Document Classes ⇒ Prosper: delaying an itemize environment until a later slide

[jjt3]

In Prosper, I am trying to build up a composite slide in parts with the first one or two slides being a preamble, and then using an {itemstep} environment. In the documentation it says
`It accepts an optional argument corresponding to the overlay level to start from.'

so I type \begin{itemstep}{3} to start the itemstep from the third slide, but all hell breaks loose, and over a hundred errors are noted.

If I just have \begin{itemstep} then the first three items appear simultaneously not sequentially.

The prosper.cls file has:

\newcounter{item@step}
\newenvironment{itemstep}[1][1]{%
\begin{Itemize}\begin{raggedright}%
\ifnum\the\@itemdepth=1%
\setcounter{item@step}{#1}%
\addtocounter{item@step}{-1}%
\fi% . . .

so it looks as if an optional argument has been defined.

For exactness, my LaTeX file has:

\overlays{9}{%
\begin{slide}{Aims and objectives}
What are your aims and objectives for this week?\par
\fromSlide{2}{My aims are to help you}
\begin{itemstep}{3} \item

It seems to me that the environment cannot cope with an optional argument, and assumes that the next command after {itemstep} is \item.

[localghost]

It would be better to have the code of a minimum working example (MWE) to comprehend what's going wrong. Otherwise i only can guess the source of error.

Think about using another class to create your presentation. The prosper class has already been patched by the HA-prosper package to get rid of the bugs. I suggest to use the powerdot class, which is the result of the merge between those two and is easier to use.

[jjt3]

Thanks for your reply, and I am looking at powerdot class.

By the way, here is a mwe

\documentclass[pdf,azure,slideColor,colorBG]{prosper}
\begin{document}
\overlays{4}{%
\begin{slide}{Slide heading}
First paragraph\par
\fromSlide{2}{Second paragraph leading to itemized list presented in steps}
\begin{itemstep} %{3} I think that this should work, but obviously does not.
\item first item \item second item \end{itemstep}
\end{slide}}
\end{document}

John

[localghost]

[…] so I type \begin{itemstep}{3} to start the itemstep from the third slide, but all hell breaks loose, and over a hundred errors are noted. […]

[…] It seems to me that the environment cannot cope with an optional argument, and assumes that the next command after {itemstep} is \item.

And that is your mistake. If an optional argument is defined, it has to be given in brackets [], not in braces {}. The following example works fine.

Code: Select all

%\listfiles
\documentclass[autumn,colorBG,pdf,slideColor]{prosper}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}

\title{Title of the presentation}
\subtitle{Prosper: delaying an itemize environment until a later slide}
\author{jjt3}
\institution{\LaTeX\ Community}

\begin{document}
  \maketitle
  \overlays{8}{%
    \begin{slide}{Slide heading}
      The first paragraph is only there to put some text on the slide.
    
      \fromSlide{2}{%
        \medskip
        Second paragraph leading to itemized list presented in steps.
        \begin{itemstep}[3]                                        % optional argument in brackets!
          \item first item
          \item second item
          \item third item
          \item fourth item
          \item fifth item
          \item sixth item
        \end{itemstep}
      }
    \end{slide}
  }
\end{document}

Unfortunately, the documentation of the prosper package gives only poor information about that.

[jjt3]

Actually I had tried to put the option in both square and curly brackets. Each of them gave me problems.

I tried your code, and it created an awful lot of errors. Removing the optional argument from {itemstep} removed all the errors. I have version \def\Prosper@Version{2001/07/17, v. 1.5}, from the CTAN site.

I think that powerdot is much easier to use; I had always disliked having to specify the number of overlays in a particular slide in advance in prosper, and powerdot avoids all this. powerdot has a more flexible presentation for overlays, and I shall be converting to powerdot.

Many thanks for your comments.

John

[localghost]

However, i can't comprehend your difficulties. And as a proof for the code working properly, i put the result into the attachment. The \listfiles command gives an overview of the used packages.

Code: Select all

 *File List*
 prosper.cls    2001/07/17, v. 1.5
graphicx.sty    1999/02/16 v1.0f Enhanced LaTeX Graphics (DPC,SPQR)
  keyval.sty    1999/03/16 v1.13 key=value parser (DPC)
graphics.sty    2006/02/20 v1.0o Standard LaTeX Graphics (DPC,SPQR)
    trig.sty    1999/03/16 v1.09 sin cos tan (DPC)
graphics.cfg    2005/12/29 v1.2 MiKTeX 'graphics' configuration
   dvips.def    1999/02/16 v3.0i Driver-dependant file (DPC,SPQR)
 seminar.cls    1997/10/13, 1.4
 article.cls    2005/09/16 v1.4f Standard LaTeX document class
   leqno.clo    1998/08/17 v1.1c Standard LaTeX option (left equation numbers)
  size10.clo    2005/09/16 v1.4f Standard LaTeX file (size option)
sem-page.sty    
semcolor.sty    2004/05/18 v1.01 (tvz)
pstricks.sty    2006/08/10 v0.32 LaTeX wrapper for `PSTricks' (RN,HV)
pstricks.tex    2006/12/22 v1.15 `PSTricks' (tvz)
  xcolor.sty    2007/01/21 v2.11 LaTeX color extensions (UK)
   color.cfg    2005/12/29 v1.1 MiKTeX 'color' configuration
semlayer.sty
 seminar.bug
 seminar.bg2
hyperref.sty    2007/06/14 v6.76i Hypertext links for LaTeX
 hycolor.sty    2007/04/11 v1.1 Code for color options of hyperref/bookmark (HO)
  pd1enc.def    2007/06/14 v6.76i Hyperref: PDFDocEncoding definition (HO)
etexcmds.sty    2007/05/06 v1.0 Providing prefix for e-TeX command names (HO)
infwarerr.sty    2007/06/14 v1.1 Providing info/warning/message (HO)
hyperref.cfg    2006/02/14 v1.1 MiKTeX 'hyperref' configuration
kvoptions.sty    2007/06/11 v2.7 Connects package keyval with LaTeX options (HO)
     url.sty    2005/06/27  ver 3.2  Verb mode for urls, etc.
  hdvips.def    2007/06/14 v6.76i Hyperref driver for dvips
 pdfmark.def    2007/06/14 v6.76i Hyperref definitions for pdfmark specials
PPRautumn.sty    2000/11/24
pst-grad.sty    2004/07/15 package wrapper for pst-grad.tex (hv)
pst-grad.tex    2006/11/27 1.06 `pst-grad' (tvz)
pst-xkey.tex    2005/11/25 v1.6 PSTricks specialization of xkeyval (HA)
 xkeyval.sty    2006/11/18 v2.5f package option processing (HA)
 xkeyval.tex    2006/11/18 v2.5f key=value parser (HA)
 amssymb.sty    2002/01/22 v2.2d
amsfonts.sty    2001/10/25 v2.2f
   times.sty    2005/04/12 PSNFSS-v9.2a (SPQR) 
 fontenc.sty
   t1enc.def    2005/09/27 v1.99g Standard LaTeX file
inputenc.sty    2006/05/05 v1.1b Input encoding file
  latin1.def    2006/05/05 v1.1b Input encoding file
   t1ptm.fd    2001/06/04 font definitions for T1/ptm.
 nameref.sty    2007/05/29 v2.31 Cross-referencing by name of section
refcount.sty    2006/02/20 v3.0 Data extraction from references (HO)
prosper-xmpl.out
prosper-xmpl.out
    umsa.fd    2002/01/19 v2.2g AMS font definitions
    umsb.fd    2002/01/19 v2.2g AMS font definitions
 ***********

The source was compiled without any error or warning in TeXnicCenter 7.01 Beta 1 (build profile "LaTeX => PS => PDF") with MikTeX 2.6 and GPL Ghostscript 8.56 on Windows XP SP2.