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I want to automate the generation of my Contents slide in beamer, that I customized using TikZ. I currently do it manually.

Context

I aim to create my own beamer style. That is why I have defined a layout for my frame(s) Contents — see below, left:

enter image description here

The frame is structured as following — see above, right :

  • I define an oblique line (A) -- (B) — see red dots
  • On this line, I defined two points : (top) and (down) — see blue dots
  • Section numbers and titles are then evenly spread on this line, between the (top) and (down) boundaries — see yellow dots, and below for cases with one and two sections
    enter image description here

Question

However, this whole structure is manually defined. How could I automate the generation of such frames?

I see two subproblems:

  • Generate points (one), (two), etc.
    Computing their positioning is fairly easy, since they are defined as \node [yellow] (Number) at ($(top)!X!(down)$) {}; where : x = <section number> / (<total number of sections> +1)

  • Generating the label's nodes with \thesection and \secname (the latter found thanks to this question) for each section.

MWE

\documentclass{beamer}
    \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
    \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
    \usepackage{tikz}
        \usetikzlibrary{calc}
        \usetikzlibrary{positioning}

\begin{document}
    \begin{frame}{Basic structure}
        \begin{tikzpicture}
        [
            overlay, 
            remember picture, 
            inner sep=0pt,  
        ]
        %% Defining points A and B
            \node [red] (A) at ($(current page.north west)+(3, 0)$) {$\bullet$};
            \node [red] (B) at ($(current page.south west)+(5, 0)$) {$\bullet$};
            \draw [dashed, thin, gray] (A) -- (B);

        %% Defining the top and the bottom point    
            \node [blue] (top) at ($(A)!0.3!(B)$) {$\bullet$};
            \node [blue] (down) at ($(A)!0.9!(B)$) {$\bullet$};

        %% Defining intermediary points

        %% Creating labels  

        %% Adding explanations
            %Points A & B
                \node[text = green, below right = .025 and .1 of A] {\itshape A};
                \node[text = green, above right = .025 and .1 of B] {\itshape B};
                \draw [dashed, thin, gray] (A) -- (B);

            %Top and Bottom points
                \node[text = green, right = .1 of top] {\itshape top};
                \node[text = green, right = .1 of down] {\itshape down};

        \end{tikzpicture}
    \end{frame}

    \begin{frame}{With one section}
        \begin{tikzpicture}
        [
            overlay, 
            remember picture, 
            inner sep=0pt,  
        ]
        %% Defining points A and B
            \node [red] (A) at ($(current page.north west)+(3, 0)$) {$\bullet$};        
            \node [red] (B) at ($(current page.south west)+(5, 0)$) {$\bullet$};

        %% Defining the top and the bottom point    
            \node [blue] (top) at ($(A)!0.3!(B)$) {$\bullet$};
            \node [blue] (down) at ($(A)!0.9!(B)$) {$\bullet$};


        %% Defining intermediary points
            \node [yellow] (one) at ($(top)!0.5!(down)$) {$\bullet$};

        %% Creating labels  
            \node [font=\Huge\bfseries, text = gray, left =1em of one, anchor= east] {1};
            \node [font=\Large, text = black, right =1em of one, anchor= west] {title of section 1};

        %% Adding explanations
            %Points A & B
            \node[text = green, below right = .025 and .1 of A] {\itshape A};
            \node[text = green, above right = .025 and .1 of B] {\itshape B};
            \draw [dashed, thin, gray] (A) -- (B);

            %Top and Bottom points
            \node[text = green, right = .1 of top] {\itshape top};
            \node[text = green, right = .1 of down] {\itshape down};
        \end{tikzpicture}
    \end{frame}

    \begin{frame}{With two sections}
        \begin{tikzpicture}
        [
            overlay, 
            remember picture, 
            inner sep=0pt,  
        ]
        %% Defining points A and B
            \node [red] (A) at ($(current page.north west)+(3, 0)$) {$\bullet$};        
            \node [red] (B) at ($(current page.south west)+(5, 0)$) {$\bullet$};

        %% Defining the top and the bottom point    
            \node [blue] (top) at ($(A)!0.3!(B)$) {$\bullet$};
            \node [blue] (down) at ($(A)!0.9!(B)$) {$\bullet$};


        %% Defining intermediary points
            \node [yellow] (one) at ($(top)!0.33!(down)$) {$\bullet$};
            \node [yellow] (two) at ($(top)!0.66!(down)$) {$\bullet$};

        %% Creating labels  
            \node [font=\Huge\bfseries, text = gray, left =1em of one, anchor= east] {1};
            \node [font=\Large, text = black, right =1em of one, anchor= west] {title of section 1};

            \node [font=\Huge\bfseries, text = gray, left =1em of two, anchor= east] {2};
            \node [font=\Large, text = black, right =1em of two, anchor= west] {title of section 2};

        %% Adding explanations
            %Points A & B
                \node[text = green, below right = .025 and .1 of A] {\itshape A};
                \node[text = green, above right = .025 and .1 of B] {\itshape B};
                \draw [dashed, thin, gray] (A) -- (B);

            %Top and Bottom points
                \node[text = green, right = .1 of top] {\itshape top};
                \node[text = green, right = .1 of down] {\itshape down};

        \end{tikzpicture}
    \end{frame}

    \begin{frame}{With three sections}
        \begin{tikzpicture}
        [
            overlay, 
            remember picture, 
            inner sep=0pt,  
        ]
        %% Defining points A and B
            \node [red] (A) at ($(current page.north west)+(3, 0)$) {$\bullet$};        
            \node [red] (B) at ($(current page.south west)+(5, 0)$) {$\bullet$};

        %% Defining the top and the bottom point    
            \node [blue] (top) at ($(A)!0.3!(B)$) {$\bullet$};
            \node [blue] (down) at ($(A)!0.9!(B)$) {$\bullet$};


        %% Defining intermediary points
            \node [yellow] (one) at ($(top)!0.25!(down)$) {$\bullet$};
            \node [yellow] (two) at ($(top)!0.50!(down)$) {$\bullet$};
            \node [yellow] (three) at ($(top)!0.75!(down)$) {$\bullet$};

        %% Creating labels  
            \node [font=\Huge\bfseries, text = gray, left =1em of one, anchor= east] {1};
            \node [font=\Large, text = black, right =1em of one, anchor= west] {title of section 1};

            \node [font=\Huge\bfseries, text = gray, left =1em of two, anchor= east] {2};
            \node [font=\Large, text = black, right =1em of two, anchor= west] {title of section 2};

            \node [font=\Huge\bfseries, text = gray, left =1em of three, anchor= east] {3};
            \node [font=\Large, text = black, right =1em of three, anchor= west] {title of section 3};

        %% Adding explanations
            %Points A & B
                \node[text = green, below right = .025 and .1 of A] {\itshape A};
                \node[text = green, above right = .025 and .1 of B] {\itshape B};
                \draw [dashed, thin, gray] (A) -- (B);

            %Top and Bottom points
                \node[text = green, right = .1 of top] {\itshape top};
                \node[text = green, right = .1 of down] {\itshape down};

            %Between 1, 2, 3...
                \path (top) -- node [gray, midway] {x} (one);
                \path (one) -- node [gray, midway] {x} (two);
                \path (two) -- node [gray, midway] {x} (three);
                \path (three) -- node [gray, midway] {x} (down);
        \end{tikzpicture}
    \end{frame}

    \begin{frame}{Intended result with three sections}
        \begin{tikzpicture}
        [
            overlay, 
            remember picture, 
            inner sep=0pt,  
        ]
        %% Defining points A and B
            \node [red] (A) at ($(current page.north west)+(3, 0)$) {};     
            \node [red] (B) at ($(current page.south west)+(5, 0)$) {};

        %% Defining the top and the bottom point    
            \node [blue] (top) at ($(A)!0.3!(B)$) {};
            \node [blue] (down) at ($(A)!0.9!(B)$) {};


        %% Defining intermediary points
            \node [yellow] (one) at ($(top)!0.25!(down)$) {};
            \node [yellow] (two) at ($(top)!0.50!(down)$) {};
            \node [yellow] (three) at ($(top)!0.75!(down)$) {};

        %% Creating labels  
            \node [font=\Huge\bfseries, text = gray, left =1em of one, anchor= east] {1};
            \node [font=\Large, text = black, right =1em of one, anchor= west] {title of section 1};

            \node [font=\Huge\bfseries, text = gray, left =1em of two, anchor= east] {2};
            \node [font=\Large, text = black, right =1em of two, anchor= west] {title of section 2};

            \node [font=\Huge\bfseries, text = gray, left =1em of three, anchor= east] {3};
            \node [font=\Large, text = black, right =1em of three, anchor= west] {title of section 3};

        \end{tikzpicture}
    \end{frame}
\end{document}
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ebosi
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    Currently all your titles have the same length. You should test if you still like your layout if e.g. section 1 is long, section 2 short, section 3 in the middle. – Ulrike Fischer Nov 27 '16 at 17:52
  • @UlrikeFischer good point - didn't thought of that. The label "title of section x" is actually vertically centered using its west anchor, so it would remain fairly ok with two-lines section name (see example). I think the most important is an even distribution of 1, 2, etc. (i.e. it would appear weirder if there is the same vertical space between section labels, but not numbers) – ebosi Nov 27 '16 at 17:59
  • 1
    Maybe http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/303968/36296 can help you how to access the total number of sections. But I hope you will find a better solution to access the section names, then I did in this answer. – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Nov 27 '16 at 20:22
  • 1
    @samcarter thanks: it seems similar indeed ! I will try to create something based on this. – ebosi Nov 27 '16 at 21:16
  • What if the presentation has subsections? – cfr Nov 28 '16 at 01:46

1 Answers1

4

My understanding is that you are creating a table of contents. Thus a reasonable way is to setup a toc style and include the .toc file.

@samcarter suggests a better way to capture the total number of sections. But I choose a more brutal way to demostrate that one can include .toc several times and achieve various goals.

In https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/260647/51022 I had demostrated a similar method.

\documentclass{beamer}
    \usepackage{tikz}
        \usetikzlibrary{calc}
        \usetikzlibrary{positioning}

\begin{document}

\section{title of section 1}
\section{title of section 2}
\section{title of section 3}
\section{title of section 4}
\section{title of section 5}
\subsection{title of subsection 4-1}

\makeatletter
\def\beamer@endinputifotherversion#1{}
\def\beamer@sectionintoc#1#2#3#4#5{\def\thelastsection{#1}}
\def\beamer@subsectionintoc#1#2#3#4#5#6{}
\def\beamer@subsubsectionintoc#1#2#3#4#5#6#7{}
\def\thelastsection{0}
\@input{\jobname.toc}
\pgfmathsetmacro\n{\thelastsection+1}
\def\beamer@sectionintoc#1#2#3#4#5{
    \path($(top)!#1/\n!(bot)$)
        +(-1,0)node[left,gray,font=\Huge\bfseries]{#1}
        +( 1,0)node[right,   ,font=\Large        ]{#2};
}

\frame{{table of contents}
    \tikz[remember picture,overlay,inner sep=0]{
        \path($(current page.north west)+(3, 0)$)coordinate(A)
             ($(current page.south west)+(5, 0)$)coordinate(B)
             ($(A)!0.3!(B)$)coordinate(top)
             ($(A)!0.9!(B)$)coordinate(bot);
        \@input{\jobname.toc}
    }
}

\makeatother

\end{document}
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