[Tex/LaTex] going on with pgfpages and page labels

beamerpage-numberingpgfpages

I’m using a feature of beamer that shows notes beside slides, but the page numbers that are coming out are crazy, making it impossible to extract specific slides into other documents with \includegraphics[page=n]{presentation.pdf}.

For example, in this MWE, there are two frames that are each 1 slide, and then one frame that is four slides. The PDF page labels that show up in Acrobat are, as indicated, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, and 7. It starts at page 2 instead of 1, and then there are four page 3s, but they don’t even all belong to the same frame!

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{pgfpages}

\setbeameroption{show notes on second screen=left}
\setbeamertemplate{note page}{frame \insertframenumber \\ \insertnote}
\def\pg#1{pgfpages says this is page #1 but it is really page \arabic{page}}

\begin{document}

\setcounter{page}{0}

\frame{hi \note{\pg{2}}}

\frame{there \note{\pg{3}}}

\frame{how \pause are \pause you \pause today
\note<1-3>{\pg{3}}
\note<4>{\pg{7}}}

\end{document}

Here’s what the output looks like:

enter image description here

I know that the manual says, “pgfpages will produce wrong page numbers in the .aux file” and gives a manual workaround. But the page counter still works, so shouldn’t there be some way to pass that through to the PDF? I’d like to fix this, but don’t know where to start. Specifically, when the manual says that “TeX instantiates the page numbers when writing an .aux file only when the physical page is shipped out,” what exactly is it talking about? Where is the source code for that?

Best Answer

The page labels in the .pdf file are actually independent of the page numbers in the .aux file. The page labels are also set during shipout but by the hyperref package.

The pgfpages package however ships out a physical page after the next/following logical page is finished. This is necessary for the 'two screens with optional second' layout to allow setting the second screen after the main screen. However, as a side effect, the page counter and some page states of the hyperref package (like page transition) are already set for the next logical page when the (previous) physical page is shipped, which results in the wrong pdfpagelabels and page transitions occurring too early.

To solve this problem, the relevant page states can be saved when the first logical page of a physical page is to be shipped and restored before the corresponding physical page is shipped.

It should be noted that this all only works if pgfpages is loaded after hyperref since hyperref's shipout hook may only be called for physical pages.

% Save and restore pdfpage related information for hyperref.
\@ifpackageloaded{hyperref}{

  % Create new counter to save the page counter.
  \newcount\pgfpages@state@c@page

  % The special per-page label 'thispdfpagelabel' is set/cleared
  % globally during hyperref's shipout hook for physical pages.
  % Therefore it must be saved temporarily before physical shipout.
  \def\pgfpages@state@save@temp{%
    \ifHy@pdfpagelabels%
      % \HyPL@thisLabel is only defined if pdfpagelabels are activated.
      \let\pgfpages@state@thisLabel@temp\HyPL@thisLabel%
    \fi%
  }

  % Save all relevant page states if the first logical page is shipped.
  \def\pgfpages@state@save#1{%
    % Probably it should be configurable which logical page is
    % considered, but the first page seems reasonable for now.
    \ifnum#1=\pgf@firstshipout\relax%
      % Save the special per-page label 'thispdfpagelabel', which is
      % temporarily saved before.
      \ifHy@pdfpagelabels%
        \ifx\pgfpages@state@thisLabel@temp\relax%
          \global\let\pgfpages@state@thisLabel\relax%
        \else%
          \xdef\pgfpages@state@thisLabel{\pgfpages@state@thisLabel@temp}%
        \fi%
      \fi%
      % Save the page counter and its formatting.
      \global\pgfpages@state@c@page=\c@page%
      \global\let\pgfpages@state@thepage\thepage%
      % Save the page transition and duration.
      \global\let\pgfpages@state@pdfpagetransition\@pdfpagetransition%
      \global\let\pgfpages@state@pdfpageduration\@pdfpageduration%
    \fi%
  }

  % Restore all relevant page states.
  \def\pgfpages@state@restore{%
    % Restore the special per-page label 'thispdfpagelabel'.
    \ifHy@pdfpagelabels%
      % \HyPL@thisLabel is only defined if pdfpagelabels are activated.
      \let\HyPL@thisLabel\pgfpages@state@thisLabel%
    \fi%
    % Restore the page counter and its formatting.
    \c@page=\pgfpages@state@c@page%
    \let\thepage\pgfpages@state@thepage%
    % Restore the page transition and duration.
    \let\@pdfpagetransition\pgfpages@state@pdfpagetransition%
    \let\@pdfpageduration\pgfpages@state@pdfpageduration%
  }

}{
  % Do nothing if hyperref is not loaded.
  \def\pgfpages@state@save@temp{}
  \def\pgfpages@state@save#1{}
  \def\pgfpages@state@restore{}
}


% "Patch" macros of pgfpages.

\def\pgfpages@shipoutshipoutbox{%
  \begingroup
    \let \protect \noexpand
    \@resetactivechars
    \global\let\@@if@newlist\if@newlist
    \global\@newlistfalse
    \@parboxrestore%
    % Restore page states before physical shipout:
    \pgfpages@state@restore%
    \pgfpages@originalshipout%
    \vbox{\hbox{%
      \hskip-1in%
      \vbox to \pgfphysicalheight{%
        \vss\box\pgfpages@shipoutbox%
        \vskip1in%
      }}}%
  \endgroup%
}

\def\pgfpages@interceptshipout{%
  % Temporarily save some page states which are globally set during
  % physical shipout:
  \pgfpages@state@save@temp%
  \ifnum\pgf@shipoutnextto>0\relax
    \def\pgf@next{%
      \expandafter\global\expandafter\setbox\csname pgfpages@box@\the\pgf@shipoutnextto\endcsname=\box\voidb@x%
      \afterassignment\pgfpages@shipouttestnext%
      \pgfpagesshipoutlogicalpage{\the\pgf@shipoutnextto}%
    }%
  \else%
    \ifpgf@holdingphysicalpage% shipout physical page now
      {\pgfshipoutphysicalpage}%
    \fi%    
    \ifnum\pgf@logicalpages=0\relax
      \def\pgf@next{\pgfpages@originalshipout}%
    \else%
      \def\pgf@next{%
        \expandafter\global\expandafter\setbox\csname pgfpages@box@\the\pgf@currentshipout\endcsname=\box\voidb@x%
        \afterassignment\pgfpages@shipouttest%
        \pgfpagesshipoutlogicalpage{\the\pgf@currentshipout}%
      }%
    \fi%
  \fi%
  \pgf@next%  
}

\renewcommand\pgfpagesshipoutlogicalpage[1]{%
  \global\pgfphysicalpageemptyfalse%
  % Save page states before logical shipout:
  \pgfpages@state@save{#1}%
  \expandafter\global\expandafter\setbox\csname pgfpages@box@#1\endcsname=}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Beamer 2-up with projected frame above and notes below

This should work, without using the other .sty file. It's arguably an abuse of how you'd keep a second screen of notes while you were giving your presentation, but it works and is very simple.

enter image description here

\documentclass[handout]{beamer}
\title{The Title}
\author{The Author}
\usetheme{Copenhagen}
\usepackage{pgfpages}
\pgfpagesuselayout{2 on 1}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm] % could also use letterpaper
\setbeamertemplate{note page}[plain] % Beamer manual, section 19.1
\setbeameroption{show notes on second screen=bottom} % Beamer manual, section 19.3

\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
Here's some content, with no notes added.
\end{frame}
\begin{frame}
Here's some content, with notes added.
\end{frame}
\note{
Here are things to remember:
\begin{enumerate}
\item Stress this first.
\item Then this.
\end{enumerate}
}
\end{document}

[Tex/LaTex] Creating a handout with the notes on a second screen

I would just use pdfnup for the task:

pdfnup --nup 1x3 --no-landscape --scale 0.9 --delta "0 1cm" --no-tidy slides.pdf

yields a file slides-nup.pdf that with the intended layout:

enter image description here

The pdfnup shell script is part of the pdfjam collection, which is included in most Linux distros. For MacOS it is available via MacPorts, fink, or brew. On Windows, it should work together with cygwin or mingw, but I haven't tested that.

However, as pdfjam is just a wrapper around pdflatex and the pdfpages LaTeX package, you could as well employ pdflatex for the task directly (using an extra LaTeX document):

\batchmode
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{pdfpages}

\begin{document}
  \includepdfmerge[nup=1x3,scale=0.9,delta=0 1cm]{slides.pdf,-}
\end{document}

A solution for a reusable template:

For a reusable, platform-independent template using only pdflatex and no external tools, we could improve the above to a generic handout-from-slides generator.

The following assumes that your presentation template is named with a -slides suffix, that is, <presentation>-slides.tex, which will then compile to a file <presentation>-slides.pdf. The following code should be provided as <presentation>-handout.tex.

If one compiles <presentation>-handout.tex, it does the follwing:

Checks if <presentation>-slides.pdf does exists and prints an error if not
Generates <presentation>-handout.pdf with the respective nup setting.
Checks if <presentation>-slides.pdf was recent, that is, not older than <presentation>-slides.tex. Otherwise, it prints a warning.

Users just need to rename <presentation>-slides.tex and <presentation>-handout.tex accordingly and compile them in the "right" order (which is anyway the "natural" oder, as handout production usually comes last...)

% http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/141194/creating-a-handout-with-the-notes-of-a-second-screen/141294
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{pdfpages}

% We assume that this file is named
%
%    <presentation>-handout.tex
%
% and that the actual material stems from a file
%
%    <presentation>-slides.pdf
%
% which itself is compiled out of the source file
% 
%    <presentation>-slides.tex
%

\newcommand{\jobbasename}{}
\newcommand{\setjobbasename}{%
  \def\split##1-##2!!!{\def\jobbasename{##1}}%
  \expandafter\split\jobname!!!%
}

% after: \jobbasename is <presentation>
\setjobbasename 

\begin{document}
  % Check if <presentation>.pdf does exist, otherwise typeout an error message
  \IfFileExists{\jobbasename-slides.pdf}{%
    % Include the material
    \includepdf[nup=1x3,scale=0.9,delta=0 1cm,pages=-]{\jobbasename-slides.pdf}
    % Check if <presentation.pdf> is older than <presentation.tex> and typeout a warning
    \ifnum\pdfstrcmp{\pdffilemoddate{\jobbasename-slides.pdf}}{\pdffilemoddate{\jobbasename-slides.tex}}<0%
      \typeout{}
      \typeout{WARNING: \jobbasename-slides.pdf seems to be out of date!}
      \typeout{\space\space\space\space\space\space\space\space\space Consider recompiling \jobbasename-slides.tex.}
      \typeout{}
    \fi
  }{%
    \typeout{}
    \typeout{ERROR: \jobbasename-slides.pdf not found!}
    \typeout{\space\space\space\space\space\space\space You need to compile \jobbasename-slides.tex first.}
    \typeout{}
  }
\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Beamer 2-up with projected frame above and notes below

[Tex/LaTex] Creating a handout with the notes on a second screen

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