How can I stop \footcite from hijacking my beamer columns?

Question

I have prepared a beamer presentation for a seminar. I already have presented, but in trying to change traditionally-cited references (with a number superscript and the reference typesetted at the end of the presentation), I used biblatex's \footcite. Consider this frame snippet:

\documentclass[10pt]{beamer}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb}
\usepackage{colortbl}
\usepackage[spanish,es-tabla]{babel}  
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage[style=verbose,autocite=footnote,maxnames=10,babel=hyphen,hyperref=true,abbreviate=false,backend=biber,mcite]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{references.bib}

\usepackage{pgf}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{multirow}

\setlength{\columnsep}{.2cm}
\def\newblock{\hskip .11em plus .33em minus .07em}
\mode<presentation>
{
  \usetheme[width=4em]{PaloAlto}
  \usecolortheme{crane}
}
\title{Title}
\subtitle{Sub} 
\author[me]{me}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
  \titlepage
\end{frame}

    %%%%%%% MAIN CODE %%%%%%
\begin{frame}{The FDTD Method}
    \begin{columns}
        \begin{column}{0.4\textwidth}
          \begin{itemize}
              \item Discretization of both space and time by central differences.
                \item Yee Cell %\footcite{Taflove2000}. 
            \end{itemize}
        \end{column}

    \begin{column}{0.5\textwidth}
        \begin{figure}
          \centering
          \includegraphics[width=0.9\columnwidth]{some_figure}
          \caption{Unit Yee Cell.}
        \end{figure}
    \end{column}

    \end{columns}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

Put any PDF, PNG or JPG file named some_figure together with this .tex file. The content of the references.bib file (just to enable compilation) are:

@Book{Taflove2000,
    Day = {{30}},
    Edition = {{2nd}},
    Month = {{jun}},
    Publisher = {{Artech House Publishers}},
    author = {Taflove, Allen and Hagness, Susan C.},
    title = {{Computational Electrodynamics: The Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method}},
    year = {{2000}},
}

With the comment in place (that is, when not citing with \footcite) the second column containing the figure appears in the PDF output correctly. But, when the comment is removed, the citation appears at the footer of the frame, but the second column goes into oblivion along with the figure. Does anyone know how to solve this?

Answer 1

One can avoid the problem by using the \footnotemark-\footnotetext mechanism:

\begin{column}{0.4\textwidth}
  \begin{itemize}
    \item Discretization of both space and time by central differences.
    \item Yee Cell\footnotemark
  \end{itemize}
\end{column}
\footcitetext{Taflove2000}

However this poses another problem: the text of the footnote may go over the navigation symbols, so another adjustment suggested by lockstep is needed (see this answer): the following code should go in the preamble

\addtobeamertemplate{footnote}{\vspace{-6pt}\advance\hsize-0.5cm}{\vspace{6pt}}
\makeatletter
% Alternative A: footnote rule
\renewcommand*{\footnoterule}{\kern -3pt \hrule \@width 2in \kern 8.6pt}
% Alternative B: no footnote rule
% \renewcommand*{\footnoterule}{\kern 6pt}
\makeatother

Choose your pick. I've modified the code adding also something for reducing the text width for the footnotes, or they will go all the way to the margin.

There are some errors in your .bib entry:

@Book{Taflove2000,
    Day = {30},
    Edition = {2nd},
    Month = {jun},
    Publisher = {Artech House Publishers},
    author = {Taflove, Allen and Hagness, Susan C.},
    title = {{Computational Electrodynamics: The Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method}},
    year = {2000},
}

Too many braces: Biber and biblatex are not able to understand properly the data.

Answer 2

Here's a complete example incorporating the fixes proposed by egreg and me:

\documentclass[10pt]{beamer}

\usetheme[width=4em]{PaloAlto}
\usecolortheme{crane}

\addtobeamertemplate{footnote}{\vspace{-6pt}\advance\hsize-0.5cm}{\vspace{6pt}}
\makeatletter
% Alternative A: footnote rule
\renewcommand*{\footnoterule}{\kern -3pt \hrule \@width 2in \kern 8.6pt}
% Alternative B: no footnote rule
% \renewcommand*{\footnoterule}{\kern 6pt}
\makeatother

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[spanish,es-tabla]{babel}  
\usepackage[style=verbose,autocite=footnote]{biblatex}

\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@Book{Taflove2000,
    Day = {30},
    Edition = {2},
    Month = {jun},
    Publisher = {Artech House Publishers},
    author = {Taflove, Allen and Hagness, Susan C.},
    title = {Computational Electrodynamics: The Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method},
    year = {2000},
}
\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}{The FDTD Method}
  \begin{columns}
    \begin{column}{0.4\textwidth}
      \begin{itemize}
      \item Discretization of both space and time by central differences.
      \item Yee Cell.\footnotemark 
      \end{itemize}
    \end{column}

    \begin{column}{0.5\textwidth}
      \begin{figure}
      \centering
      \rule{0.9\columnwidth}{2cm}% placeholder for graphic
      \caption{Unit Yee Cell.}
      \end{figure}
    \end{column}
  \end{columns}
\footcitetext{Taflove2000}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

Answer 3

I found the solutions listed inadequate. When I used it, the numbering of the footnote was inconsistent with the bottom, and there is also the problem with multiple footnotes. A bit more googling (and Stack Exchange) allowed me to find the following solution:

\footnote[frame]{\fullcite{AlnaesBlechta2015a}}

Answer 4

You could make biblatex place its footnotes on the bottom of the frame like this:

\documentclass{beamer}

\usepackage[style=verbose,autocite=footnote,maxnames=10,babel=hyphen,hyperref=true,abbreviate=false,backend=biber,mcite]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\mode<presentation>
{
  \usetheme[width=4em]{PaloAlto}
  \usecolortheme{crane}
}

\makeatletter
\renewrobustcmd{\blx@mkbibfootnote}[2]{%
  \iftoggle{blx@footnote}
    {\blx@warning{Nested notes}%
     \addspace\mkbibparens{#2}}
    {\unspace
     \ifnum\blx@notetype=\tw@
       \expandafter\@firstoftwo
     \else
       \expandafter\@secondoftwo
     \fi
       {\csuse{blx@theendnote#1}{\protecting{\blxmkbibnote{end}{#2}}}}
       {\csuse{footnote}[frame]{\protecting{\blxmkbibnote{foot}{#2}}}}}}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
\frametitle{The FDTD Method}
    \begin{columns}
        \begin{column}{0.4\textwidth}
          \begin{itemize}
              \item Discretization of both space and time by central differences.
                \item Yee Cell \footcite{knuth:ct}. 
            \end{itemize}
        \end{column}

    \begin{column}{0.5\textwidth}
        \begin{figure}
          \centering
          \includegraphics[width=0.9\columnwidth]{example-image-duck}
          \caption{Unit Yee Cell.}
        \end{figure}
    \end{column}

    \end{columns}
\end{frame}

\end{document}