[Tex/LaTex] two (or more) columns navigation in beamer sidebar

beamer

I have a long presentation which basically is a collection of exercises. Each excercise has its own subsection, shown in the sidebar, like this:

\documentclass{beamer}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usetheme[hideothersubsections,left,width=1.4cm]{Goettingen}

\begin{document}
 \begin{frame}
  \frametitle{Start page}
 \end{frame}
 \begin{frame} 
  \section{section 1}
  \subsection{1}
  \subsection{2}
  \subsection{3}
  \subsection{4}
  \subsection{5}
  \subsection{6}
  \subsection{7}
 \end{frame}
\end{document}

eventually I got this: enter image description here
After a certain number the sidebar is filled and some numbers end outside of the frame.

What I would like is a two (or more) columns sidebar navigation, so that I can add more exercises.

Looks like a similar problem was solved here, but I'm not skilled enough to adapt that solution to a vertical sidebar.

Any help is much appreciated.

Followup#1

Now i've got to this point:
enter image description here
What I can't still do is:

1) exclude sections from the multicol environment, i.e. the section 2 should be in the first row, not the second

2) the first subsection of the second column should be horizontally aligned with the first subsection of the first column, i.e. 1.5 should be aligned to 1.1.

This is the code, I just added a multicol environment at the end of the \insertverticalnavigation definition:

\documentclass{beamer}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{multicol}

\usetheme[hideothersubsections,left,width=1.4cm]{Goettingen}


\makeatletter
\def\insertverticalnavigation#1{%
  \vbox{%
    \def\sectionentry##1##2##3##4##5{%
      \ifnum##5=\c@part%
      \def\insertsectionhead{##2}%
      \def\insertsectionheadnumber{##1}%
      \def\insertpartheadnumber{##5}%
      \hbox{{%
        \usebeamerfont{section in sidebar}\usebeamercolor[fg]{section in sidebar}%
          \hyperlink{Navigation##3}{%
          \ifnum\c@section=##1%
            \ifnum\c@subsection=0\relax%
              {\usebeamertemplate{section in sidebar}}%
            \else%
              \ifx\beamer@nav@css\beamer@hidetext%
                {\usebeamertemplate{section in sidebar}}%
              \else%
                {\usebeamertemplate{section in sidebar shaded}}%
              \fi%
            \fi%
          \else
            {\usebeamertemplate{section in sidebar shaded}}%
          \fi}}}%
      \beamer@currentsubsection=0\relax\fi}%
    \def\slideentry##1##2##3##4##5##6{}%
    \def\beamer@subsectionentry##1##2##3##4##5{%
      \ifnum##1=\c@part%
      \def\insertpartheadnumber{##1}%
      \def\insertsectionheadnumber{##2}%
      \def\insertsubsectionheadnumber{##3}%
      \def\insertsubsectionhead{##5}%
       \beamer@tocifnothide{\ifnum\c@section=##2\ifnum\c@subsection=##3\beamer@nav@css\else\beamer@nav@oss\fi\else\beamer@nav@ooss\fi}%
      {\hbox{{%
        \usebeamerfont{subsection in sidebar}\usebeamercolor[fg]{subsection in sidebar}%
          \hyperlink{Navigation##4}{%
          \ifnum\c@section=##2%
            \ifnum\c@subsection=##3%
              \ifnum\c@subsubsection=0\relax%
                {\usebeamertemplate{subsection in sidebar}}%
              \else%
                {\usebeamertemplate{subsection in sidebar shaded}}%
              \fi%
            \else%
              {\usebeamertemplate{subsection in sidebar shaded}}%
            \fi%
          \else%
            {\usebeamertemplate{subsection in sidebar shaded}}%
          \fi}}}%
      }%
      \fi}%
    \def\beamer@subsubsectionentry##1##2##3##4##5##6{%
      \ifnum##1=\c@part%
      \def\insertpartheadnumber{##1}%
      \def\insertsectionheadnumber{##2}%
      \def\insertsubsectionheadnumber{##3}%
      \def\insertsubsubsectionheadnumber{##3}%
      \def\insertsubsubsectionhead{##6}%
      \beamer@tocifnothide{\ifnum\c@section=##2\ifnum\c@subsection=##3\beamer@nav@css\else\beamer@nav@oss\fi\else\beamer@nav@ooss\fi}%
      {\hbox{{%
        \usebeamerfont{subsubsection in sidebar}\usebeamercolor[fg]{subsubsection in sidebar}%
          \hyperlink{Navigation##5}{%
          \ifnum\c@section=##2%
            \ifnum\c@subsection=##3%
              \ifnum\c@subsubsection=##4%
                {\usebeamertemplate{subsubsection in sidebar}}%
              \else
                {\usebeamertemplate{subsubsection in sidebar shaded}}%
              \fi%
            \else%
              {\usebeamertemplate{subsubsection in sidebar shaded}}%
            \fi%
          \else%
            {\usebeamertemplate{subsubsection in sidebar shaded}}%
          \fi}}}%
           }%        
      \fi}%
       \hspace*{0.1em}\parbox[c][1cm][c]{1cm}{              %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
       \begin{multicols}{2}                                 % multicol     % 
       \dohead\end{multicols}                               % code         %
       }                                                    %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
  }%
}
\makeatother


\begin{document}
  \section{1}
  \subsection{1.1}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{1.2}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{1.3}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{1.4}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{1.5}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{1.6}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{1.7}
 \frame{test} 
  \section{2}
  \subsection{2.1}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{2.2}
 \frame{test} 
\end{document}

Best Answer

Since customizing \insertverticalnavigation seemed too complicated I tried a different approach and managed to obtain what I wanted. I wasn't able to exclude the sections from the multicol environment, so I decided to separate section and subsection navigation, placing the latter at the end of the former.

Here is the code:

\documentclass{beamer}

\usepackage{multicol}

\usetheme[hideothersubsections,left,width=1.4cm]{Goettingen}


\makeatletter
\def\insertsubsectionnavigation#1{%
  \hbox to #1{%
    \vbox{{%
      \usebeamerfont{subsection in sidebar}\usebeamercolor[fg]{subsection in sidebar}%
      \vskip0.5625ex%
      \beamer@currentsubsection=0%
      \def\sectionentry##1##2##3##4##5{}%
      \def\slideentry##1##2##3##4##5##6{\ifnum##6=\c@part\ifnum##1=\c@section%
        \ifnum##2>\beamer@currentsubsection%
        \beamer@currentsubsection=##2%
        \def\insertsubsectionhead{##5}%
        \def\insertsectionheadnumber{##1}%
        \def\insertsubsectionheadnumber{##2}%
        \def\insertpartheadnumber{##6}%
        \beamer@link(##4){%
              \ifnum\c@subsection=##2%
                {\usebeamertemplate{subsection in head/foot}}%
              \else%
                {\usebeamertemplate{subsection in head/foot shaded}}%
              \fi\hfill}\par
        \fi\fi\fi}%
       \hspace*{0.1em}\parbox[c][1cm][c]{1.4cm}{%
       \begin{multicols}{3}
       \dohead\end{multicols}
       }\space
   }\hfil
}}}

\setbeamertemplate{sidebar left}
{%
  \leavevmode\@tempdimb=2.7ex%
      \multiply\@tempdimb by\beamer@sectionmax%
    \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=1.4cm,ht=0.5cm,dp=2ex]{title in sidebar}%
      {\par\centering\inserttitle\par}%
    \end{beamercolorbox}\\
    \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=1.4cm,ht=0.5cm,dp=2ex]{author in sidebar}%
      {\par\centering\insertauthor\par}%
    \end{beamercolorbox}\\
    \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=1.4cm,ht=\@tempdimb,dp=2ex]{section in sidebar}%
      {\vfill\insertsectionnavigation{1.4cm}}%
    \end{beamercolorbox}\\
    \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=1.4cm,ht=0.8cm]{subsection in sidebar}%
      {\vfill\insertsubsectionnavigation{1.4cm}}%
    \end{beamercolorbox}%
}
\makeatother

\title{Title}
\author{Author}

\begin{document}
  \section{Section 1}
  \subsection{1}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{2}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{3}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{4}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{5}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{6}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{7}
 \frame{test}
 \subsection{8}
 \frame{test}
  \subsection{9}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{10}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{11}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{12}
 \frame{test} 
  \section{Section 2}
  \subsection{1}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{2}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{3}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{4}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{5}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{6}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{7}
 \frame{test}
 \subsection{8}
 \frame{test}
  \subsection{9}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{10}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{11}
 \frame{test} 
  \subsection{12}
 \frame{test} 
\end{document}

Mandatory screenshot:
enter image description here

In short, I redefined \insertsubsectionnavigation to include a three columns layout and then set a new sidebar template with all the content from the default Goettingen template but with the subsection navigation moved at the end of the section navigation. For some reason i had to use head/foot subsection template instead of the sidebar one, because the latter screwed up the multicolumn navigation.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] SideBar in Beamer

Firs set the sidebar canvas left template to be empty and then include the image using the sidebar left template:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme[width=1.5cm]{PaloAlto}

\makeatletter
\setbeamertemplate{sidebar canvas left}{}
\setbeamertemplate{sidebar left}{%
  \vspace*{\fill}
  \includegraphics[width=1.5cm,height=5cm]{ctanlion}
  \vspace*{\fill}
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\frame{CTAN lion drawing by Duane Bibby.}

\end{document}

enter image description here

If you also want to remove the darker square in the upper left corner, add to the preamble the lines

\makeatletter
\setlength\beamer@sidebarwidth{0cm}
\makeatother

Now, as a new requirement in a comment, the OP decided that he/she needs a black sidebar, with an image in the middle and the author name in the botton. Here's the new code:

\documentclass{beamer}
\newlength\mywd
\setlength\mywd{1.5cm}
\usetheme[width=\mywd]{PaloAlto}

\makeatletter
\setbeamertemplate{sidebar canvas left}[vertical shading][top=black,middle=black,bottom=black]

\setbeamertemplate{sidebar left}{%
  \vspace*{\fill}
  \includegraphics[width=\mywd,height=3cm]{ctanlion}\par
  \vfill
  \parbox{\mywd}{\centering\textcolor{white}{\insertauthor}}
  \vspace*{0.6cm}
}
\setlength\beamer@sidebarwidth{0cm}
\makeatother

\author{The Author}
\begin{document}

\frame{CTAN lion drawing by Duane Bibby.}

\end{document}

enter image description here

If the black stripe must extend all the way up, an additional redefinition of the headline template will be necessary:

\documentclass{beamer}
\newlength\mywd
\setlength\mywd{1.5cm}
\usetheme[width=\mywd]{PaloAlto}

\makeatletter
\setbeamertemplate{sidebar canvas left}[vertical shading][top=black,middle=black,bottom=black]

\setbeamertemplate{sidebar left}{%
  \vspace*{\fill}
  \includegraphics[width=\mywd,height=3cm]{ctanlion}\par
  \vfill
  \parbox{\mywd}{\centering\textcolor{white}{\insertauthor}}
  \vspace*{0.6cm}
}
 \setbeamertemplate{headline}
  {%
    \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=\paperwidth]{frametitle}
      \ifx\beamer@sidebarside\beamer@lefttext%
      \else%
        \hfill%
      \fi%
      \ifdim\beamer@sidebarwidth>0pt%
        \color{black}
        \vrule width\beamer@sidebarwidth height \beamer@headheight%
        \hskip-\beamer@sidebarwidth%
        \hbox to \beamer@sidebarwidth{\hss\vbox to
          \beamer@headheight{\vss\hbox{\color{fg}\insertlogo}\vss}\hss}%
      \else%
        \vrule width0pt height \beamer@headheight%  
      \fi%
    \end{beamercolorbox}
  }
\makeatother

\author{The Author}
\begin{document}

\frame{CTAN lion drawing by Duane Bibby.}

\end{document}

enter image description here

[Tex/LaTex] Customizing the navigation sidebar “per section”

For information, here is what I have done to solve my problem

1/ I have defined a couple of counters

\newcounter{numsection}  % count the index of the sections
\newcounter{skipsection} % number of the section to remove at the beginning
\newcounter{lastsection} % index of the last section to display
\def\tmp@skipsection{0}  % temporary variable
\def\tmp@lastsection{0}  % temporary variable

2/ Definition of the function to set the counters; they have to be called before the \section command

\newcommand{\setskipsection}[1]{\gdef\tmp@skipsection{#1}}
\newcommand{\setlastsection}[1]{\gdef\tmp@lastsection{#1}}

3/ Installation of the hooks using \AtBeginSection command:

\AtBeginSection[]{
    \setcounter{skipsection}{\tmp@skipsection}
    \setcounter{lastsection}{\tmp@lastsection}
    \setskipsection{0}
    \setlastsection{0}
    \sectionframe
}

4/ Redefinition of the relevant template: a) reset the counter for the section index

\defbeamertemplate*{sidebar left}{modele-name}
{%
    \setcounter{numsection}{0}%
    \insertverticalnavigation{\beamer@leftsidebar}%
}

b) code for a normal section, essentially to count the index of the section

\defbeamertemplate*{section in sidebar}{modele-name}
{%
    \stepcounter{numsection}%
    \ifnum\value{numsection}>\value{skipsection}%
        % code for typesetting section name
    \fi%
}

c) code for a shaded section

\defbeamertemplate*{section in sidebar shaded}{modele-name}
{%
    \stepcounter{numsection}%
    \ifnum\value{lastsection}=0%
        \ifnum\value{numsection}=\value{skipsection}%
            % code to display the *collapsed* sections at the beginning of the sidebar
        \fi%
        \ifnum\value{numsection}>\value{skipsection}%
            % code to display a normal shaded section
        \fi%
    \else%
        \ifnum\value{numsection}=\value{skipsection}%
            % code to display the *collapsed* sections at the beginning of the sidebar
        \fi%
        \ifnum\value{numsection}>\value{skipsection}%
            \ifnum\value{numsection}<\value{lastsection}%
                % code to display a normal shaded section
            \fi%
            \ifnum\value{numsection}=\value{lastsection}%
                % code to display the *collapsed* sections at the end of the sidebar
            \fi%
        \fi%
    \fi%
}

Followup#1

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] SideBar in Beamer

[Tex/LaTex] Customizing the navigation sidebar “per section”

Related Question