LaTeX

In addition to creating written documents, LaTeX can assist with slideshows as well. The document class beamer (\documentclass{beamer}) can be used to create content in a slideshow format. The style, color, and font can be customized as needed. See the box at the bottom of the page for an example of the source code and the slides produced.

Document Preamble

First, set your document class to beamer using the command \documentclass{beamer}. Then, load any packages you will use in the main section of your presentation, as you would for any other LaTeX document.

Themes

You can customize the aesthetics of your presentation, including the style, color scheme, and font scheme. In the document preamble, use the following commands:

• \usetheme{x} - Select a Format Style
• \usecolortheme{x} - Select a Color Scheme
• \usefonttheme{x} - Select a Font Scheme

This link from the Department of Information and Communication Engineering at the Autonomous University of Barcelona outlines many of the options available for each of these parameters.

Title Slide

Often, you will want to create a title slide for your presentation. In the document preamble, you can set key details you would like to appear in the title slide, such as the title of the presentation, author names, affiliations, and the date, using the following commands:

• \title{x} - Presentation Title
• \author{x} - Author Names
• \institute{x} - Author Affiliation
• \date{x} - Presentation Date

After beginning your document environment, open a frame environment and use the command \titlepage to insert a title slide, populated with the information you have provided in the document preamble. 

Table of Contents

As in a regular LaTeX document, you can group your slides by section, subsection, etc. You may want to create a table of contents slide based on these sections. To create a table of contents slides, simply use the command \tableofcontents in a frame environment. 

Main Slides

Individual slides are created using the frame environment. When opening a frame environment, you can open up a second mandatory argument. Text entered into this second mandatory argument will be the title for that slide (ex: \begin{frame}{Slide Title}...\end{frame}). Inside of each frame environment, simply add the content you would like to appear in a particular slide using the same coding you would use for a standard LaTeX document.

You may want greater customization regarding the coloring of your beamer presentation. You can use a package called colourchange to select a specific color, not included in the base options. Simply use the command \selectmanualcolour{color-name} to set a new color theme. You can choose from any colors within the xcolor package (including colors from the extra options). Make sure to load the xcolor package with the correct optional argument for the color you are interested in using. (For more information, including other options for color setting, see the package documentation linked above.

For example, imagine we wanted to change the example above to use the color SpringGreen3 from the x11names option. See below for the appropriate code and associated output.