You could choose a beamer theme which supports that. For example Singapore
:
\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{Singapore}
\begin{document}
\section{Introduction}
\subsection{One}
\begin{frame} text \end{frame}
\subsection{Two}
\begin{frame} text \end{frame}
\subsection{Three}
\begin{frame} text \end{frame}
\subsection{Four}
\begin{frame} text \end{frame}
\section{Methods}
\subsection{One}
\begin{frame} text \end{frame}
\subsection{Two}
\begin{frame} text \end{frame}
\end{document}
Here's the top of a frame, where subsection three of the introduction is highlighted.
Or
\usetheme{Szeged}
Or
\usetheme{Darmstadt}
There are related themes such as Berlin
, Ilmenau
, Dresden
and Frankfurt
, with such a navigation.
Also the progressbar theme is interesting, if you wish to show the frame progress.
To visit beamer themes galleries, have a look at Where to find custom beamer themes.
PDF is not just designed for printing. It is a format for displaying electronic documents, independently of hardware (printer, screen, e-reader, smartphone, projector etc.) and software (such as the operating system). This format is both good for printouts and presentation, so a good choice as output format.
Presentations with technical or scientific content are often based on documents, very often written in LaTeX also because of it's mathematical typesetting capabilities. It's very natural to use the same tool, LaTeX, for the presentation.
The benefits of LaTeX, such as separating the form/style and the content, portability in source, implementation and output, cross-referencing capabilities and typesetting quality, are great for presentations as well.
As I use LaTeX, I can work on the source using Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X, and I can give the presentation away as a PDF for reading or presenting on a conference, the reader or speaker can use Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, a tablet computer, a smartphone - or a printout.
If I would use PowerPoint - well, I would be pretty bound to Windows Version X with PowerPoint Version Y or a suited viewer, which is also a limit for the reader or presenter.
Best Answer
I highly recommend the
beamer
class.Here are features of presentation classes intended to help you deciding:
beamer provides a huge amount of features, a lot of themes and sophisticated ways for customization. It offers an outstanding comprehensive documentation. It can be used with LaTeX and also with pdfLaTeX. So it's capable of using pdfLaTeX microtypographic features, furthermore it supports PNG, JPEG and PDF image formats besides EPS. It uses pgf for graphics.
powerdot cannot be used with pdfLaTeX. It uses PSTricks for graphics and supports EPS images. So, it may be a good choice for a PSTricks user who doesn't need direct JPEG, PNG or PDF image support. It also provides templates, further it offers a LyX style file.
prosper is older. It's successor is HA-Prosper. powerdot has been built on it, so I would not use prosper any more.
There are further and even older classes, such as
seminar
andslides
, the latter is a standard LaTeX2e class.See also the answers to:
Are there alternatives to Beamer for slides?
Presentations best style