scope of \def within a beamer document

Asked Feb 01 '15 at 13:53

Active Feb 01 '15 at 14:09

Viewed 222 times

The following MWE displays the problem.

\documentclass{beamer}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}{Frame 1}
    \def\test{hello}
    \test % prints hello
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}{Frame 2}
    \test % should print hello, but doesn't
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}{Frame 3}
    \def\test{something new}
    \test % prints something new 
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}{Frame 4}
    \test % should print something new 
\end{frame}

\end{document}

I am using \def simply because it came as part of an answer I found elsewhere on this site. It seems that the macro \test is only defined within the scope of the environment (in this case frame so perhaps the problem isn't beamer dependent). How can I have the command \test defined globally (from this point on)?

edited Feb 01 '15 at 14:06

asked Feb 01 '15 at 13:53

Geoff

2,637

Put \def\test{hello} in the preamble. It is safe to use \newcommand though. – Feb 01 '15 at 13:54
\gdef isn't good enough for you? – 1010011010 Feb 01 '15 at 14:00
\gdef was unknown to me and now that it is known it does the trick! Many thanks. – Geoff Feb 01 '15 at 14:05
@HarishKumar Maybe my MWE was too minimal. I added an extra frame to show how I want to use the command. – Geoff Feb 01 '15 at 14:06
@Geoff Simply put it outside the frame. – Feb 01 '15 at 14:10
@HarishKumar Perhaps, but I have all these \defs embedded within a macro. Sometimes I need to make one change and keep all the rest the same. \gdef does indeed work. – Geoff Feb 01 '15 at 14:13
This is unrelated to beamer, every latex environment acts as a local scope for definitions. – David Carlisle Feb 01 '15 at 14:47
@David I had a feeling that was the case. – Geoff Feb 01 '15 at 14:50

scope of \def within a beamer document

0 Answers0