Latex Beamer Madrid theme - how to get smoothbars in the footer not header?

Question

How do I create a custom beamer style where my header contains only the title of the slide, and my footer - the smoothbars "dots" style of how far the presentation has progressed, i.e.

(((TITLE)))

Frame content

(((what you get above the title if you use \useoutertheme[subsection=false]{smoothbars}, but I want it in the footer)))

I'm using Madrid as my basis style at the moment, but I'm happy to use another style if it can't be customized.

Answer 1

Starting from the Madrid theme, one could redefine the footline template (taking immediately into account to suppress the subsections, as it is possible to see from \useoutertheme[subsection=false]{smoothbars}).

Code:

\documentclass[compress]{beamer}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usetheme{Madrid}

\setbeamercolor{section in head/foot}{parent=palette quaternary}

\makeatletter
\setbeamertemplate{footline}
{%
\vskip-9ex%
\begin{beamercolorbox}{}
\hfill\usebeamercolor[fg]{navigation symbols dimmed}%
    \insertslidenavigationsymbol
    \insertframenavigationsymbol
    \insertsubsectionnavigationsymbol
    \insertsectionnavigationsymbol
    \insertdocnavigationsymbol
    \insertbackfindforwardnavigationsymbol
  \end{beamercolorbox}%    
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[ht=3ex,dp=4ex]{section in head/foot}%
    \insertnavigation{\paperwidth}
  \end{beamercolorbox}%
}%
\makeatother

\title{My title}
\author{My name}
\institute{My institute}

\begin{document}
\section{First section}
\subsection{a}
\begin{frame}{Title}
hello
\end{frame}
\subsection{b}
\begin{frame}{Another title}
hello
\end{frame}

\section{Second section}
\subsection{a}
\begin{frame}{Title}
hello
\end{frame}
\subsection{b}
\begin{frame}{Another title}
hello
\end{frame}
\end{document}

which gives: