I'm working on a Beamer presentation in which I want my notes to be along with a small preview of the current slide only (bigger than the default). I worked on the following MWE, which seems to work ok, except for the fact that I changed my title page to be tikzpicture nodes...
Now the title slide looks ok if I do not add nodes, but becomes completely unstructured when I add the notes...
I guess there is something simple to be changed in the relative/absolute positions of the nodes, but I have tried many things and I cannot reproduce the look of the slide without notes when I add the notes...
This the MWE:
\listfiles
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%% For normal presentations WITHOUT NOTES
%\documentclass[ignorenonframetext, xcolor={dvipsnames,table}]{beamer}
%\usepackage{etex}
%\reserveinserts{28}
%\setbeameroption{hide notes}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%% For presentations WITH NOTES
%\documentclass[ignorenonframetext, xcolor={dvipsnames,table}]{beamer}
%\usepackage{etex}
%\reserveinserts{28}
%\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
%\usepackage{pgfpages}
%\setbeameroption{show notes on second screen=left}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%% For handouts with lots of extra notes
\documentclass[handout, ignorenonframetext, xcolor={dvipsnames,table}]{beamer}
\usepackage{etex}
\reserveinserts{28}
\usepackage{pgfpages}
\pgfpagesuselayout{2 on 1}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm] % could also use letterpaper
\setbeameroption{show notes on second screen=bottom} % Beamer manual, section 19.3
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\setbeamercolor{background canvas}{bg=pink}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\setbeamertemplate{title page}{
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture, overlay, every node/.style={inner sep=0,outer sep=0}]
\node [rectangle, fill=gray, anchor=north east, minimum width=.86\paperwidth, minimum height=3cm] (box) at (current page.north east){};
\node at ($(box.west)+(.1,0)$) [anchor=east]{\includegraphics[height=3cm,width=1.5cm]{example-image}};
\node[anchor=center, align=left, font=\color{white}\usebeamerfont{title}] (title) at ($(box)+(0,.25)$)
{\inserttitle};
\ifx\insertauthor\@empty
\else
\node [anchor=west, font=\color{white}\usebeamerfont{author}] (author) at ($(title.south west)-(0,.5)$) {
{\insertauthor}
};
\fi
\ifx\insertinstitute\@empty
\else
\node [anchor=center] (institute) at ($(box.south)-(0,1.5)$) {%
{\insertinstitute}
};
\fi
\ifx\insertdate\@empty
\else
\node [anchor=west, font=\color{blue}\usebeamerfont{date}] (date) at ($(institute.south west)-(-.2,2)$) {%
{\insertdate}
};
\fi
\node [anchor=west] (email) at ($(date.south west)-(2.52,1)$) {%
\color{blue}
{\scriptsize \email}
};
\end{tikzpicture}
}
\setbeamertemplate{note page}[plain] % Beamer manual, section 19.1
\newlength{\parskipbackup}
\setlength{\parskipbackup}{\parskip}
\newlength{\parindentbackup}
\setlength{\parindentbackup}{\parindent}
\newcommand{\baselinestretchbackup}{\baselinestretch}
\usetemplatenote{
\insertslideintonotes{0.3}%
\rmfamily \scriptsize%
\setlength{\parindent}{1em} \setlength{\parskip}{1ex}%
\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1}%
\insertnote%
\setlength{\parskip}{\parskipbackup}%
\setlength{\parindent}{\parindentbackup}%
\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{\baselinestretchbackup}%
}
\title[short title]{full title}
\author{John Smith}
\date[\today]{\today}
\newcommand{\email}{\textit{john@smith.com}}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
\titlepage
\note{this is a note}
\end{frame}
\begin{frame}
This is the first slide
\note{this is another note}
\end{frame}
\end{document}
Which produces 
But if you comment the first block and uncomment the second to add the notes in an A4 handout format, you will get 
...
Can anyone help me with this??
A SUPER BONUS would be if anyone would be able to place a smaller preview of the following slide alongside the preview of the current slide!!
EDIT:
I'm including below the \listfiles output (check the slight changes in the MWE):
*File List*
beamer.cls 2012/10/15 development version 3.24 A class for typesetting pres
entations (rcs-revision 24853e6b98cf)
beamerbasercs.sty 2012/11/13 (rcs-revision cb16a617839f)
beamerbasemodes.sty 2012/04/15 (rcs-revision cc6557182d97)
beamerbasedecode.sty 2010/05/01 (rcs-revision efa082c6111d)
ifpdf.sty 2011/01/30 v2.3 Provides the ifpdf switch (HO)
beamerbaseoptions.sty 2010/04/27 (rcs-revision 982469101dd6)
keyval.sty 1999/03/16 v1.13 key=value parser (DPC)
geometry.sty 2010/09/12 v5.6 Page Geometry
ifvtex.sty 2010/03/01 v1.5 Detect VTeX and its facilities (HO)
ifxetex.sty 2010/09/12 v0.6 Provides ifxetex conditional
size11.clo 2007/10/19 v1.4h Standard LaTeX file (size option)
pgfcore.sty 2010/04/11 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.7)
graphicx.sty 1999/02/16 v1.0f Enhanced LaTeX Graphics (DPC,SPQR)
graphics.sty 2009/02/05 v1.0o Standard LaTeX Graphics (DPC,SPQR)
trig.sty 1999/03/16 v1.09 sin cos tan (DPC)
graphics.cfg 2010/04/23 v1.9 graphics configuration of TeX Live
pdftex.def 2011/05/27 v0.06d Graphics/color for pdfTeX
infwarerr.sty 2010/04/08 v1.3 Providing info/warning/error messages (HO)
ltxcmds.sty 2011/11/09 v1.22 LaTeX kernel commands for general use (HO)
pdftexcmds.sty 2011/11/29 v0.20 Utility functions of pdfTeX for LuaTeX (HO)
ifluatex.sty 2010/03/01 v1.3 Provides the ifluatex switch (HO)
luatex-loader.sty 2010/03/09 v0.4 Lua module loader (HO)
pgfsys.sty 2010/06/30 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.37)
pgfrcs.sty 2010/10/25 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.24)
everyshi.sty 2001/05/15 v3.00 EveryShipout Package (MS)
pgfrcs.code.tex
pgfsys.code.tex
pgfsyssoftpath.code.tex 2008/07/18 (rcs-revision 1.7)
pgfsysprotocol.code.tex 2006/10/16 (rcs-revision 1.4)
xcolor.sty 2007/01/21 v2.11 LaTeX color extensions (UK)
color.cfg 2007/01/18 v1.5 color configuration of teTeX/TeXLive
colortbl.sty 2012/02/13 v1.0a Color table columns (DPC)
array.sty 2008/09/09 v2.4c Tabular extension package (FMi)
dvipsnam.def 1999/02/16 v3.0i Driver-dependant file (DPC,SPQR)
pgfcore.code.tex
xxcolor.sty 2003/10/24 ver 0.1
hyperref.sty 2012/11/06 v6.83m Hypertext links for LaTeX
hobsub-hyperref.sty 2012/05/28 v1.13 Bundle oberdiek, subset hyperref (HO)
hobsub-generic.sty 2012/05/28 v1.13 Bundle oberdiek, subset generic (HO)
hobsub.sty 2012/05/28 v1.13 Construct package bundles (HO)
intcalc.sty 2007/09/27 v1.1 Expandable calculations with integers (HO)
etexcmds.sty 2011/02/16 v1.5 Avoid name clashes with e-TeX commands (HO)
kvsetkeys.sty 2012/04/25 v1.16 Key value parser (HO)
kvdefinekeys.sty 2011/04/07 v1.3 Define keys (HO)
pdfescape.sty 2011/11/25 v1.13 Implements pdfTeX's escape features (HO)
bigintcalc.sty 2012/04/08 v1.3 Expandable calculations on big integers (HO)
bitset.sty 2011/01/30 v1.1 Handle bit-vector datatype (HO)
uniquecounter.sty 2011/01/30 v1.2 Provide unlimited unique counter (HO)
letltxmacro.sty 2010/09/02 v1.4 Let assignment for LaTeX macros (HO)
hopatch.sty 2012/05/28 v1.2 Wrapper for package hooks (HO)
xcolor-patch.sty 2011/01/30 xcolor patch
atveryend.sty 2011/06/30 v1.8 Hooks at the very end of document (HO)
atbegshi.sty 2011/10/05 v1.16 At begin shipout hook (HO)
refcount.sty 2011/10/16 v3.4 Data extraction from label references (HO)
hycolor.sty 2011/01/30 v1.7 Color options for hyperref/bookmark (HO)
auxhook.sty 2011/03/04 v1.3 Hooks for auxiliary files (HO)
kvoptions.sty 2011/06/30 v3.11 Key value format for package options (HO)
pd1enc.def 2012/11/06 v6.83m Hyperref: PDFDocEncoding definition (HO)
hyperref.cfg 2002/06/06 v1.2 hyperref configuration of TeXLive
url.sty 2013/09/16 ver 3.4 Verb mode for urls, etc.
hpdftex.def 2012/11/06 v6.83m Hyperref driver for pdfTeX
rerunfilecheck.sty 2011/04/15 v1.7 Rerun checks for auxiliary files (HO)
beamerbaserequires.sty 2010/05/01 (rcs-revision efa082c6111d)
beamerbasecompatibility.sty 2012/05/01 (rcs-revision 67c48b3b652d)
beamerbasefont.sty 2012/09/19 (rcs-revision 733629cd0c6c)
amssymb.sty 2013/01/14 v3.01 AMS font symbols
amsfonts.sty 2013/01/14 v3.01 Basic AMSFonts support
beamerbasetranslator.sty 2010/06/11 (rcs-revision 85fd1cc7fc42)
translator.sty 2010/06/12 ver 1.10
translator-language-mappings.tex
beamerbasemisc.sty 2012/02/24 (rcs-revision 2ff5461be705)
beamerbasetwoscreens.sty 2010/05/01 (rcs-revision efa082c6111d)
beamerbaseoverlay.sty 2012/11/11 (rcs-revision 6afbc49b1109)
beamerbasetitle.sty 2010/09/21 (rcs-revision f0446ed0b6ae)
beamerbasesection.sty 2012/11/11 (rcs-revision 0056eef6f17f)
beamerbaseframe.sty 2012/09/13 (rcs-revision dcd846607320)
beamerbaseverbatim.sty 2012/08/30 (rcs-revision dfdb135076b3)
beamerbaseframesize.sty 2011/09/12 (rcs-revision 70f9d8411e54)
beamerbaseframecomponents.sty 2012/09/13 (rcs-revision dcd846607320)
beamerbasecolor.sty 2010/06/06 (rcs-revision d1a9b48be06d)
beamerbasenotes.sty 2010/05/01 (rcs-revision efa082c6111d)
beamerbasetoc.sty 2012/10/02 (rcs-revision 5ed0f4010e8a)
beamerbasetemplates.sty 2010/05/01 (rcs-revision efa082c6111d)
beamerbaseauxtemplates.sty 2012/05/01 (rcs-revision 67c48b3b652d)
beamerbaseboxes.sty 2012/05/13 (rcs-revision 56972908a390)
beamerbaselocalstructure.sty 2012/11/13 (rcs-revision ddfba79dac19)
enumerate.sty 1999/03/05 v3.00 enumerate extensions (DPC)
beamerbasenavigation.sty 2012/04/03 (rcs-revision 42a0f21a412d)
beamerbasetheorems.sty 2010/06/06 (rcs-revision 7e7cc5e53e9d)
amsmath.sty 2013/01/14 v2.14 AMS math features
amstext.sty 2000/06/29 v2.01
amsgen.sty 1999/11/30 v2.0
amsbsy.sty 1999/11/29 v1.2d
amsopn.sty 1999/12/14 v2.01 operator names
amsthm.sty 2004/08/06 v2.20
beamerbasethemes.sty 2010/05/01 (rcs-revision efa082c6111d)
beamerthemedefault.sty 2010/06/17 (rcs-revision d02a7cf4d8ae)
beamerfontthemedefault.sty 2010/06/17 (rcs-revision d02a7cf4d8ae)
beamercolorthemedefault.sty 2010/06/17 (rcs-revision d02a7cf4d8ae)
beamerinnerthemedefault.sty 2012/05/01 (rcs-revision 67c48b3b652d)
beamerouterthemedefault.sty 2012/10/02 (rcs-revision 5ed0f4010e8a)
etex.sty 1998/03/26 v2.0 eTeX basic definition package (PEB)
pgfpages.sty 2004/11/05 ver 0.01
calc.sty 2007/08/22 v4.3 Infix arithmetic (KKT,FJ)
lmodern.sty 2009/10/30 v1.6 Latin Modern Fonts
tikz.sty 2010/10/13 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.76)
pgf.sty 2008/01/15 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.12)
pgfcomp-version-0-65.sty 2007/07/03 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.7)
pgfcomp-version-1-18.sty 2007/07/23 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.1)
pgffor.sty 2010/03/23 v2.10 (rcs-revision 1.18)
pgfkeys.sty
pgfkeys.code.tex
pgffor.code.tex
tikz.code.tex
ot1lmss.fd 2009/10/30 v1.6 Font defs for Latin Modern
supp-pdf.mkii
epstopdf-base.sty 2010/02/09 v2.5 Base part for package epstopdf
grfext.sty 2010/08/19 v1.1 Manage graphics extensions (HO)
epstopdf-sys.cfg 2010/07/13 v1.3 Configuration of (r)epstopdf for TeX Live
nameref.sty 2012/10/27 v2.43 Cross-referencing by name of section
gettitlestring.sty 2010/12/03 v1.4 Cleanup title references (HO)
b.out
b.out
translator-basic-dictionary-English.dict
translator-bibliography-dictionary-English.dict
translator-environment-dictionary-English.dict
translator-months-dictionary-English.dict
translator-numbers-dictionary-English.dict
translator-theorem-dictionary-English.dict
example-image.png Graphic file (type png)
ot1lmr.fd 2009/10/30 v1.6 Font defs for Latin Modern
***********
NEW EDIT!! As in this other related question I posted, if I place the line "\pgfpagesuselayout{2 on 1}" after the line "\setbeameroption{show notes}" the title slide remains perfectly unperturbed as it should be!! However, the slide preview and notes that appear at the bottom belong to the NEXT SLIDE, instead of to the CURRENT SLIDE!! What is going on with that?
Let see if anyone could help me make this work also for the 2nd commented block on the MWE to have the notes on the left. Thanks!!
\listfilesin your preamble and add to your question the contents of the log file between*File List*and*****. – Matthew Leingang Jul 22 '14 at 16:15