How to modify an academic beamer template?

Question

I've been using Beamer for my professional presentations and I intend to use it too for my doctoral thesis presentation. And I have a question. The template I currently use is the following one :

\documentclass[17pt]{beamer}
\usetheme{Malmoe}

It's very functional and does its work in a very fine way. But I'd like to have a simpler frame setting with an outline as for Malmoe theme. This is a short example of what I'm searching for but there is no outline here :

    % compile with lualatex or xelatex:
\documentclass[svgnames, 17pt]{beamer}

\usepackage{booktabs,etoolbox,fontspec,microtype,ragged2e}
\usefonttheme{professionalfonts,serif,structuresmallcapsserif}
 \setmainfont[Numbers=OldStyle,SmallCapsFeatures={Kerning=Uppercase}]{Minion Pro}
 \usepackage{fontspec}
 \usepackage[applemac]{inputenc}    
 \usepackage[frenchb]{babel}
 \linespread{1.0344}
 \usepackage{graphicx}
 \usepackage{caption}
 \usecolortheme[named=Maroon]{structure}
 \beamertemplatesolidbackgroundcolor{Snow}
 \setbeamertemplate{navigation symbols}{}
 \setbeamertemplate{itemize items}[circle]
 \apptocmd{\frame}{\justifying}{}{}  
 \addtobeamertemplate{block begin}{}{\justifying}
 \definecolor{alert}{HTML}{347941}
  \setbeamercolor{alerted text}{fg=alert}
 \setbeamercovered{transparent=2}
 \title{My title}
 \author{My name}
 \subtitle[A subtitle]{A subtitle}
 \institute{My institution}
 \setbeamertemplate{caption}[numbered]
\setbeamertemplate{navigation symbols}{} 

 \begin{document}



\begin{frame}
\titlepage
\end{frame}


\begin{frame}
\frametitle{{\small A title}}
This is a place for some text.
\begin{enumerate}
\item 
\item 
\end{enumerate}
\end{frame}




 \end{document}

Hi, what does a more zen or simple aspect mean? There are soo many different beamerthemes out there plus colorthemes. Did you have a look at them? — Johannes_B, Dec 19 '14 at 16:22
I suggest you start here: Are there any repositories of “killer slides” for beamer? — Werner, Dec 19 '14 at 16:23
@cfr Don't even need that: I just use the standard set up then disable various things :-) — Joseph Wright, Dec 19 '14 at 16:29
@Johannes_B : Yes, I already know those beamertehemes. Maybe do I need to precise my demand : I'm searching for a customized beamer theme in the style of Edward Tufte's spirit. I mean : something which could looks both simple and accurate (with outline indications). — domi, Dec 19 '14 at 16:39
Could you point to an example of the kind of thing you have in mind? Or draw a mock-up of what you want? Perhaps others will understand better, but I have no idea what Tufte-style beamer slides would look like! Isn't the default theme: (1) simple (2) accurate and (3) has outline indications (e.g. in the ToC)? [I'm not sure what 'accurate' means here: which themes do you consider 'inaccurate' and why?]. @JosephWright I know. But that involved more typing ;). — cfr, Dec 19 '14 at 17:58
By 'outline indications' do you just mean the bit at the bottom i.e. the footer? — cfr, Dec 19 '14 at 23:39

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 20 '14 at 00:01

I'm still not really sure which bits you want from what, but maybe you can do something with this:

\documentclass[svgnames, 17pt]{beamer}
\usepackage{booktabs,etoolbox,fontspec,microtype,ragged2e}
\usefonttheme{professionalfonts,serif,structuresmallcapsserif}
\setmainfont[Numbers=OldStyle,SmallCapsFeatures={Kerning=Uppercase}]{Minion Pro}
\linespread{1.0344}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usecolortheme[named=Maroon]{structure}
\colorlet{othercolour}{Snow}
\beamertemplatesolidbackgroundcolor{othercolour}
\setbeamertemplate{navigation symbols}{}
\setbeamertemplate{itemize items}[circle]
\apptocmd{\frame}{\justifying}{}{}
\addtobeamertemplate{block begin}{}{\justifying}
\definecolor{alert}{HTML}{347941}
\setbeamercolor{alerted text}{fg=alert}
\setbeamercovered{transparent=2}
\title{My title}
\author{My name}
\subtitle[A subtitle]{A subtitle}
\institute{My institution}
\setbeamertemplate{caption}[numbered]
% based on Malmoe and the whale colour theme
\useoutertheme{split}
\mode<presentation>
\setbeamercolor*{palette primary}{use=structure,fg=othercolour,bg=structure.fg}
\setbeamercolor*{palette quaternary}{fg=othercolour,bg=black}
\mode
<all>
\setbeamercolor*{titlelike}{parent=structure}
\begin{document}

  \begin{frame}
    \titlepage
  \end{frame}

  \begin{frame}
    \frametitle{{\small A title}}
    This is a place for some text.
    \begin{enumerate}
      \item
      \item
    \end{enumerate}
  \end{frame}

\end{document}

maroon theme

Notes

Do NOT load inputenc if you are using Xe/LuaTeX. Your preamble tells TeX that your file uses the applemac encoding. If so, that's a problem as Xe/LuaTeX only deal with UTF8-encoded files. If your file is really UTF8 encoded, just delete the line. If it is really using applemac, you must delete the line and save your file with the UTF8 encoding.
Loading caption is doing nothing. It doesn't redefine \caption since beamer has already redefined it. (The console output and/or log file will tell you this.)
Try to avoid loading packages and issuing commands twice. It leads to later confusion ('But I've changed the definition! Why isn't it having any effect?', 'I've deleted that package from my preamble but LaTeX is still loading it! Why?'). In this case, clearing navigation symbols once is quite sufficient, however much you dislike them, and loading fontspec once is also entirely adequate. (Loading it after using \setmainfont etc. seems particularly pointless.)
If you were expecting small-caps somewhere, you'll likely get them. I don't have Minion small-caps so LaTeX substitutes the regular upright shape. The same is true for oldstyle figures - I don't have these in Minion, so those settings just get me warnings.
The combination of serif, small-caps and oldstyle figures is probably not the best choice for slides. It will likely make your presentation more difficult to read. The best typographic choices for a printed document or an online text such as an article are not generally the best ones for LCD projection.

[I removed babel for testing only because your MWE didn't use any French.]

How to modify an academic beamer template?

1 Answers1

Notes