I'm creating a presentation with LaTeX beamer and want to print out some handouts. The handout should fit onto a A4 page and should have the following format. The page is (virtually) split in 4 parts. On the upper and lower left hand side are slides n and n+1, on the upper and lower right hand side should be some lines. So each participant can write some (side)notes on it. How can I realize this?
[Tex/LaTex] n-up printing of beamer slides with empty right-hand side
beamerprinting
Related Solutions
I use the following preamble, making use of the package handoutWithNotes:
% \documentclass{beamer}
% \usepackage{beamerthemeclassic}
% \documentclass[handout]{beamer}
% \mode<presentation>
% {
% \usetheme{classic}
% }
% Leaving the lines above commented and uncommenting the following
% produces slides four to a page, with or without space for notes;
% the selection is made with the command
%
% \pgfpagesuselayout{...}
%
% a few lines below.
\documentclass[handout]{beamer}
\usepackage{handoutWithNotes}
%
% Load other packages you may need here
%
% \pgfpagesuselayout{4 on 1}[a4paper,landscape,border shrink=5mm
\pgfpagesuselayout{4 on 1 with notes}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm]
%
% .....
It produces rather nicely formatted output four slides to a page, either in landscape format or in portrait format, with space for notes --something my students like.
Look to the blog of Guido Diepen for more info and an example.
As mentioned in an answer to a related question, the number of the current slide within a frame is stored in \beamer@slideinframe. Following Martin Scharrer's comment, we can create a LaTeX counter named slideinframe with
\makeatletter
\def\c@slideinframe{\beamer@slideinframe}
\makeatother
Then to change the pagination of a given frame, you can define a new different footline template, say frame renumbering, and apply that locally to the frame in question. Since I don't have the ift theme you used in your MWE, I'll illustrate with the Madrid theme in the following example.
Outstanding Issue
An outstanding problem that I can't seem to figure out: the frame numbering is correct in the body, but wrong in the footline...
\documentclass[handout]{beamer}
\usetheme{Madrid}
% Define counter "slideinframe"
\makeatletter
\def\c@slideinframe{\beamer@slideinframe}
\makeatother
% Define new template style "frame renumbering"
\defbeamertemplate*{footline}{frame renumbering}
{
\leavevmode%
\hbox{%
\begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.333333\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,center]{author in head/foot}%
\usebeamerfont{author in head/foot}\insertshortauthor~~(\insertshortinstitute)
\end{beamercolorbox}%
\begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.333333\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,center]{title in head/foot}%
\usebeamerfont{title in head/foot}\insertshorttitle
\end{beamercolorbox}%
\begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.333333\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,right]{date in head/foot}%
\usebeamerfont{date in head/foot}\insertshortdate{}\hspace*{2em}
\insertframenumber(\alph{slideinframe}) / \inserttotalframenumber\hspace*{2ex}
\end{beamercolorbox}}%
\vskip0pt%
}
% This is the usual footline template used in Madrid theme
\setbeamertemplate{footline}[infolines theme]
\begin{document}
{
% Enclose the frame to which you want to apply the template "frame renumbering" with {...}
\setbeamertemplate{footline}[frame renumbering]
\begin{frame}{Frame 1}
This is frame \insertframenumber, slide (\alph{slideinframe})
\begin{itemize}
\item<1| handout:1> Handout 1
\item<2| handout:2> Handout 2
\item<3| handout:1-3> Handout 1-3
\end{itemize}
\end{frame}
}
\begin{frame}{Frame 2}
This is frame \insertframenumber, slide (\alph{slideinframe}), with usual pagination.
\end{frame}
\end{document}
Update
A work-around is to use Matthew Leingang's answer in the above mentioned question. It defines a new counter, and calculates the current slide in frame by using the current page minus the page where the current frame starts and plus one.
The problem with this approach is that the counter defined in this way does not show the correct value in the body text.
\documentclass[handout]{beamer}
\usetheme{Madrid}
% Define counter "slideinframe"
\newcounter{slideinframe}
% Define new template style "frame renumbering"
\defbeamertemplate*{footline}{frame renumbering}
{
% Set counter to correct value
\setcounter{slideinframe}{\insertpagenumber}%
\addtocounter{slideinframe}{-\insertframestartpage}%
\addtocounter{slideinframe}{1}%
% Redefine footline format
\leavevmode%
\hbox{%
\begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.333333\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,center]{author in head/foot}%
\usebeamerfont{author in head/foot}\insertshortauthor~~(\insertshortinstitute)
\end{beamercolorbox}%
\begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.333333\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,center]{title in head/foot}%
\usebeamerfont{title in head/foot}\insertshorttitle
\end{beamercolorbox}%
\begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.333333\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,right]{date in head/foot}%
\usebeamerfont{date in head/foot}\insertshortdate{}\hspace*{2em}
\insertframenumber(\alph{slideinframe}) / \inserttotalframenumber\hspace*{2ex}
\end{beamercolorbox}}%
\vskip0pt%
}
% This is the usual footline template used in Madrid theme
\setbeamertemplate{footline}[infolines theme]
\begin{document}
% same as above
\end{document}
Best Answer
Is the two slides per page an absolute requirement? If you can live with four slides per page (plus space for notes in the right hand side), you may look to the answer I gave some time ago to a similar query:
Printing beamer slides?
Hope this helps.