Friday, October 21, 2011

Presentations using Beamer

Finally.

Finally, I decided to jump, and started using a LaTeX package called beamer to make presentations.

I had been reluctant to make the transition because (i) like all non-GUI programs/packages, there is a learning curve, (ii) I liked the platform independence of OpenOffice Impress, which (iii) especially when combined with oooLaTeX let me display mathematical formulae with the cleanliness of LaTeX, and (iv) my presentations, unlike my documents don't have as many cross-references and citations.

A part of me also liked the freeform nature of dropping images wherever I liked, and the ability to sketch up schematic diagrams on the fly.

I gave beamer a test drive, learning from these tutorials. Since I knew LaTeX before, I was up and running in about two hours.It took me surprisingly less time than I had expected.

In fact, I just presented slides made with beamer at the Society of Rheology's annual meeting in Cleveland.

In the future, I expect to use this tool a lot more.

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