Modify footer of slides

Question

I am editing a presentation with beamer, the theme is Boadilla:

\date{date}
\title[The title is quite quite quite quite quite quite long]{The title is quite quite quite quite quite quite long}
\author{My name}
\institute{My school}
\usetheme{Boadilla} 

There are several things I would like to change:

1) When I open the pdf file in "Slideshow" mode, the list of buttons on the right bottom is still visible, I don't think it is necessary, could anyone tell me how to remove it?

2) On the bottom, there are currently 3 parts. For the 1st part, My school is appended automatically after My name, is it possible to remove My school?

3) I don't think date is necessary, which is the 3rd part. Is it possible to just remove this part, so that I have more space for the title + page number? If it is not possible, I would prefer to put the name of Section at the 2nd part instead of the title, does anyone know how to do it?

Answer 1

You can redefine the footline template as defined by the infolines outer theme (internally used by the Boadilla theme); \setbeamertemplate{navigation symbols}{} will remove tha navigation symbols:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{Boadilla}

\makeatother
\setbeamertemplate{footline}
{
  \leavevmode%
  \hbox{%
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.4\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,center]{author in head/foot}%
    \usebeamerfont{author in head/foot}\insertshortauthor
  \end{beamercolorbox}%
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.6\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,center]{title in head/foot}%
    \usebeamerfont{title in head/foot}\insertshorttitle\hspace*{3em}
    \insertframenumber{} / \inserttotalframenumber\hspace*{1ex}
  \end{beamercolorbox}}%
  \vskip0pt%
}
\makeatletter
\setbeamertemplate{navigation symbols}{}

\date{date}
\title[The title is quite quite quite quite quite quite long]{The title is quite quite quite quite quite quite long}
\author{My name}
\institute{My school}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
\maketitle
\end{frame}

\end{document}

Answer 2

You could change the outer theme and use one with two parts, such as the split theme. Load it after loading Boadilla. The second line is for removing the navigation symbols:

\useoutertheme{split}
\setbeamertemplate{navigation symbols}{}

(My school) is gone, date is gone, two parts. Perhaps you just like to adjust the color later, if you don't like the white on black color introduced by split.