In beamer slide, view notes on computer only while presenting with a projector?

Question

Is is possible to make a PDF in Beamer such that notes are visible only on computer and not on the projector?

Answer 1

Only if your graphic card supports the two screen mode:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{pgfpages}
\setbeameroption{show notes}
\setbeameroption{show notes on second screen=right}

\begin{document}
\begin{frame}{The \texttt{\textbackslash note}-Macro}
\begin{itemize}[<+->]
\item normal text for the presentation.
\note<1-2>[item]{Say something to the audience!}
\item and text for the presentation.
\item foo
\end{itemize}
\note<2>{Another note for you!}
\end{frame}

\note[enumerate]{\item foo \item bar \item baz \item foobar}

\begin{frame}{second slide} 
foo 
\end{frame}
\end{document}

The image shows on the left the presentation and on the right your screen.

Answer 2

For those who use a Mac, here's a pretty useful application : SplitShow.

It does exactly what you want, you simply open your PDF presentation in it and it automatically displays your notes and the slides side by side, and most importantly you can go full-screen.

Answer 3

I haven't looked at SplitShow, but on Mac I found that the pdf viewer Skim can be useful. If you have two different pdf's with the same number of pages, you can put the main presentation on one screen and the notes on the other and enable a synchronized presentation mode.

See this guide for how to use beamer to create the two different pdf's.