[PLUG] Two screen presentation software

[Rich Shepard]

On Sat, 8 Oct 2005, Keith Lofstrom wrote:

> One of the things I observed was the relentless sequential nature of a
> typical Powerpoint slide show performance; Jeff and his friend had their
> pitch rehearsed, and found it very difficult to change order in order to
> answer the VC's questions. I think some of that is the paradigm imposed on
> them by their software, which does not easily support skipping around.

Keith,

   I cannot comment on the dual nature of viewing different screens locally
and via the external projector; my notebooks display the same thing as they
push out the external monitor port. That written, I can offer what may be the
solution you seek: The "beamer" class in LaTeX/LyX. I use this for my
presentations (two in the past month) and it's the best computer-generated
slide preparation/display system I've used over the past dozen or so years.

   Ignoring the ease of preparation and control, as well as the typeset output
(particularly with math), I'll explain the ability to navigate among the
slides.

   The slides are compiled to PDF so any Adobe Reader can display them. I
create the presentations on my linux system and show them on the local
Microsoft system; transfer is via USB 'thumb' drive. This format also permits
me to send the slides as an e-mail attachment that anyone can view.

   Along the bottom of each slide are a series of very faint images. These are
used to navigate around the presentation. From the left to right they let the
presenter move back and forward by slide, frame, subsection, section, and
beginning/end. Putting acroread into full-screen display mode (ctrl-l), and
the cursor on the advance-one-slide icon, allows me to advance the display by
pressing the left mouse button. The cursor is invisible, but still positioned
in the proper place.

   If I had to navigate to a slide whose location I did not remember, I would
press ctrl-l to reduce the display size and expose the presentation layout tree
in Reader's separate frame on the left. Here is display the presentation
outline by section and subsection. Clicking on the appropriate heading
displays the appropriate slide. Full screen display can then be restored.

   It's a fabulous system, better than foil, prosper, seminar, and other LaTeX
slide classes. I'll send a copy of the presentation I gave to the BLM last
week to anyone who requests it (761K file) so you can see how easy it is to
navigate. Another great feature is that the outline is shown at the top of
each frame so the audience knows where you are in the context of the whole
presentation.

   As I wrote, it works great in LyX, too, which makes creating an application
very fast and convenient -- except for the thinking, of course. I've become a
very big fan of LaTeX/LyX. I use the Beamer class for slide preparation and I
use PSTricks to create vector graphics directly in PostScript; they can be
included in a LaTeX document when compiled with ps4pdf. What a great set of
tools for technical writing!

HTH,

Rich

-- 
Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President     |   Author of "Quantifying Environmental
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM) |  Impact Assessments Using Fuzzy Logic"
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com>     Voice: 503-667-4517         Fax: 503-667-8863