In Beamer, gray out \tableofcontents items already shown on previous frames

Question

I've got a motivation slide preceding my table of contents slide. So when I show the audience the structure of the remainder of my talk I'd like the \tableofcontents to show the motivation slide in gray. The motivation slide is not in the same section environment as the toc slide (and all the following slides).

Is there a way to do that?

Answer 1

If I understand the question correctly, \tableofcontents[currentsection] (Beamer User Guide, section 10.5) is critical here. The first two frames are shown below, the remaining two frames aren't really relevant.

\documentclass{beamer}

\usetheme{Warsaw}
\setbeamercovered{transparent}

\begin{document}

\section{Motivation} % may be removed, not sure if you really need a section for this or not.
\begin{frame}[plain] % could make it a normal frame, too.
Here's a motivation slide
\end{frame}


\section{Main Contents}
\begin{frame}{Outline}
  \tableofcontents[currentsection]
\end{frame}

\subsection{A Subsection}
\begin{frame}
Something for the subsection
\end{frame}

\subsection{Another Subsection}
\begin{frame}
Something for the next subsection
\end{frame}

\end{document}