Appearance of the name of the author in beamer

Question

I am using the theme CambridgeUS for a beamer presentation. I encounter the following problem. Here is my heading.

\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{CambridgeUS}

\title{Title of my talk}
\author{John Smith}
\date{April 12, 2047}

\begin{document}
\frame{\titlepage}
...

\end{document}

Now, LaTeX will print correctly "John Smith" as the name of the author on the first frame. It also appears at the bottom of every frame but then with "( )" after the name. I don't know how to get rid of those parentheses. Is there a way to do so?

Answer 1

Howdy those are the brackets for the short-institute which may be defined as follows:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{CambridgeUS}

\title{Title of my talk}
\author{John Smith}
\date{April 12, 2047}
\institute[short]{test}
\begin{document}
\frame{\titlepage }
\end{document}

To get rid of those brackets you need to alter the theme:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{CambridgeUS}
\makeatletter

\setbeamertemplate{footline}
{
  \leavevmode%
  \hbox{%
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.333333\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,center]{author in head/foot}%
    \usebeamerfont{author in head/foot}\insertshortauthor~~\beamer@ifempty{\insertshortinstitute}{}{\insertshortinstitute}
  \end{beamercolorbox}%
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.333333\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,center]{title in head/foot}%
    \usebeamerfont{title in head/foot}\insertshorttitle
  \end{beamercolorbox}%
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.333333\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,right]{date in head/foot}%
    \usebeamerfont{date in head/foot}\insertshortdate{}\hspace*{2em}
    \insertframenumber{} / \inserttotalframenumber\hspace*{2ex} 
  \end{beamercolorbox}}%
  \vskip0pt%
}
\makeatother

\title{Title of my talk}
\author{John Smith}
\date{April 12, 2047}
\institute[short]{test}
\begin{document}

\frame{\titlepage}
\end{document}

This is exactly the definition as found in beamerouterthemeinfolines.sty (which is used by CambridgeUS) minus the brackets. (If you don't want to display an institute just leave it blank)

Update 12/2012

There has been an update which automatically checks if \institute is used or not. So with newer beamer versions, there should be no brackets at all, as long nowhere \institute is called. Checked with version 3.24 A of the beamer class.

Answer 2

They are needed when you insert the name of the institute by means of \institute{}.

To get rid of them you can customize the infolines footline:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{CambridgeUS}

\title{Title of my talk}
\author{John Smith}
\date{April 12, 2047}


\setbeamertemplate{footline}{
  \leavevmode%
  \hbox{%
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.333333\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,center]{author in head/foot}%
    \usebeamerfont{author in head/foot}\insertshortauthor
  \end{beamercolorbox}%
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.333333\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,center]{title in head/foot}%
    \usebeamerfont{title in head/foot}\insertshorttitle
  \end{beamercolorbox}%
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.333333\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,right]{date in head/foot}%
    \usebeamerfont{date in head/foot}\insertshortdate{}\hspace*{2em}
    \insertframenumber{} / \inserttotalframenumber\hspace*{2ex} 
  \end{beamercolorbox}}%
  \vskip0pt%
}

\begin{document}

\section{First Section}
\subsection{A Subsection}

\begin{frame}{Hello First A}
hello
\end{frame}

In this way you get: