Document Classes ⇒ Beamer, Prosper, or Other?

[lacion]

Hi,

I am a complete newbie to the Latex experience. Indeed, I produced my first simple dvi file only with text a few hours ago. I will be writing a dissertation with a lot of math and I will have to defend it using slides.

As I set up, I am looking for good packages options to work all my way until my defense. I am using Windows xp. Thus, I picked Miktex 2.6 and am using TexnicCenter. However, I could not find yet a good guidance file to pick a presentation software. I have been recommended both Beamer and Prosper. But I am not sure on pros and cons of those. There are so many options that, perhaps, there is even a different software for this that I am missing.

Could some experienced user suggest pros and cons of both Beamer and Prosper and perhaps whatever nice package out there that I am still not considering?

Thanks a lot in advance!
Cheers,
L

[balfonsi]

Take a look at question 162 ('producing slides') of the UK TeX faq.

Bernard

[localghost]

Keep your hands off from the prosper class (and the bug fixing HA-prosper package), because they are obsolete. Use the powerdot class instead, which is a further development and a merge of these two. It is easy to handle and you get fast and good results. Presentations have to be compiled only with latex. So read the manual carefully. Various predefined styles of presentations are available and own templates can be generated.

The beamer class is very extensive. Its manual also is very comprehensive, but it explains all elements of a presentation generated with this class. It is combined with the pgf/tikz package, another very powerful graphics extension. The manual contains descriptions of the predefines styles and explains how to change the look of presentations, but this is much more complex.

I like both classes and use them regularly. I prefer beamer, because it gives your presentation an extremely precious look.


Best regards
Thorsten

[lacion]

Balfonsi and Localghost,

thanks a lot for your feedback. The info you provided will help me make an informed decision.

Cheers,
L