%s}" "\\end{frame}")
   ("\\begin{columns} \% %s" "\\end{columns}"
    "\\begin{columns} \% %s" "\\end{columns}")
   ("\\begin{column}{%s\\textwidth}" "\\end{column}"
    "\\begin{column}{%s\\textwidth}" "\\end{column}")
   ("\\begin{block}{%s}" "\\end{block}"
    "\\begin{block}{%s}" "\\end{block}")
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

   For example, the following would generate a block within a full
   width column on the slide:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
*** Another slide
***** columns
******* 1.0
********* My proposition
	  - work better
	  - work faster
	  - have a life
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

   Although clumsy, it works!  (set H:5 of course)

3. support for animation, typically through the special <N> tags on
   items and blocks (and more generally on most latex environments),
   would be nice.  This can be used to selectively display different
   parts of a slide.  One way to implement this, at least for itemized
   lists, would be through a new bullet point syntax, as in:

   <1-> item to display from first virtual "slide" onwards
   <2-3> display on second and third views of the slide
   <-4> display up to 4th view
   
   which would translate to 

   \begin{itemize}
   \item<1-> item to display from first virtual "slide" onwards
   \item<2-3> display on second and third views of the slide
   \item<-4> display up to 4th view
   \end{itemize}

   I have no idea how hard it would be to incorporate this into the
   current list handling however... although I can imagine it could be
   quite difficult.

4. as already mentioned in another email, passing arguments to the
   frame environment would also be quite useful.  This could be done
   with an attribute type of framework as done for figures and
   tables.  I don't use many options to frame but I do find the need
   to use [shrink=20] or similar often (because my default font
   setting for beamer is "bigger" and so slides with more than a few
   bullet points or equations quickly overflow the slide).

5. finally, I use tikz a great deal in my presentations.  However,
   this is probably best handled by the normal embedded latex features
   already present.

Again, this list is based on the features I find I use in beamer and
others will have other requirements unfortunately.

> One of the problems with your most recent solution for the columns
> problem is that the document no longer exports really well to a normal
> LaTeX document - or is this no issue because beamer has its own way to
> produce handouts, so that the LaTeX export of a document intended for
> beamer is not so interesting?

Yes, beamer provides a very nice handout mode (option "handout" to the
beamer document class).

> But also in a broader sense:  What would be useful?  I think making
> slides in this way, through org, could be extremely fast and useful.

It is indeed fast and very useful.  It's made preparing my slides much
less painful and almost a pleasure, especially the ease with which I
can now change the order of my presentation etc!  But I should say
that, for pedagogical reasons, I purposely keep my slides quite
simple as much as possible.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with!  I'm happy to send you
examples of both beamer and org-mode->beamer that I have prepared for
seminars and teaching.  Let me know.

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Daniel Martins]

Eric listed all (or almost all) "requirements" for exporting Beamer.

Some of the mI encountered a few days ago. I decided to export the
lists into latex and then converting by hand  the rest of the
presentation.

I am also very happy that "Beamer" is becoming an official directive
of org-mode.
Carsten converted us to org-mode and we converted him to Beamer!

Daniel

2009/11/23 Eric S Fraga <ucecesf@ucl.ac.uk>:
> At Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:55:53 +0100, Carsten Dominik wrote:
>>
>> Hi Eric,
>>
>> I am now getting interested in beamer support.  I think this is
>> interesting enough to implement special support for making beamer
>> slides.
>
> Excellent!
>
>> Can I ask you to think about it in general terms, what would be useful
>> to have?
>
> I've been using org-mode for my presentations for a few months now and
> intensively the past week or so for a set of lectures (70+ slides) I
> have to give starting tomorrow (yikes!  had better get them
> finished...!).  It's working remarkably well.
>
> Beamer has many many features and I think it would violate the ethos
> of org-mode if we attempted to support the majority of them.  Although
> I can suggest a number of features I think would be nice to support,
> I'm sure others will have a different subset they think is
> critical... however, I will give it a go:
>
> 1. being able to easily specify columns.  I've proposed a solution
>   works well for me but it is a bit clumsy and does impose a meaning
>   on the 3rd and 4th level headings.  This might conflict with other
>   potential uses for these headings obviously (cf. next point). Also,
>   please see my response to your comment on the impact of this on
>   normal latex export below.  The nice thing about using headings to
>   indicate columns is the ease with which the columns can be
>   re-ordered.
>
> 2. it would be nice to support the block environment in beamer.  The
>   obvious way would be to use 3rd level headings to indicate blocks.
>   In my case, I use these less frequently than columns which is why I
>   chose to use 3rd level headings to indicate columns.  However, a
>   solution that catered for both would be great.
>
>   one solution I am playing with, given that I often have blocks
>   within columns, is to use the 5th level headings for block
>   headings:
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>   ("\\section{%s}" . "\\section*{%s}")
>   ("\\begin{frame}\\frametitle{%s}" "\\end{frame}"
>    "\\begin{frame}\\frametitle{%s}" "\\end{frame}")
>   ("\\begin{columns} \% %s" "\\end{columns}"
>    "\\begin{columns} \% %s" "\\end{columns}")
>   ("\\begin{column}{%s\\textwidth}" "\\end{column}"
>    "\\begin{column}{%s\\textwidth}" "\\end{column}")
>   ("\\begin{block}{%s}" "\\end{block}"
>    "\\begin{block}{%s}" "\\end{block}")
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
>   For example, the following would generate a block within a full
>   width column on the slide:
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> *** Another slide
> ***** columns
> ******* 1.0
> ********* My proposition
>          - work better
>          - work faster
>          - have a life
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
>   Although clumsy, it works!  (set H:5 of course)
>
> 3. support for animation, typically through the special <N> tags on
>   items and blocks (and more generally on most latex environments),
>   would be nice.  This can be used to selectively display different
>   parts of a slide.  One way to implement this, at least for itemized
>   lists, would be through a new bullet point syntax, as in:
>
>   <1-> item to display from first virtual "slide" onwards
>   <2-3> display on second and third views of the slide
>   <-4> display up to 4th view
>
>   which would translate to
>
>   \begin{itemize}
>   \item<1-> item to display from first virtual "slide" onwards
>   \item<2-3> display on second and third views of the slide
>   \item<-4> display up to 4th view
>   \end{itemize}
>
>   I have no idea how hard it would be to incorporate this into the
>   current list handling however... although I can imagine it could be
>   quite difficult.
>
> 4. as already mentioned in another email, passing arguments to the
>   frame environment would also be quite useful.  This could be done
>   with an attribute type of framework as done for figures and
>   tables.  I don't use many options to frame but I do find the need
>   to use [shrink=20] or similar often (because my default font
>   setting for beamer is "bigger" and so slides with more than a few
>   bullet points or equations quickly overflow the slide).
>
> 5. finally, I use tikz a great deal in my presentations.  However,
>   this is probably best handled by the normal embedded latex features
>   already present.
>
> Again, this list is based on the features I find I use in beamer and
> others will have other requirements unfortunately.
>
>> One of the problems with your most recent solution for the columns
>> problem is that the document no longer exports really well to a normal
>> LaTeX document - or is this no issue because beamer has its own way to
>> produce handouts, so that the LaTeX export of a document intended for
>> beamer is not so interesting?
>
> Yes, beamer provides a very nice handout mode (option "handout" to the
> beamer document class).
>
>> But also in a broader sense:  What would be useful?  I think making
>> slides in this way, through org, could be extremely fast and useful.
>
> It is indeed fast and very useful.  It's made preparing my slides much
> less painful and almost a pleasure, especially the ease with which I
> can now change the order of my presentation etc!  But I should say
> that, for pedagogical reasons, I purposely keep my slides quite
> simple as much as possible.
>
> I look forward to seeing what you come up with!  I'm happy to send you
> examples of both beamer and org-mode->beamer that I have prepared for
> seminars and teaching.  Let me know.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
> Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode
>

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Carsten Dominik]

On Nov 23, 2009, at 11:15 PM, Eric S Fraga wrote:

> At Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:55:53 +0100, Carsten Dominik wrote:
>>
>> Hi Eric,
>>
>> I am now getting interested in beamer support.  I think this is
>> interesting enough to implement special support for making beamer
>> slides.
>
> Excellent!
>
>> Can I ask you to think about it in general terms, what would be  
>> useful
>> to have?
>
> I've been using org-mode for my presentations for a few months now and
> intensively the past week or so for a set of lectures (70+ slides) I
> have to give starting tomorrow (yikes!  had better get them
> finished...!).  It's working remarkably well.
>
> Beamer has many many features and I think it would violate the ethos

:-)

> of org-mode if we attempted to support the majority of them.  Although
> I can suggest a number of features I think would be nice to support,
> I'm sure others will have a different subset they think is
> critical... however, I will give it a go:
>
> 1. being able to easily specify columns.  I've proposed a solution
>  works well for me but it is a bit clumsy and does impose a meaning
>  on the 3rd and 4th level headings.  This might conflict with other
>  potential uses for these headings obviously (cf. next point). Also,
>  please see my response to your comment on the impact of this on
>  normal latex export below.  The nice thing about using headings to
>  indicate columns is the ease with which the columns can be
>  re-ordered.
>
> 2. it would be nice to support the block environment in beamer.

The problem I see here is that one might want to have blocks inside
a column, and maybe columns inside blocks.  Is both
allowed/practical/often-used?

> The
>  obvious way would be to use 3rd level headings to indicate blocks.
>  In my case, I use these less frequently than columns which is why I
>  chose to use 3rd level headings to indicate columns.  However, a
>  solution that catered for both would be great.
>
>  one solution I am playing with, given that I often have blocks
>  within columns, is to use the 5th level headings for block
>  headings:
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>  ("\\section{%s}" . "\\section*{%s}")
>  ("\\begin{frame}\\frametitle{%s}" "\\end{frame}"
>   "\\begin{frame}\\frametitle{%s}" "\\end{frame}")
>  ("\\begin{columns} \% %s" "\\end{columns}"
>   "\\begin{columns} \% %s" "\\end{columns}")
>  ("\\begin{column}{%s\\textwidth}" "\\end{column}"
>   "\\begin{column}{%s\\textwidth}" "\\end{column}")
>  ("\\begin{block}{%s}" "\\end{block}"
>   "\\begin{block}{%s}" "\\end{block}")
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
>  For example, the following would generate a block within a full
>  width column on the slide:
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> *** Another slide
> ***** columns
> ******* 1.0
> ********* My proposition
> 	  - work better
> 	  - work faster
> 	  - have a life
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
>  Although clumsy, it works!  (set H:5 of course)
>
> 3. support for animation, typically through the special <N> tags on
>  items and blocks (and more generally on most latex environments),
>  would be nice.  This can be used to selectively display different
>  parts of a slide.  One way to implement this, at least for itemized
>  lists, would be through a new bullet point syntax, as in:
>
>  <1-> item to display from first virtual "slide" onwards
>  <2-3> display on second and third views of the slide
>  <-4> display up to 4th view
>
>  which would translate to
>
>  \begin{itemize}
>  \item<1-> item to display from first virtual "slide" onwards
>  \item<2-3> display on second and third views of the slide
>  \item<-4> display up to 4th view
>  \end{itemize}
>
>  I have no idea how hard it would be to incorporate this into the
>  current list handling however... although I can imagine it could be
>  quite difficult.

I think you can just write

   - <1-> item to display from first virtual "slide" onwards
   - <2-3> display on second and third views of the slide
   - <-4> display up to 4th view

Beamer seems to allow a space between \item and the animation
specification.  But maybe we should allow the itemize environment
to be fitted with the cookie to invoke default animation...

> 4. as already mentioned in another email, passing arguments to the
>  frame environment would also be quite useful.  This could be done
>  with an attribute type of framework as done for figures and
>  tables.  I don't use many options to frame but I do find the need
>  to use [shrink=20] or similar often (because my default font
>  setting for beamer is "bigger" and so slides with more than a few
>  bullet points or equations quickly overflow the slide).

Yes, I can see that this would be useful.

>
> 5. finally, I use tikz a great deal in my presentations.  However,
>  this is probably best handled by the normal embedded latex features
>  already present.
>
> Again, this list is based on the features I find I use in beamer and
> others will have other requirements unfortunately.
>
>> One of the problems with your most recent solution for the columns
>> problem is that the document no longer exports really well to a  
>> normal
>> LaTeX document - or is this no issue because beamer has its own way  
>> to
>> produce handouts, so that the LaTeX export of a document intended for
>> beamer is not so interesting?
>
> Yes, beamer provides a very nice handout mode (option "handout" to the
> beamer document class).


Is there also a way to add lots of additional text?  Text that will not
show up in the slides, but which will show up when creating handouts
or a different output mode?  For example, it could be nice to
create the slides and the syllabus from the same document...

>
>> But also in a broader sense:  What would be useful?  I think making
>> slides in this way, through org, could be extremely fast and useful.
>
> It is indeed fast and very useful.  It's made preparing my slides much
> less painful and almost a pleasure, especially the ease with which I
> can now change the order of my presentation etc!  But I should say
> that, for pedagogical reasons, I purposely keep my slides quite
> simple as much as possible.
>
> I look forward to seeing what you come up with!  I'm happy to send you
> examples of both beamer and org-mode->beamer that I have prepared for
> seminars and teaching.  Let me know.

Yes, please do that, it is always useful to look at a real world  
example.

- Carsten

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Eric S Fraga]

At Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:55:11 +0100,
Carsten Dominik wrote:

[...]

> > 2. it would be nice to support the block environment in beamer.
> 
> The problem I see here is that one might want to have blocks inside
> a column, and maybe columns inside blocks.  Is both
> allowed/practical/often-used?

I must admit that I have never tried columns within a block although I
guess this should work.  My view of blocks is that they are meant to
highlight a particular idea or concept and therefore I tend to have
small amounts of text or images within a block but, of course, others
may have different views on this.


[...]

> >  <1-> item to display from first virtual "slide" onwards
> >  <2-3> display on second and third views of the slide
> >  <-4> display up to 4th view
> >
> >  which would translate to
> >
> >  \begin{itemize}
> >  \item<1-> item to display from first virtual "slide" onwards
> >  \item<2-3> display on second and third views of the slide
> >  \item<-4> display up to 4th view
> >  \end{itemize}
> >
> >  I have no idea how hard it would be to incorporate this into the
> >  current list handling however... although I can imagine it could be
> >  quite difficult.
> 
> I think you can just write
> 
>   - <1-> item to display from first virtual "slide" onwards
>   - <2-3> display on second and third views of the slide
>   - <-4> display up to 4th view
> 
> Beamer seems to allow a space between \item and the animation
> specification.  But maybe we should allow the itemize environment
> to be fitted with the cookie to invoke default animation...

D'oh!  Of course.  Works like a charm!


[...]

> > Yes, beamer provides a very nice handout mode (option "handout" to the
> > beamer document class).
> 
> 
> Is there also a way to add lots of additional text?  Text that will not
> show up in the slides, but which will show up when creating handouts
> or a different output mode?  For example, it could be nice to
> create the slides and the syllabus from the same document...

You can specify, for specific frames, whether they should appear or
not in either beamer or handout modes and you can in fact specify
which parts of a frame (using visibility modifiers) will appear in
either case (although I must admit that I've never actually got this
to work properly despite following the beamer documentation).

Although it would indeed be nice to produce the slides and the
syllabus from the same document, I am not sure how to do this in
beamer, much less in org-mode!

> > I look forward to seeing what you come up with!  I'm happy to send you
> > examples of both beamer and org-mode->beamer that I have prepared for
> > seminars and teaching.  Let me know.
> 
> Yes, please do that, it is always useful to look at a real world
> example.

I'll send you some examples off list as I don't necessarily want them
disseminated widely.

Thanks,
eric

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Eric S Fraga]

Carsten,

I've thought of one more thing that would be useful in an org to
beamer exporter: beamer has the \alert{} command for highlighting text
in a slide.  It would be nice to have one or other of the *text* or
/text/ constructs in org translate to \alert{text}.  I can, of course,
type \alert{text} directly in the org file but this is less appealing.

I thought of redefining textbf to be alert but this screws up the rest
of beamer (e.g. it uses \textbf for slide headings depending on the
style used).

eric

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Carsten Dominik]

Hi Eric,

On Nov 24, 2009, at 9:49 AM, Eric S Fraga wrote:

> Carsten,
>
> I've thought of one more thing that would be useful in an org to
> beamer exporter: beamer has the \alert{} command for highlighting text
> in a slide.  It would be nice to have one or other of the *text* or
> /text/ constructs in org translate to \alert{text}.  I can, of course,
> type \alert{text} directly in the org file but this is less appealing.
>
> I thought of redefining textbf to be alert but this screws up the rest
> of beamer (e.g. it uses \textbf for slide headings depending on the
> style used).

Hmm, I think one would still like to be able to make text
bold and italic as well?  So I don't think one should use * or /.
How about the exclamation mark?

I guess the easiest would be to add to the two variables org-emphasis- 
alist
and org-export-emphasis-alist.

To the former your could add (maybe use other HTML tags)

    ("!" org-warning "<b>" "</b>")

and to the latter

    ("!" "\\alert{%s}" nil)

You might have to restart Emacs before these work.


HTH
- Carsten

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Eric S Fraga]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 3046 bytes --]

At Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:59:20 +0100,
Carsten Dominik wrote:

[...]

> 
> Hmm, I think one would still like to be able to make text
> bold and italic as well?  So I don't think one should use * or /.
> How about the exclamation mark?
> 
> I guess the easiest would be to add to the two variables org-emphasis- 
> alist
> and org-export-emphasis-alist.
> 
> To the former your could add (maybe use other HTML tags)
> 
>    ("!" org-warning "<b>" "</b>")
> 
> and to the latter
> 
>    ("!" "\\alert{%s}" nil)
> 
> You might have to restart Emacs before these work.

I've tried this (with org up to date as of an hour or so ago [Org-mode
version 6.33trans (release_6.33f.29.g5064)] and emacs 23.1.1) and it
doesn't work for me, having tried "!", ":" and "@" as possible markers
(and I'm leaning to the latter as the best choice to avoid confusion
with ends of sentences and because I don't have a lot of email
addresses in my slides... ;-).  

The display doesn't reflect the face to be used and the text goes
straight through upon export.  I have customised both variables
indicated and have looked at the code in org.el that handles this but
cannot figure out what is wrong.  Any suggestions?  Attached is my
beamer org test file.

My settings are:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
org-emphasis-alist is a variable defined in `org.el'.
Its value is shown below.

Documentation:
Special syntax for emphasized text.
Text starting and ending with a special character will be emphasized, for
example *bold*, _underlined_ and /italic/.  This variable sets the marker
characters, the face to be used by font-lock for highlighting in Org-mode
Emacs buffers, and the HTML tags to be used for this.
For LaTeX export, see the variable `org-export-latex-emphasis-alist'.
Use customize to modify this, or restart Emacs after changing it.

You can customize this variable.

Value: 
(("*" bold "<b>" "</b>")
 ("/" italic "<i>" "</i>")
 ("_" underline "<span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\">" "</span>")
 ("=" org-code "<code>" "</code>" verbatim)
 ("~" org-verbatim "<code>" "</code>" verbatim)
 ("+"
  (:strike-through t)
  "<del>" "</del>")
 ("@" bold "<b>" "</b>"))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
org-export-latex-emphasis-alist is a variable defined in `org-latex.el'.
Its value is 
(("*" "\\textbf{%s}" nil)
 ("/" "\\emph{%s}" nil)
 ("_" "\\underline{%s}" nil)
 ("+" "\\texttt{%s}" nil)
 ("=" "\\verb=%s=" nil)
 ("~" "\\verb~%s~" t)
 ("@" "\\alert{%s}" nil))
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---


By the way, the second variable, org-export-latex-emphasis-alist, does
not appear in the possible variables to get help on (with C-h v)
unless I have given it a value.  It does, of course, appear in the
org-latex customisation group.  However, note the difference in the
output from C-h v for these two variables.  Maybe this gives some hint
of what may be wrong?  Dunno...

Thanks,
eric


[-- Attachment #2: beamertest.org --]
[-- Type: application/octet-stream, Size: 772 bytes --]

#+TITLE: Presentation with Org-Mode and Beamer 
#+AUTHOR:    Eric S Fraga
#+EMAIL:     Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk>
#+DATE:      2009-10-18 Sun
#+DESCRIPTION: 
#+KEYWORDS: 
#+LANGUAGE:  en
#+OPTIONS:   H:5 num:t toc:t \n:nil @:t ::t |:t ^:t -:t f:t *:t <:t
#+OPTIONS:   TeX:t LaTeX:t skip:nil d:nil todo:t pri:nil tags:not-in-toc
#+INFOJS_OPT: view:nil toc:nil ltoc:t mouse:underline buttons:0 path:http://orgmode.org/org-info.js
#+EXPORT_SELECT_TAGS: export
#+EXPORT_EXCLUDE_TAGS: noexport
#+LINK_UP:   
#+LINK_HOME: 

#+LaTeX_CLASS: beamer 

* Introduction
*** The first point
1. <1-> I would like to say this @emphatically@.
2. <2-> and this but in *bold*.
3. <3-> but also this /emphasised/.
*** the second
* The guts of the presentation
*** and more
*** and less

[-- Attachment #3: Type: text/plain, Size: 201 bytes --]

_______________________________________________
Emacs-orgmode mailing list
Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Carsten Dominik]

Hi Eric,

tis works just fine for me.

Here are the values of the two variables:

org-emphasis-alist is a variable defined in `org.el'.
Its value is
(("*" bold "<b>" "</b>")
  ("/" italic "<i>" "</i>")
  ("_" underline "<span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\">" "</ 
span>")
  ("=" org-code "<code>" "</code>" verbatim)
  ("~" org-verbatim "<code>" "</code>" verbatim)
  (";" org-verbatim "<i>" "</i>" verbatim)
  ("@" org-warning "<b>" "</b>"))


org-export-latex-emphasis-alist is a variable defined in `org-latex.el'.
Its value is
(("*" "\\textbf{%s}" nil)
  ("/" "\\emph{%s}" nil)
  ("_" "\\underline{%s}" nil)
  ("+" "\\st{%s}" nil)
  ("=" "\\verb" t)
  ("~" "\\verb" t)
  ("@" "\\alert{%s}" nil))

org-export-latex-emphasise-alist if available for C-h v only after otg- 
latex.el has been loaded.

HTH

- Carsten

On Nov 24, 2009, at 7:02 PM, Eric S Fraga wrote:

> At Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:59:20 +0100,
> Carsten Dominik wrote:
>
> [...]
>
>>
>> Hmm, I think one would still like to be able to make text
>> bold and italic as well?  So I don't think one should use * or /.
>> How about the exclamation mark?
>>
>> I guess the easiest would be to add to the two variables org- 
>> emphasis-
>> alist
>> and org-export-emphasis-alist.
>>
>> To the former your could add (maybe use other HTML tags)
>>
>>   ("!" org-warning "<b>" "</b>")
>>
>> and to the latter
>>
>>   ("!" "\\alert{%s}" nil)
>>
>> You might have to restart Emacs before these work.
>
> I've tried this (with org up to date as of an hour or so ago [Org-mode
> version 6.33trans (release_6.33f.29.g5064)] and emacs 23.1.1) and it
> doesn't work for me, having tried "!", ":" and "@" as possible markers
> (and I'm leaning to the latter as the best choice to avoid confusion
> with ends of sentences and because I don't have a lot of email
> addresses in my slides... ;-).
>
> The display doesn't reflect the face to be used and the text goes
> straight through upon export.  I have customised both variables
> indicated and have looked at the code in org.el that handles this but
> cannot figure out what is wrong.  Any suggestions?  Attached is my
> beamer org test file.
>
> By the way, the second variable, org-export-latex-emphasis-alist, does
> not appear in the possible variables to get help on (with C-h v)
> unless I have given it a value.  It does, of course, appear in the
> org-latex customisation group.  However, note the difference in the
> output from C-h v for these two variables.  Maybe this gives some hint
> of what may be wrong?  Dunno...
>
> Thanks,
> eric
>
> <beamertest.org>

- Carsten

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Eric S Fraga]

At Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:28:36 +0100,
Carsten Dominik wrote:
> 
> Hi Eric,
> 
> tis works just fine for me.
> 
> Here are the values of the two variables:
> 
> org-emphasis-alist is a variable defined in `org.el'.
> Its value is
> (("*" bold "<b>" "</b>")
>  ("/" italic "<i>" "</i>")
>  ("_" underline "<span style=\"text-decoration:underline;\">" "</
> span>")
>  ("=" org-code "<code>" "</code>" verbatim)
>  ("~" org-verbatim "<code>" "</code>" verbatim)
>  (";" org-verbatim "<i>" "</i>" verbatim)
>  ("@" org-warning "<b>" "</b>"))
> 
> 
> org-export-latex-emphasis-alist is a variable defined in `org-latex.el'.
> Its value is
> (("*" "\\textbf{%s}" nil)
>  ("/" "\\emph{%s}" nil)
>  ("_" "\\underline{%s}" nil)
>  ("+" "\\st{%s}" nil)
>  ("=" "\\verb" t)
>  ("~" "\\verb" t)
>  ("@" "\\alert{%s}" nil))

These are (approximately: without the ";" entry and with bold instead
of org-warning for "@" in first list) what I have but it's not working
for me (org up to date as of this morning).  The @text@ does not show
up bold in my emacs window for some reason (and the export still
doesn't convert the "@" sign).

Can you please suggest how I might debug this?  It would seem to be
something in my configuration and I can start doing a pruning or
divide-and-conquer type of approach but my emacs initialisation is
rather complex so if any other approach for debugging is available,
that would be good.

Thanks,
eric

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Eric S Fraga]

At Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:28:36 +0100,
Carsten Dominik wrote:
> 
> Hi Eric,
> 
> tis works just fine for me.
> 
> Here are the values of the two variables:
> 
> org-emphasis-alist is a variable defined in `org.el'.
> org-export-latex-emphasis-alist  [...]

Carsten,

I am puzzled.  I can get this to work (and it works very well indeed)
but only if I set these variables through the customisation interface
in Emacs (custom-set-variables) and not if I setq them after loading
the packages as I normally do.  No other variables in org-mode give me
this behaviour.

I haven't yet tried seeing if both variables have to be set through
custom-set-variables or only one of them but will try that later.

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Carsten Dominik]

On Nov 25, 2009, at 7:03 PM, Eric S Fraga wrote:

> At Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:28:36 +0100,
> Carsten Dominik wrote:
>>
>> Hi Eric,
>>
>> tis works just fine for me.
>>
>> Here are the values of the two variables:
>>
>> org-emphasis-alist is a variable defined in `org.el'.
>> org-export-latex-emphasis-alist  [...]
>
> Carsten,
>
> I am puzzled.  I can get this to work (and it works very well indeed)
> but only if I set these variables through the customisation interface
> in Emacs (custom-set-variables) and not if I setq them after loading
> the packages as I normally do.  No other variables in org-mode give me
> this behaviour.
>
> I haven't yet tried seeing if both variables have to be set through
> custom-set-variables or only one of them but will try that later.

Hi Eric,

I wrote in my reply that a restart of Emacs is necessary to make the  
work.
The reason is that the information in these variables must be  
converted into  complicated regexp, and that only happens if you do it  
through customize
(which sets the variable and then calls a hook to do the necessary  
updates),
or if you set the variables in Lisp *before* org.el is loaded.

The docstring of org-emphasis-alist says:

"Use customize to modify this, or restart Emacs after changing it."

If that is not clear enough, what should I write there?

- Carsten

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Eric S Fraga]

At Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:25:21 +0100,
Carsten Dominik wrote:

> On Nov 25, 2009, at 7:03 PM, Eric S Fraga wrote:
> 
> > Carsten,
> >
> > I am puzzled.  I can get this to work (and it works very well indeed)
> > but only if I set these variables through the customisation interface
> > in Emacs (custom-set-variables) and not if I setq them after loading
> > the packages as I normally do.  No other variables in org-mode give me
> > this behaviour.
> >
> > I haven't yet tried seeing if both variables have to be set through
> > custom-set-variables or only one of them but will try that later.
> 
> Hi Eric,
> 
> I wrote in my reply that a restart of Emacs is necessary to make the
> work.
> The reason is that the information in these variables must be
> converted into  complicated regexp, and that only happens if you do it
> through customize
> (which sets the variable and then calls a hook to do the necessary
> updates),
> or if you set the variables in Lisp *before* org.el is loaded.
> 
> The docstring of org-emphasis-alist says:
> 
> "Use customize to modify this, or restart Emacs after changing it."
> 
> If that is not clear enough, what should I write there?
> 
> - Carsten
> 

This is all perfectly clear: I did restart emacs (several times) after
putting in the setq commands to set those variables.  

However, I guess the instructions you give are actually subtly
incorrect?  That is, from what you say above, using setq is not going
to work because that doesn't invoke any hooks for the particular
variables.  Therefore these variable must (?)  be set through
customize?  Or is there some way to invoke, automatically, the hooks
when setting a variable directly?  Probably not.

FYI, I am happy in principle to use customize but I don't use it in
general because I share my emacs configuration amongst a number of
machines and tend to use customize *only* for those variables that are
different on each system (e.g. only emacs 22 is available on my
internet table).  This makes it easy to have an almost consistent
environment regardless of the system I'm using.

Anyway, thanks again: using @text@ now works very nicely both in org
mode and in the export!

eric

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Carsten Dominik]

On Nov 26, 2009, at 9:16 AM, Eric S Fraga wrote:

> At Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:25:21 +0100,
> Carsten Dominik wrote:
>
>> On Nov 25, 2009, at 7:03 PM, Eric S Fraga wrote:
>>
>>> Carsten,
>>>
>>> I am puzzled.  I can get this to work (and it works very well  
>>> indeed)
>>> but only if I set these variables through the customisation  
>>> interface
>>> in Emacs (custom-set-variables) and not if I setq them after loading
>>> the packages as I normally do.  No other variables in org-mode  
>>> give me
>>> this behaviour.
>>>
>>> I haven't yet tried seeing if both variables have to be set through
>>> custom-set-variables or only one of them but will try that later.
>>
>> Hi Eric,
>>
>> I wrote in my reply that a restart of Emacs is necessary to make the
>> work.
>> The reason is that the information in these variables must be
>> converted into  complicated regexp, and that only happens if you do  
>> it
>> through customize
>> (which sets the variable and then calls a hook to do the necessary
>> updates),
>> or if you set the variables in Lisp *before* org.el is loaded.
>>
>> The docstring of org-emphasis-alist says:
>>
>> "Use customize to modify this, or restart Emacs after changing it."
>>
>> If that is not clear enough, what should I write there?
>>
>> - Carsten
>>
>
> This is all perfectly clear: I did restart emacs (several times) after
> putting in the setq commands to set those variables.
>
> However, I guess the instructions you give are actually subtly
> incorrect?  That is, from what you say above, using setq is not going
> to work because that doesn't invoke any hooks for the particular
> variables.  Therefore these variable must (?)  be set through
> customize?  Or is there some way to invoke, automatically, the hooks
> when setting a variable directly?  Probably not.

setq will work when you do it *before* loading org.el

- Carsten

>
> FYI, I am happy in principle to use customize but I don't use it in
> general because I share my emacs configuration amongst a number of
> machines and tend to use customize *only* for those variables that are
> different on each system (e.g. only emacs 22 is available on my
> internet table).  This makes it easy to have an almost consistent
> environment regardless of the system I'm using.
>
> Anyway, thanks again: using @text@ now works very nicely both in org
> mode and in the export!
>
> eric

- Carsten

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Eric S Fraga]

At Thu, 26 Nov 2009 10:05:06 +0100,
Carsten Dominik wrote:

[...]

> > However, I guess the instructions you give are actually subtly
> > incorrect?  That is, from what you say above, using setq is not going
> > to work because that doesn't invoke any hooks for the particular
> > variables.  Therefore these variable must (?)  be set through
> > customize?  Or is there some way to invoke, automatically, the hooks
> > when setting a variable directly?  Probably not.
> 
> setq will work when you do it *before* loading org.el

Ah ha!  Does this apply to all the variables?  That is, are there some
that need to be defined after loading org.el?  

I've always been a bit confused as to how and when variables can be
manipulated...  I guess it comes down to all these variables being
global in scope.

Anyway, setting the variables before loading org does indeed do what I
want.  My lecture slides now look as they should!  Thanks again and
sorry for the noise!

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Sébastien Vauban]

Hi Eric and Carsten,

Eric S Fraga wrote:
> At Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:34:18 +0100, Carsten Dominik wrote:
>> 
>> Anything missing in Org that we should implement to support this better?
>
> At the moment, the only thing that is missing in org-mode to beamer is some
> way to specify arguments to the \frame command, options such as
> [shrink] or [t]. At the moment, there is no mechanism that supports
> this.  Something like attr_frame may be necessary just as we do with
> figures.

I think another needed feature is for source code insertion. Then, one needs
to set the frames as "fragile". This could be best supported on a frame per
frame basis.

For the rest, I'm more than glad that Beamer will become an "official" target
for Org. This is clearly wonderful.

Best regards,
  Seb

-- 
Sébastien Vauban



_______________________________________________
Emacs-orgmode mailing list
Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
Emacs-orgmode-mXXj517/zsQ@public.gmane.org
http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Thomas S. Dye]

On Nov 21, 2009, at 2:49 AM, Eric S Fraga wrote:

> Recently, in September, there was a discussion about exporting org
> files to latex using the beamer class and generating slides with
> multiple columns:
>
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/17546
>
> No solution was presented at that time but I think I've managed to
> create one that is quite reasonable.  I define a beamer entry in
> org-export-latex-classes which has the following definitions for the
> different headings in an org-mode file:
>
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> 	 ("\\section{%s}" . "\\section*{%s}")
> 	 ("\\begin{frame}\\frametitle{%s}" "\\end{frame}"
> 	  "\\begin{frame}\\frametitle{%s}" "\\end{frame}")
> 	 ("\\begin{columns} \% %s" "\\end{columns}"
> 	  "\\begin{columns} \% %s" "\\end{columns}")
> 	 ("\\begin{column}{%s\\textwidth}" "\\end{column}"
> 	  "\\begin{column}{%s\\textwidth}" "\\end{column}")
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
>
> Then, if I have a 3rd level heading (whose actual text is ignored),
> multiple columns mode is entered and the level 4 headings indicate the
> widths (relative to \textwidth although obviously one could generalise
> this) of each subsequent column.
>
> *Note*: for this to work, you have to specify H:4 in the document
> OPTIONS or else the 4th level headings are turned into items in an
> itemized list.
>
> So, for instance, this will generate a slide with two columns of text
> (noting that I use odd levels only for my headings):
>
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> # -*- coding: utf-8; -*-
> #+TITLE:     Beamer column test
> #+AUTHOR:    Eric
> #+OPTIONS:   H:4 num:t toc:nil \n:nil @:t ::t |:t ^:t -:t f:t *:t <:t
> #+OPTIONS:   TeX:t LaTeX:t skip:nil d:nil todo:t pri:nil tags:not-in- 
> toc
> #+LaTeX_CLASS: beamer
>
> * Main heading
> *** An interesting slide
> ***** columns (this text is ignored)
> ******* 0.3
>      	- Some text on the left of the slide
>      	- make sure we have at least two bullet points
>      	- this is a narrow column
> ******* 0.7
>      	- text on the right side of the slide
>      	- and more
>      	- and even more
>      	- and this is a much wider column
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
>
> I can now create the slides for presentations and lectures completely
> within org-mode so I'm a very happy camper!
>
> eric
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Remember: use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
> Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode

Aloha Eric,

Thanks very much for this approach to creating beamer slides with  
columns.  The earlier discussion didn't come up with a solution at  
least partly because I was clinging to the notion that low-level  
headings, below the levels specified by the H option, should be used  
for itemized lists.  Once this mistaken assumption is abandoned, your  
solution becomes clear.

Nice!

All the best,
Tom

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Eric S Fraga]

At Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:33:52 -1000,
Thomas S. Dye wrote:
> 
> On Nov 21, 2009, at 2:49 AM, Eric S Fraga wrote:
> 
> > Recently, in September, there was a discussion about exporting org
> > files to latex using the beamer class and generating slides with
> > multiple columns:

[...]

> 
> Aloha Eric,
> 
> Thanks very much for this approach to creating beamer slides with
> columns.  The earlier discussion didn't come up with a solution at
> least partly because I was clinging to the notion that low-level
> headings, below the levels specified by the H option, should be used
> for itemized lists.  Once this mistaken assumption is abandoned, your
> solution becomes clear.
> 
> Nice!
> 
> All the best,
> Tom
> 

You're very welcome!  The solution was indeed easy once one gets past
the limitation of three levels only.  In my case, it was that I didn't
even realise that the exporter would convert lower level headings to
items!  I figured this out when I couldn't figure out why my 4th level
headings weren't initially being translated... :-)

Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Łukasz Stelmach]

Eric S Fraga <ucecesf@ucl.ac.uk> writes:

> Recently, in September, there was a discussion about exporting org
> files to latex using the beamer class and generating slides with
> multiple columns:
>
> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/17546
(...)
> So, for instance, this will generate a slide with two columns of text
> (noting that I use odd levels only for my headings):
>
>
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> # -*- coding: utf-8; -*-
> #+TITLE:     Beamer column test
> #+AUTHOR:    Eric
> #+OPTIONS:   H:4 num:t toc:nil \n:nil @:t ::t |:t ^:t -:t f:t *:t <:t
> #+OPTIONS:   TeX:t LaTeX:t skip:nil d:nil todo:t pri:nil tags:not-in-toc
> #+LaTeX_CLASS: beamer
>
> * Main heading
> *** An interesting slide
> ***** columns (this text is ignored)
> ******* 0.3
>       	- Some text on the left of the slide
>       	- make sure we have at least two bullet points
>       	- this is a narrow column
> ******* 0.7
>       	- text on the right side of the slide
>       	- and more
>       	- and even more
>       	- and this is a much wider column
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

I've just tried something simplier and IMHO more flexible (widths).

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
* The Title
** The Section
*** The Frame
#+latex: \begin{columns}[t]
#+latex: \column{.5\textwidth}
   - My point
   - Your point
#+latex: \column{.5\textwidth}
Conclusion
#+latex: \end{columns}
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Unfortunately the the plain list is not recognized and converted to
itemize. When I remove the "#+latex: \begin|end" stuff then the list
looks as it should.


-- 
Miłego dnia,
Łukasz Stelmach

Re: Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Eric S Fraga]

At Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:52:04 +0100,
Łukasz Stelmach wrote:
> 
> I've just tried something simplier and IMHO more flexible (widths).
> 
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> * The Title
> ** The Section
> *** The Frame
> #+latex: \begin{columns}[t]
> #+latex: \column{.5\textwidth}
>    - My point
>    - Your point
> #+latex: \column{.5\textwidth}
> Conclusion
> #+latex: \end{columns}
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> 
> Unfortunately the the plain list is not recognized and converted to
> itemize. When I remove the "#+latex: \begin|end" stuff then the list
> looks as it should.


(note that my response has probably been superseded by Carsten's
recent message regarding beamer support in org mode but this still
might be of some interest)


I am not sure what to say!  IMO, it's not simpler although I guess it
could be more flexible.  However, you say it doesn't work?

One alternative based on your approach is to define begin and end
commands for the columns environment that avoid using "\begin" and
"\end" which org interprets.  Maybe something like this:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
#+LaTeX_CLASS: beamer 

#+latex: \newcommand{\BC}{\begin{columns}[t]}
#+latex: \newcommand{\EC}{\end{columns}}

* The main section
*** An interesting slide
    \BC
    #+latex: \column{0.4\textwidth}
    - an item with enough text to show the width of the column
    - another item
    #+latex: \column{0.6\textwidth}
    - an item with enough text to show the width of the column
    - and yet another
    \EC
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

which appears to work just fine.  Whether it's simpler or not depends
on what you want.  I like using org headlines to be able to hide
individual columns and to be able to move them around easily.

Re: Re: latex export and beamer columns

[Darlan Cavalcante Moreira]

Maybe a simpler notation could be used instead direct latex since we are talking
about official support for beamer in org-mode. For instance

,----
| * Teste beamer: This is a Section
| *** Teste beamer: This is a Subsection
| ***** This is the frame title
|       Frame content
| 
| ***** This is the frame title of another frame
| #+\{0.4
|       - This is an item
|       - This is an item too
| #+\\0.6
|       - Another item
|       - Another one
|       - One more item
|         \note[item]{lala}
| #+\}
`----

The "#+\{" comment indicates the beginning of a columns environment and the
"0.4" the width (0.4\textwidth) of the first column. The "#+\\0.6" comment
creates another column and the "#+\}" comment closes the columns
environment. I'm not saying this is the best way, but IMHO this is better than
using #+latex commands directly, since beamer support in org-mode will be
official. Also, this will export nicely to standard latex and HTML. Using
"#+latex:" could cause problems when exporting to standard latex and using
headings as suggested in other E-mails here could me exporting to anything
different from beamer unnatural.

If this syntax or something similar is used, I'd like to request only two thinks
in addition:
  1) the items in the different columns should be exported to different
     itemize environments when exporting to standard latex (similarly to HTML). If
     they are exported to the same environment it can be confusing.
  2) It would be nice if the width could be optional. If there are columns whose
     width is not specified then org could sum the widths that were specified
     and distribute the remaining among the columns whose width is not
     specified. For instance, in a frame with 3 columns I could specify the
     width of one column as 0.4 and leave the others unspecified. Org should
     then choose a width of 0.3 for the remaining two columns.


- Darlan Cavalcante


At Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:25:19 +0000,
Eric S Fraga <ucecesf@ucl.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> At Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:52:04 +0100,
> Łukasz Stelmach wrote:
> > 
> > I've just tried something simplier and IMHO more flexible (widths).
> > 
> > --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> > * The Title
> > ** The Section
> > *** The Frame
> > #+latex: \begin{columns}[t]
> > #+latex: \column{.5\textwidth}
> >    - My point
> >    - Your point
> > #+latex: \column{.5\textwidth}
> > Conclusion
> > #+latex: \end{columns}
> > --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> > 
> > Unfortunately the the plain list is not recognized and converted to
> > itemize. When I remove the "#+latex: \begin|end" stuff then the list
> > looks as it should.
> 
> 
> (note that my response has probably been superseded by Carsten's
> recent message regarding beamer support in org mode but this still
> might be of some interest)
> 
> 
> I am not sure what to say!  IMO, it's not simpler although I guess it
> could be more flexible.  However, you say it doesn't work?
> 
> One alternative based on your approach is to define begin and end
> commands for the columns environment that avoid using "\begin" and
> "\end" which org interprets.  Maybe something like this:
> 
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> #+LaTeX_CLASS: beamer 
> 
> #+latex: \newcommand{\BC}{\begin{columns}[t]}
> #+latex: \newcommand{\EC}{\end{columns}}
> 
> * The main section
> *** An interesting slide
>     \BC
>     #+latex: \column{0.4\textwidth}
>     - an item with enough text to show the width of the column
>     - another item
>     #+latex: \column{0.6\textwidth}
>     - an item with enough text to show the width of the column
>     - and yet another
>     \EC
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
> 
> which appears to work just fine.  Whether it's simpler or not depends
> on what you want.  I like using org headlines to be able to hide
> individual columns and to be able to move them around easily.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
> Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode