problem with a beamer theme

Question

I like a lot the beamer theme "Air" (you can find it by the link "Nice Air based template for Latex" at the page http://www.kde.org/kdeslides/ ). But sometimes, in a slide, my text is a little too long, and if I could withdraw the air-header.png on the top, it could be nice. So, can you help me please? In fact, I think that the best idea is to modify the beamerthemeAir.sty, with the part:

\setbeamertemplate{headline}
{
  \pgfuseimage{air-header}
  \vskip -1.95cm
  \linethickness{0.0pt}

  \framelatex{
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=\paperwidth,ht=0.3\beamer@headheight]{Title bar}
    \usebeamerfont{section in head/foot}%
    \insertsectionnavigationhorizontal{0pt}{\hskip0.22cm}{}%
  \end{beamercolorbox}}

  \framelatex{
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=\paperwidth,ht=0.7\beamer@headheight]{Title bar}
  \end{beamercolorbox}}
}

becoming optional, for example, it could appear only when the slide has a title whith a \frametitle. If you don't know, please say it to me, I will delete this part from the sty file.

Answer 1

As Paul Gaborit mentions in his comment, you can use the plain option for those frames (to effectively remove the headline and footline) or you can use the shrink option (this option will cause the text of the frame to be shrunk if it is too large to fit on the frame).

In the following example I show the same contents (taken from example-talk.tex) in three different frames with three settings; first, the default behaviour showing the blocks protruding; the second one shows the effect of the plain option, and the third one shows the effect of using the evil option shrink:

\documentclass[12pt]{beamer}
\usetheme{Air}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
  \frametitle{Prerequisites \& Goals}
  \framesubtitle{Knowledge is a brick wall that you raise line by line forever}
  \begin{block}{LaTeX}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item Obviously some basic LaTeX knowledge is necessary
    \item Some more features will be provided here
  \end{itemize}
  \end{block}

  \begin{block}{Beamer}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item You'll learn them by looking at this presentation source
  \end{itemize}
  \end{block}
  \begin{block}{Beamer}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item You'll learn them by looking at this presentation source
  \end{itemize}
  \end{block}

  \begin{block}{Goal}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item Learn how to make well structured slides
    \item Using a beautiful theme (congrats to the Oxygen team!)
    \item Take over the world
    \item Relax...
  \end{itemize}
  \end{block}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}[plain]
  \frametitle{Prerequisites \& Goals}
  \framesubtitle{Knowledge is a brick wall that you raise line by line forever}
  \begin{block}{LaTeX}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item Obviously some basic LaTeX knowledge is necessary
    \item Some more features will be provided here
  \end{itemize}
  \end{block}

  \begin{block}{Beamer}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item You'll learn them by looking at this presentation source
  \end{itemize}
  \end{block}
  \begin{block}{Beamer}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item You'll learn them by looking at this presentation source
  \end{itemize}
  \end{block}

  \begin{block}{Goal}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item Learn how to make well structured slides
    \item Using a beautiful theme (congrats to the Oxygen team!)
    \item Take over the world
    \item Relax...
  \end{itemize}
  \end{block}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}[shrink=10]
  \frametitle{Prerequisites \& Goals}
  \framesubtitle{Knowledge is a brick wall that you raise line by line forever}
  \begin{block}{LaTeX}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item Obviously some basic LaTeX knowledge is necessary
    \item Some more features will be provided here
  \end{itemize}
  \end{block}

  \begin{block}{Beamer}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item You'll learn them by looking at this presentation source
  \end{itemize}
  \end{block}
  \begin{block}{Beamer}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item You'll learn them by looking at this presentation source
  \end{itemize}
  \end{block}

  \begin{block}{Goal}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item Learn how to make well structured slides
    \item Using a beautiful theme (congrats to the Oxygen team!)
    \item Take over the world
    \item Relax...
  \end{itemize}
  \end{block}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

As a personal opinion, frames with too much text should be avoided (if possible); the best option is to distribute the material in such a way that it fits on the frame without any special treatment.