[Tex/LaTex] Beamer-Generated slides to PPT?

beamerconversion

I like creating slides in Beamer. My supervisor doesn't. He wants me to "generate or convert [the set I did for a conference] to PowerPoint." I've tried different online and offline products like `Okto all to PowerPoint', TotalPDFConverter, and free-pdf-to-ppt-converter, but none of them quite cut it.

Most will screw up the text and/or the graphics, or simply convert the whole thing into a number of (low-resolution) bitmaps which are included in a PPT. The best results I get with pdf2picture, which can convert PDFs into WMF or EWMF files which can be inserted into PPT slides. When converting text to curves, most of the graphics look ok, however transparency doesn't seem to be handled correctly and it's still a lot of work inserting one WMF after another.

It says here that going through Keynote seems to work, but I'm already using PPT in a VM inside Linux—bringing in another OS would really be overkill.

Does anyone have any other hints? The result should look like the original PDF and it should be editable, but it's alright if for example text is converted to curves or so.

Best Answer

Howdy this is a half automatic answer.

run htlatex yourfile.tex "html,word" "-coo" to extract some of the text
Erase all the text wich should be editable.

make hi-res Pictures out of the pdf e.g. with this script:

#!/bin/bash
read name
pdftk $name burst
convert -density 288 pg_000*.pdf +adjoin -quality 100 -size 3000x4000    pg.jpg

This is not editable but can be included into PP.

bring those pictures in the background of yout PP file.
reinsert the text using PP (generated in step 0.).

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How should I convert the beamer slides to PowerPoint according to these odd specifications

The method I selected was basically what I outlined in my question:

I write my beamer slides for class with the aspectratio=169 option. The projector in the room has a 4:3 aspect ratio but the letterboxing is not a noticeable issue for projection If anything it makes the slides easier to see since students in the back don't have the bottom of the screen cut off.

It is a noticeable issue for me, as I spend a lot of time rearranging slides laid out in 4:3. Also they've asked for much bigger font sizes than I normally use (72pt+ font size for the slide title?? I can't come anywhere near that close and have more than two words), but I'm working the best I can within their guidelines

For the post-production version with margins I use a pgfpages layout:

\pgfpagesdeclarelayout{NYU Open Ed margins}{}{%
    \pgfpagesphysicalpageoptions{%
        logical pages=1,%
        physical height=7.5in,
        physical width=10in
    }
    \pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{1}{%
        scale=1.27,
        center=\pgfpoint{5in}{4.25in}
    }
}

That gives a 10in x 7.5in (4:3) slide with 1in margins on top, left, and right, and 2in on the bottom. After subtracting these margins, the printable region has aspect ratio 16:9—a pretty lucky coincidence.

Then I use PDF2Keynote (free) to convert the PDF, and open it in Keynote to save as PowerPoint.

[Tex/LaTex] Reusing slides from Beamer presentations

I have a mountain of beamer slides that I combine in all sorts of ways for a number of different courses and presentations that I make. Here's what I do, slightly simplified:

I use beamer templates as containers for series of slides (sometimes a series is just a single slide, sometimes it is 40 slides):

\newcommand{\defsection}[3]{
 \setbeamertemplate{slide #1 #2}{{#3}}}

I.e. in my source I put everything in "sections" a la:

\defsection{intro}{string-to-describe-what-this-is}{
\begin{frame}...\end{frame}
...
\begin{frame}...\end{frame}
} % end of \defsection

I use the sections of slides with the macro \usesection:

\newcommand{\usesection}[2]{
  \ifbeamertemplateempty{slide #1 #2}
  {\errmessage empty section: {#1}{#2}}
  {\opt{texdebug}{\message{
        *** Using section: (#1)(#2) }}
    \usebeamertemplate{slide #1 #2}}}

I use the optional package to be allow conditional inclusion of stuff:

\usepackage[advanced,use-foo,dont-use-bar,do-xyz,do-frotz]{optional}

I include ALL stuff in a master file (main.tex):

\begin{document}
\include{stuff.tex}
\include{more-stuff.tex}
\include{even-more-stuff.tex}

\usesection{intro}{intro}

\opt{advanced}{
  \usesection{adv}{intro}
  \usesection{adv}{bla-bla-bla}
}

\opt{use-foo}{
  \usesection{adv}{foo}
}

\opt{use-bar}{
  \usesection{adv}{bar}
}

\opt{dont-use-bar}{
  \usesection{adv}{alternative-stuff-if-bar-skipped-over}
}
...
\end{document}

Now each "version" or "course" or "subset of stuff" (or whatever) is basically just a matter of defining the right options and then include main.tex.

I realise this may seem a bit complicated at first go, but the key idea is to separate definition of some slides (\defsection) from the use of them (\usesection). Once that separation is made, all sorts of reuse, different selections based on options, etc, etc, becomes quite trivial.

The one thing I'm missing is an enhancement to the optional package so that I could define things like "include this section if option bar is NOT defined. As it is I need to define EITHER use-bar OR dont-use-bar to be able to trigger on both positive and negative matches.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How should I convert the beamer slides to PowerPoint according to these odd specifications

[Tex/LaTex] Reusing slides from Beamer presentations

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