Beamer custom sidebar with navigation within subsubsections

Question

I would like to add a left handed sidebar to my beamer presentation slides, however there are some specifics as to how I would like to do this:

• The sidebar would only be present on specified pages (the majority of slides will not have the sidebar)
• The side bar would not show navigation to any of the sections or subsections for the rest of the presentation, instead it would have links to a series of other slides that would all also have this sidebar.
• This sidebar would be able to be called multiple times in the presentation where it would follow the same format, but each time called it would be in a different place, referencing slides in that location.
• I don't want this to effect the top navigation bar at all
• Ideally, I would be putting everything that the side bar would be referring to in its own subsubsection, but not all subsubsections would have this sidebar

It might help to know what this is for; I want to create a sidebar that will show steps of how to solve a math problem, where the content in the main part of the slide is the specifics for the particular problem.

This is some code to provide something to work with:

\documentclass[14pt]{beamer}
\usetheme{Frankfurt}

\begin{document}
\section{Section 1}
\subsection{Section 1.1}
\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{1.1.1}
\end{frame}
\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{1.1.2}
\end{frame}
\subsection{Section 1.2}
\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{1.2.1}
\end{frame}
\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{1.2.2}
\end{frame}
\subsection{Section 1.3}
\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{1.3.1}
\end{frame}
\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{1.3.2}
\end{frame}

\section{Section 2}
\subsection{Section 2.1}
\subsubsection{Section 2.1.1}
\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{2.1.1 part A}
    This would be the start to the problem
\end{frame}
\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{2.1.1 part B}
    This would start the solution
\end{frame}
\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{2.1.1 part C}
    This would have the next step
\end{frame}
\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{2.1.1 part D}
    This next step process would continue here (and to further slides if needed)
\end{frame}

\subsection{Section 2.2}
\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{2.2.1}
\end{frame}
\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{2.2.2}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

Where in this document I would like to have the sidebar be in the subsubsection part of this document. This would be a customized sidebar, but first would just like to focus on getting it there.

Ideally, the sidebar in that subsubsection would have text that would link to the various slides in the subsubsection (but not necessarily all slides).

Answer 1

Your problem sounds too specific to me, that a automated solution would be worth it. So why not just add the menu you need manually. You just have to add labels to the frames you want to link to. Then you can link to them from wherever you want – like a custom sidebar menu for example.

\documentclass{beamer}

\begin{document}

\section{Section 2}
\subsection{Section 2.1}
\subsubsection{Section 2.1.1}
\begin{frame}[label=problem]{2.1.1 part A}
\begin{minipage}{0.25\linewidth}
    \footnotesize
    \begin{enumerate}
        \item \hyperlink{problem}{\textbf{Problem}}
        \item \hyperlink{solution}{Solution}
        \item \hyperlink{next}{Next Step}
    \end{enumerate}
\end{minipage}%
\begin{minipage}{0.75\linewidth}
    This would be the start to the problem
\end{minipage}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}[label=solution]{2.1.1 part B}
\begin{minipage}{0.25\linewidth}
    \footnotesize
    \begin{enumerate}
        \item \hyperlink{problem}{Problem}
        \item \hyperlink{solution}{\textbf{Solution}}
        \item \hyperlink{next}{Next Step}
    \end{enumerate}
\end{minipage}%
\begin{minipage}{0.75\linewidth}
    This would start the solution
\end{minipage}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}[label=next]{2.1.1 part C}
\begin{minipage}{0.25\linewidth}
    \footnotesize
    \begin{enumerate}
        \item \hyperlink{problem}{Problem}
        \item \hyperlink{solution}{Solution}
        \item \hyperlink{next}{\textbf{Next Step}}
    \end{enumerate}
\end{minipage}%
\begin{minipage}{0.75\linewidth}
    This would have the next step
\end{minipage}%
\end{frame}
\begin{frame}{2.1.1 part D}
    This next step process would continue here (and to further slides if needed)
\end{frame}

\subsection{Section 2.2}
\begin{frame}{2.2.1}
\end{frame}
\begin{frame}{2.2.2}
\end{frame}

\end{document}