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It could save lots of work if there was a graphical user interface (like in PowerPoint) to create presentations with beamer. Copy-pasting, or creating frames with mouse would be very convenient.

Currently, to keep readable code, I'm trying to wrap frames like this : 

%--------------------------------------------------------
\begin{frame}   
% ..
\end{frame}
%--------------------------------------------------------

But it's still not very easy to copy-paste it every time. Maybe there are shortcuts/plugins for this?

P.S. I'm using MiKTeX and TeXstudio on a 64-bit Windows 7, but solutions for other platforms are also welcome.

Thanks for any help !

jeff
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    Related/duplicate: Graphical interface for generating presentation slides – Werner Oct 15 '15 at 18:01
  • @Werner Thanks, I'm closing this question then. Edit : That post is not actually asking (or answering) the same thing. I'm looking for a fast way to add and/or duplicate frames easily. So I think this question still might be helpful. To me at least, if someone suggests some software in the comments? :) – jeff Oct 15 '15 at 18:09
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    I believe Ipe can be used for making presentations, though I've only used it for diagrams. It wouldn't give you a beamer-based workflow, but the LaTeX integration might be sufficient for many cases. – G. Poore Oct 15 '15 at 18:34
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    Not quite what you are asking for, but I found it helpful to store empty versions of my favourite frame layouts as texstudio macros. For example, I have one for a two column frame, one with text and picture besides each other, one for a full frame image etc. – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Oct 15 '15 at 19:58
  • @samcarter thanks. Macros seem to be the best option for me then. – jeff Oct 15 '15 at 20:08
  • The way to duplicate frames easily is via copy-and-paste of text. It's really fast. Under Windows you can also add some hotkeys via AutoHotKey, which could insert a frame environment with the press of a key-combination... – Werner Oct 15 '15 at 20:10

3 Answers3

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Inserting Standard Code Snippets

For inserting standard code snippets like code for a slide you can use Menu -> Macros. Below is an example for inserting a silde.

enter image description here

You can trigger it either by Menu -> Macros or by the shortcut (which can be modified in Options -> Shortcuts) or by using the trigger. The trigger is a regular expression. When typed into the editor the matched text is removed and the macro is executed.

Copying Slides

There's no native support for this in TeXstudio. However Idefix -> Prarenthesis -> Select Outer may be helpful. Just place your cursor at the start or end of the frame environment and trigger above commands. This selects the whole block, which can now be copied easily.

Moreover, you can a Script Macro to automate more complex task. For example, you could create a command to

  1. Find the next \begin{frame} before your cursor
  2. Select the environment
  3. Copy the selection to the clipboard
Tim Hoffmann
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The advantage of (La)TeX is that it isn't WYSIWYG (GUI style). You see everything you did in the source. No long-forgotten mouse dance to get some effect, just copy it over.

There certainly are text editors that allow you to copy/paste by using the mouse (I happen to use xemacs with AUC-TeX, it has that functionality built in). But I use it very rarely, it is much, much faster to use the commands.

vonbrand
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  • I was not asking for WYSIWYG, like placing images etc. But just to remove the burden of repeated things. Thanks for your advice though. – jeff Oct 15 '15 at 20:09
  • @halilpazarlama, what repeated things? For me, xemacs + AUC-TeX automates the insertion of sundry environments, asking for/filling in details (like titles for frames and so). Duplicating a frame is just a copy and paste (yank and put in emacsspeak) away, ... – vonbrand Oct 15 '15 at 20:13
  • Like creating an empty frame or quickly commenting out, deleting etc. If a GUI did this, it would replace the work of selecting all the code for the frame, (seemingly which I can't do very fast :)) , with just a mouse click. Anyway, I guess I will try the macros. Thanks again. – jeff Oct 15 '15 at 20:19
  • @halilpazarlama, in {,x}emacs commenting out a stretch of code is just a C-c % (or similar cokebottle) away. Inserting a frame is C-c e (asks for the environment), ... emacs is more the center of an development environment than just a text editor. – vonbrand Oct 15 '15 at 20:33
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    @halilpazarlama Then asking for a GUI 'like PowerPoint' was surely somewhat misleading, don't you think? – cfr Oct 15 '15 at 22:36
  • @cfr maybe. I just meant the left bar in PowerPoint. – jeff Oct 15 '15 at 23:00
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A quick and easy 'hack' could be using a text expanding tool like PhraseExpress.

Making macros for different slides and slide content. Although not a GUI solution, it does make it more tangible compared to copying and pasting small bits of code and keeping same bits organized.

martinmch
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