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Is is possible to make a PDF in Beamer such that notes are visible only on computer and not on the projector?

lockstep
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denilw
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3 Answers3

31

Only if your graphic card supports the two screen mode:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{pgfpages}
\setbeameroption{show notes}
\setbeameroption{show notes on second screen=right}

\begin{document}
\begin{frame}{The \texttt{\textbackslash note}-Macro}
\begin{itemize}[<+->]
\item normal text for the presentation.
\note<1-2>[item]{Say something to the audience!}
\item and text for the presentation.
\item foo
\end{itemize}
\note<2>{Another note for you!}
\end{frame}

\note[enumerate]{\item foo \item bar \item baz \item foobar}

\begin{frame}{second slide} 
foo 
\end{frame}
\end{document}

The image shows on the left the presentation and on the right your screen.

Hendrik Vogt
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    Unfortunately, in my experience most PDF viewers will still show both sides in one full screen on the main screen. – Carsten Thiel Feb 04 '11 at 21:57
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    I don't have an opportunity to try this right now with a projector. Does anyone know PDF viewers known to correctly display this setup in Linux and Windows? – denilw Feb 11 '11 at 18:12
  • you can try with a monitor instead of a projector. A desktop monitor usually have two ports in its back. One port to connect to the desktop computer, and the remaining port can be used to connect it to your laptop. – Jisang Yoo Feb 13 '11 at 16:11
  • It looks nice. But how to use it in full screen mode with the left on the screen to present and the right on the screen for the presenter personally? – Αλέξανδρος Ζεγγ Mar 16 '17 at 11:42
  • @AlexanderZeng: It's long ago when I used it, but I suppose that you have to increase the windowsize by yourself. It is not possible with a keystroke. –  Mar 16 '17 at 12:05
  • Has anyone found a solution like @Alexander Zeng asked? i.e But how to use it in full screen mode with the left on the screen to present and the right on the screen for the presenter personally? – user95439 Aug 08 '17 at 23:10
  • You find presentation.app, it the good tool for this http://iihm.imag.fr/blanch/software/osx-presentation/ – affernan Sep 19 '20 at 14:08
9

For those who use a Mac, here's a pretty useful application : SplitShow.

It does exactly what you want, you simply open your PDF presentation in it and it automatically displays your notes and the slides side by side, and most importantly you can go full-screen.

Lou
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    Splitshow seems to be out of active development and my experience is that this thing isn´t stable at all. I tried this on tiger, snow leopard and leopard and would never ever recommend this monster (unless u want to have some software crashes during your presentation). – bloodworks May 17 '12 at 13:01
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    The project is active on github, and it is the only one that I found to be working on OSX (I 've tried all others). The latest alpha version works fine on Yosemite, and it seems the guy is porting it for El Capitan – Paschalis Dec 22 '15 at 09:30
  • I've done a quick test, and this seems to work on the latest version of macOS, and the latest beta (as in todays beta). – Jay Feb 28 '17 at 04:31
4

I haven't looked at SplitShow, but on Mac I found that the pdf viewer Skim can be useful. If you have two different pdf's with the same number of pages, you can put the main presentation on one screen and the notes on the other and enable a synchronized presentation mode.

See this guide for how to use beamer to create the two different pdf's.

mattgately
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