Presentation using LyX

Question

I want to create a presentation in LyX which can also be printed out as a 'manual'. I have seen reference to including the presentation file in a beamer article file. However, this seems to leave the 'slides' out of the printed doc. I would like to include the slides at the top of each page with additional notes below + additional pages with notes only. So I might have: page 2 = slide with notes underneath, page 3 = all notes, page 4 = slide with notes underneath etc. Power Point would call this 'notes view'. Is there an way I can produce this with existing classes in LyX or will I have to learn Latex.

Answer 1

Something like this?

This is the way in plain LaTeX:

\documentclass[notes,handout]{beamer}

% PREAMBLE 

\usetheme{Madrid} % optional
\setlength{\paperwidth}{12cm} % for the MWE only
\setlength{\paperheight}{9cm} % for the MWE only
\usepackage{pgfpages}
\pgfpagesuselayout{2 on 1}[border shrink=5mm]

% BODY DOCUMENT 

\begin{document}
\begin{frame}{Slide one}

\Huge Some issue 
    \begin{itemize}
        \item My first item
        \item Another item
    \end{itemize}

\note{ This are my notes about slide one
    \begin{itemize}
            \item Explain my first item
            \item Make a joke 
    \end{itemize}}

\end{frame}
\end{document}

To adapt the above to a LyX presentation:

1. Set the class options notes,handout in Document > Settings... > ... errh, well, the class options.

2. Copy the essential of the LaTeX preamble (pgfpages package and \pgfpagesuselayout command) in Document > Settings... > yes, the LaTeX preamble, you caught it!

3. In the main window, whitin a frame select NoteItem from the left dropdown menu (it should show "Note:" in red text) and write your notes.

Answer 2

I had to leave this issue a year ago and ploughed ahead using impress. I've now got another couple of manuals to write so I returned to it.

Editing the latex preamable to place two frames on one page and then following earch slide/frame with a NoteItem results in a page which superficially looks like a 'notes view' page from Impress or Power Point. However, there are a number of problems with this approach.

1) It forces two frames per page (obviously). This might appear to be viable when you simply require one frame/slide and one frame containing the noteitem. But frequently you want a full 'notes only' page. In this case forcing two frames per page means forcing two distinct NoteItems frames. Which in turn entails spilting your text over two separate noteitems 'boxes'. Really inelegant and inefficient from a work and content management perspective.

2) The two frames per page 'solution' also means that both the slide frames and the noteitems appear during the presentation. I can't find any easy or elegant way to restrict the presentation to just slide frames.

There is the often cited technique of embeding the presetation file within an article file. However this results in the output being formatted as a Beamer Article which in turn strips out all the slides and leaves you with a stream of well formatted text items.

This same problems arises if you try and use 'modes' to display different parts of the document depending on the class mode. As above, I can't get slide frames to appear in the output from an article document type and assume that changing this behavior would require significant changes to the Beamer Article class.

In practice Beamer appears to make the assumption that a document is either a presentation which is composed of slides or it is an article which is composed of a stream of text with accompanying diagrams, charts etc so you end of with an either/or choice where a presentation is a completely different beast to a 'handout' or 'article'. Whereas some of us see the handout as an extension and elaboration of the presentation.

In effect our handout is a complete manual of the course material containing slides, extensive lecture notes and practical exercises.This is what printing from 'notes view' allows us to do in Impress and Power Point. The problem is that Power Point drive you insane with printing inaccuracies and Impress only has a very basic outliner. LyX, with it's outliner and printing prowess would be a killer app' in this area.

However, I am currently forced to conclude that achieving the equiv of the 'notes view' of impress and Power Point is not readily achievable in LyX/Beamer and would be a non-trivial task to implement.

I'd be very happy for someone to tell me I'm wrong!