[Tex/LaTex] Progress bar for latex-beamer

beamer

Instead of slide numbers, I find it very nice to have something like a unobtrusive progressbar at the bottom which grows each slide about (width of screen)/(slide numbers).

I've found here (page in German) the following code snippet:

%%-----------------------------------------------------------------------
%% progress bar in footline
%% http://www.mrunix.de/forums/showpost.php?p=316577&postcount=3
%% -----------------------------------------------------------------------
\definecolor{lightgr}{rgb}{0.7 0.7 0.7}
\makeatletter
\addtobeamertemplate{footline}{%
  \color{lightgr}% to color the progressbar
  \hspace*{-\beamer@leftmargin}%
  \rule{\beamer@leftmargin}{2pt}%
  \rlap{\rule{\dimexpr
      \beamer@startpageofframe\dimexpr
      \beamer@rightmargin+\textwidth\relax/\beamer@endpageofdocument}{1pt}}
  % next 'empty' line is mandatory!

  \vspace{0\baselineskip}
  {}
}

It work fine in the beginning, but after I added a certain number of frames, suddenly it caused the following error message:

! Dimension too large.
<argument> ...amer@rightmargin +\textwidth \relax 
                                                  /\beamer@endpageofdocument 
l.517 \lyxframeend

It took me several hours to figure out that the progress bar caused the error message, because it is thrown only when I add certain images. But I couldn't figure out any system, when there is an error and when not. Sometimes it is possible to add new frames without problems, sometimes not. Sometimes when I use pdfpages to add a page the error occurs.

I use LyX (as you can see) and the Pittsburgh theme, but I suppose such a (running) progress bar snippet would be interesting for many users (also those with other themes and without LyX).

A screenshot of a frame to illustrate the result:

Screenshot

My Questions:

Is there a way to get this code more stable and compatible with any theme?
Would it be easy to turn this into an package?
How can I change the \beamer@startpageofframe to the real PDF page number? (Otherwise there are quite big and sudden jumps of the progressbar.)

(Please comment if I should provide more information, e.g. my whole LyX file.)

Best Answer

Here you have some customizable progress bars (part of a project I am working on):

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}

\definecolor{pbblue}{HTML}{0A75A8}% filling color for the progress bar
\definecolor{pbgray}{HTML}{575757}% background color for the progress bar

\makeatletter
\def\progressbar@progressbar{} % the progress bar
\newcount\progressbar@tmpcounta% auxiliary counter
\newcount\progressbar@tmpcountb% auxiliary counter
\newdimen\progressbar@pbht %progressbar height
\newdimen\progressbar@pbwd %progressbar width
\newdimen\progressbar@tmpdim % auxiliary dimension

\progressbar@pbwd=\linewidth
\progressbar@pbht=1.5ex

% the progress bar
\def\progressbar@progressbar{%

    \progressbar@tmpcounta=\insertframenumber
    \progressbar@tmpcountb=\inserttotalframenumber
    \progressbar@tmpdim=\progressbar@pbwd
    \multiply\progressbar@tmpdim by \progressbar@tmpcounta
    \divide\progressbar@tmpdim by \progressbar@tmpcountb

  \begin{tikzpicture}[rounded corners=2pt,very thin]

    \shade[top color=pbgray!20,bottom color=pbgray!20,middle color=pbgray!50]
      (0pt, 0pt) rectangle ++ (\progressbar@pbwd, \progressbar@pbht);

      \shade[draw=pbblue,top color=pbblue!50,bottom color=pbblue!50,middle color=pbblue] %
        (0pt, 0pt) rectangle ++ (\progressbar@tmpdim, \progressbar@pbht);

    \draw[color=normal text.fg!50]  
      (0pt, 0pt) rectangle (\progressbar@pbwd, \progressbar@pbht) 
        node[pos=0.5,color=normal text.fg] {\textnormal{%
             \pgfmathparse{\insertframenumber*100/\inserttotalframenumber}%
             \pgfmathprintnumber[fixed,precision=2]{\pgfmathresult}\,\%%
        }%
    };
  \end{tikzpicture}%
}

\addtobeamertemplate{headline}{}
{%
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=\paperwidth,ht=4ex,center,dp=1ex]{white}%
    \progressbar@progressbar%
  \end{beamercolorbox}%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
test
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
test
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
test
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
test
\end{frame}

\end{document}

enter image description here

And a close-up image of the bar:

enter image description here

Two little variations; first using a circle as progress indicator:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}

\definecolor{pbblue}{HTML}{0A75A8}% color for the progress bar and the circle

\makeatletter
\def\progressbar@progressbar{} % the progress bar
\newcount\progressbar@tmpcounta% auxiliary counter
\newcount\progressbar@tmpcountb% auxiliary counter
\newdimen\progressbar@pbht %progressbar height
\newdimen\progressbar@pbwd %progressbar width
\newdimen\progressbar@rcircle % radius for the circle
\newdimen\progressbar@tmpdim % auxiliary dimension

\progressbar@pbwd=\linewidth
\progressbar@pbht=1pt
\progressbar@rcircle=2.5pt

% the progress bar
\def\progressbar@progressbar{%

    \progressbar@tmpcounta=\insertframenumber
    \progressbar@tmpcountb=\inserttotalframenumber
    \progressbar@tmpdim=\progressbar@pbwd
    \multiply\progressbar@tmpdim by \progressbar@tmpcounta
    \divide\progressbar@tmpdim by \progressbar@tmpcountb

  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw[pbblue!30,line width=\progressbar@pbht]
      (0pt, 0pt) -- ++ (\progressbar@pbwd,0pt);

    \filldraw[pbblue!30] %
      (\the\dimexpr\progressbar@tmpdim-\progressbar@rcircle\relax, .5\progressbar@pbht) circle (\progressbar@rcircle);

    \node[draw=pbblue!30,text width=3.5em,align=center,inner sep=1pt,
      text=pbblue!70,anchor=east] at (0,0) {\insertframenumber/\inserttotalframenumber};
  \end{tikzpicture}%
}

\addtobeamertemplate{headline}{}
{%
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=\paperwidth,ht=4ex,center,dp=1ex]{white}%
    \progressbar@progressbar%
  \end{beamercolorbox}%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
test
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
test
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
test
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
test
\end{frame}

\end{document}

enter image description here

And the close-up:

enter image description here

And now using a triangle as progress-indicator (inspired by the theme Ignasi mentioned in his answer):

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}

\definecolor{pbgray}{HTML}{575757}% background color for the progress bar

\makeatletter
\def\progressbar@progressbar{} % the progress bar
\newcount\progressbar@tmpcounta% auxiliary counter
\newcount\progressbar@tmpcountb% auxiliary counter
\newdimen\progressbar@pbht %progressbar height
\newdimen\progressbar@pbwd %progressbar width
\newdimen\progressbar@tmpdim % auxiliary dimension

\progressbar@pbwd=\linewidth
\progressbar@pbht=1pt

% the progress bar
\def\progressbar@progressbar{%

    \progressbar@tmpcounta=\insertframenumber
    \progressbar@tmpcountb=\inserttotalframenumber
    \progressbar@tmpdim=\progressbar@pbwd
    \multiply\progressbar@tmpdim by \progressbar@tmpcounta
    \divide\progressbar@tmpdim by \progressbar@tmpcountb

  \begin{tikzpicture}[very thin]
    \draw[pbgray!30,line width=\progressbar@pbht]
      (0pt, 0pt) -- ++ (\progressbar@pbwd,0pt);
    \draw[draw=none]  (\progressbar@pbwd,0pt) -- ++ (2pt,0pt);

    \draw[fill=pbgray!30,draw=pbgray] %
       ( $ (\progressbar@tmpdim, \progressbar@pbht) + (0,1.5pt) $ ) -- ++(60:3pt) -- ++(180:3pt) ;

    \node[draw=pbgray!30,text width=3.5em,align=center,inner sep=1pt,
      text=pbgray!70,anchor=east] at (0,0) {\insertframenumber/\inserttotalframenumber};
  \end{tikzpicture}%
}

\addtobeamertemplate{headline}{}
{%
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=\paperwidth,ht=5ex,center,dp=1ex]{white}%
    \progressbar@progressbar%
  \end{beamercolorbox}%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
test
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
test
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
test
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
test
\end{frame}

\end{document}

enter image description here

And the close-up:

enter image description here

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Combining progress bars for latex-beamer

The quickest fix seems to be finding the lines

\draw[color=normal text.fg!50]  
      (0pt, 0pt) rectangle (\progressbar@pbwd, \progressbar@pbht) 
        node[pos=0.5,color=normal text.fg] {\textnormal{%
             \pgfmathparse{\insertframenumber*100/\inserttotalframenumber}%
             \pgfmathprintnumber[fixed,precision=2]{\pgfmathresult}\,\%%
        }%
    };

in the first one and changing it to

\draw[color=normal text.fg!50]  
  (0pt, 0pt) rectangle (\progressbar@pbwd, \progressbar@pbht) 
    node[pos=0.5,color=normal text.fg] {%
         \insertframenumber/\inserttotalframenumber%
};

enter image description here

[Tex/LaTex] Progress bar within section/subsection for beamer

Add the following to your preamble.

    \definecolor{lightgr}{rgb}{0.7 0.7 0.7}
    \makeatletter
    \newcount\beamer@sectionstartframe
    \newcount\beamer@sectionendframe

    \beamer@sectionstartframe=1

    \apptocmd{\beamer@section}{\addtocontents{nav}{\protect\headcommand{%
                    \protect\beamer@sectionframes{\the\beamer@sectionstartframe}{\the\c@framenumber}}}}{}{}
    \apptocmd{\beamer@section}{\beamer@sectionstartframe=\c@framenumber\advance\beamer@sectionstartframe by1\relax}{}{}
    \AtEndDocument{\immediate\write\@auxout{\string\@writefile{nav}%

    {\noexpand\headcommand{\noexpand\beamer@sectionframes{\the\beamer@sectionstartframe}{\the\c@framenumber}}}}}{}{}
    \def\beamer@startframeofsection{1}
    \def\beamer@endframeofsection{1}
    \def\beamer@sectionframes#1#2{%
        \ifnum\c@framenumber<#1%
        \else%
            \ifnum \c@framenumber>#2%
            \else%
                \gdef\beamer@startframeofsection{#1}%
                \gdef\beamer@endframeofsection{#2}%
            \fi%
        \fi%
    }
    \newcommand\insertsectionstartframe{\beamer@startframeofsection}
    \newcommand\insertsectionendframe{\beamer@endframeofsection}

    \def\beamertextwidth{\dimexpr 0.875 \textwidth\relax}
    \makeatother

    \addtobeamertemplate{footline}{%
        \color{lightgr}% to color the progressbar
        \rlap{\rule{\numexpr (\insertframenumber-\insertsectionstartframe)+1  \dimexpr  \beamertextwidth/(\insertsectionendframe -\insertsectionstartframe+1) \relax}{3pt}}%
    }%

The above code should create a section progressbar in the footline of each slide. Note that the above code does work properly if you create new frames inside the AtBeginSection environment.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Combining progress bars for latex-beamer

[Tex/LaTex] Progress bar within section/subsection for beamer

Related Question