MiKTeX and proTeXt ⇒ Howto Create Presentation [slides] in LaTex

[BMAcox]

Hello:

I am looking to build a presentation in LaTex. Upon install of MikTex and TeXnicCenter, I had chosen all default packages. Which package is best for creating slides in LaTex? I also just noticed that the version of TeXnicCenter that I installed was 1 Beta 7.01 - unstable ('Greengrass') . Will that make a difference of which presentation package is available to me?

Thanks very much!

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi BMAcox!

One good classe package for creating slides is powerdot (documentation), based on prosper and HA-prosper.

Another solution is the beamer class. I would prefer beamer because in contrary to powerdot/prosper with the beamer class you can include png and jpg files because beamer runs with pdflatex and with beamer you can use pgf/TikZ. (On the other side if you plan to include eps graphics, not jpg or png, or if you want to use pstricks, you may prefer powerdot.) The beamer class is very well documented, provides already many themes/styles and a lot of features. See beamer user guide.

With MiKTeX you can use the beamer class, powerdot/prosper should be possible too. The editor and its version shouldn't make a difference, TeXnicCenter Greengrass is a good choice.

Stefan

[BMAcox]

Thank you, Stefan! Beamer looks like a good option.

The BEAMER documentation instructed that we install three packages: Beamer, pgf, and xcolor.

In MikTex Package Manager, I was able to install only Beamer and xcolor. When I tried to install pgf, I got the following error message box:

MikTex Problem Report:
Unknown archive file type.

And then it does not install the pgf package...

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi BMAcox,

probably you have to update your miktex binaries for being able to use the lzma format.
Look here: MiKTeX 2.6 Known Issues or MiKTeX 2.5 Known Issues, this problem is described there.

Stefan

[BMAcox]

My binary files are now updated. MikTex instructions for fixing that problem were perfect. Past projects and current presentation now output correctly. Thanks for your help!