Document Classes ⇒ Beamer: Adding lecture title in sidebar

[mregine]

Hi,

I am preparing a lecture with beamer, using the suggestion in the docs to use one file with lectures separated by \lecture{}. I would like the lecture title (instead of the course title) to appear in the sidebar.

In beamerbasesection.sty, I found the following line for parts:

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\addtocontents{nav}{\protect\headcommand{\protect\partentry{#2}{\the\c@part}}}

So I was thinking of trying to modify this, and added it to my \AtBeginLecture{...} declaration.
The {\the\c@part} bit adds the number of the part to the .nav file. I won't be needing this, so I replaced with a place-holder, 0.
But I haven't been able to find something suitable to replace the #2 in there. I do latex, but I don't understand tex much, I must admit. I've tried ...\partentry{\insertlecture}..., but I get an error:

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  ! Missing \endcsname inserted.
   <to be read again> 
                      \@elt 

In beamerbasesection.sty, \insertlecture is defined to be

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\newcommand\insertlecture{\beamer@lecturename}

\beamer@lecturename seems to be defined in beamerbasesection.sty, but I don't understand the definition, so I can't imitate/modify it:

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\def\beamer@lecturename{#2}

What does that #2 refer to?

Can somebody who understand tex better help me with this?
Or suggest a different approach? I'd be very thankful.

(I'm cross-posting to comp.text.tex - not sure which community is more active nowadays)

M-R.

[mregine]

Hi again,

I've gotten quite a bit further on this, but it still doesn't work. Below is a MWE.

I am now trying to modify the code for \defbeamertemplate in beamerouterthemesidebar.sty, which I've included in the preamble of my document between \makeatletter and \makeatother using \setbeamertemplate{sidebar right} and a corresponding \usebeamertemplate later on.

I don't understand, however, why \vskip works, but not \hskip, and why \insertshortauthor works but not \insertshorttitle, and why neither of these work when width=\beamer@tempdim is given as option, although the dimension is specified. In all cases, when I uncomment these lines, the error is:
! LaTeX Error: Missing \begin{document}.

Then there is the problem of adding \insertlecture. In this case, the error is:
! Undefined control sequence.
\insertlecture ->\beamer@lecturename

It looks like the lecture title is not specified yet, but neither is "shortauthor" at that point, since the author is declared below.

Can anyone help?

(The code as given, with the comments compiles, but when I uncomment things in \setbeamertemplate{sidebar right}{...}, it breaks)

Marie-Régine

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\documentclass{beamer}

\includeonlylecture{lect:somelabel}

\usetheme{Goettingen}

\makeatletter
\newdimen\beamer@sidebarwidth
\beamer@sidebarwidth=2.5\baselineskip
\setbeamertemplate{sidebar right}{
    \beamer@tempdim=\beamer@sidebarwidth%
    \advance\beamer@tempdim by -6pt%
    {
      \usebeamerfont{title in sidebar}%
      \vskip1.5em%
%      \hskip3pt%
      \usebeamercolor[fg]{title in sidebar}%
%      \insertshorttitle[width=\beamer@tempdim,center,respectlinebreaks]\par%
%      \insertshorttitle[center,respectlinebreaks]\par%
      \vskip1.25em%
    }%
    {%
%      \hskip3pt%
      \usebeamercolor[fg]{author in sidebar}%
      \usebeamerfont{author in sidebar}%
%      \insertshortauthor[width=\beamer@tempdim,center,respectlinebreaks]\par%
      \insertshortauthor[center,respectlinebreaks]\par%
      \vskip1.25em%
    }%
%    \insertlecture
    \insertverticalnavigation{\beamer@sidebarwidth}%
    \vfill
}
\makeatother
\usebeamertemplate{sidebar right}
    
\title{Course Title}

\author{Me}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}

\lecture{Lecture Title}{lect:somelabel}

\section{Section One}
\begin{frame}
Hello World!
\end{frame}

\end{document}