Update 20091104: Added “1 on 1 with notes landscape”, based on work of Edson Valle. Also added “2 on 1 with notes” and “3 on 1 with notes” layouts.
Update 20091108: Added “2 on 1 with notes landscape”, based on work of Edson Valle.
Update 20091202: Added “1 on 1 with notes”, based on work of Harald Welte.
For all my presentations I have been using LaTeX-Beamer package. One of the things I missed was the possibility of having handouts of my slides with some lines for notes besides the slides. After some searching I found that in the mailing lists of latex-beamer somebody had already come up with a solution.
If you put the file handoutWithNotes.sty either in your local texmf directory or in the same directory as your presentation you can include it with the following command
\usepackage{handoutWithNotes}
After that, to get 4 sheets on the left side of the page with on the right side of the page some lines for people to write notes you can use the following command
\pgfpagesuselayout{4 on 1 with notes}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm]
The resulting PDF file will contain pages like:
Updated 20091104.I received a note from Edson Valle that he created an addition to the notes files, namely one that allows you to print your sheets 1 per page, but with notes on the side. Made a some small alteration to his original contribution to allow for easier usage.
I have updated the original download-link, so you only have to download the latest handoutWithNotes.sty file and you should be ready to use it.
Again, make sure that you include the style file with:
\usepackage{handoutWithNotes}
after which you can now use the “1 on 1 landscape” layout with the following command:
\pgfpagesuselayout{1 on 1 with notes landscape}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm]
.
The resulting files will look something like:
Showing the 1 on 1 with notes landscape
While I was at it, right away I also created two additional styles “2 on 1 with notes” and “3 on 1 with notes”. The first of these two was already requested once by kc853. Hopefully this new style will be sufficient for his needs. If not, I hope that it will serve as a good starter for modifications.
The “2 on 1 with notes” layout can be used with the command
\pgfpagesuselayout{2 on 1 with notes}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm]
with the following result:
Finally, the “3 on 1 with notes” pages was created because I think that the “2 on 1 with notes” seemed a bit empty 
You can use this “3 on 1 with notes” layout with the command
\pgfpagesuselayout{3 on 1 with notes}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm]
with the following result:
Update 20091108 : Based on the above updated styles, Edson Valle provided me with another addition, the “2 on 1 with notes landscape” layout. You can use it with the command
\pgfpagesuselayout{2 on 1 with notes landscape}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm]
and the output you will get will be something like:
Update 20091202 : Based on the above updated styles, Harald Welte provided me with yet another addition, the “1 on 1 with notes” layout. You can use it with the command
\pgfpagesuselayout{1 on 1 with notes}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm]
and the output you will get will be something like:
All of the above layouts can be used by downloading the handoutWithNotes.sty file.
Just drop me a note in case you like this or find it useful or in case you have any questions 
Thanks for posting this, I’ve found it very useful. One thing that could be mentioned (probably obvious, but it wasn’t to me), is that after \usepackage{handoutWithNotes}, to use the defined layout you need to add something like \pgfpagesuselayout{4 on 1 with notes}[a4paper,border shrink=5mm].
Cheers,
Nathan
Actually pretty good addition to the post
Just edited it for future reference. Thanks for pointing it out to me.
Guido
thats great. very usefull. another “2 on 1 with notes” would be cool… where do i start?
regards kc853
Very useful; thanks!
Currently I don’t have any time for working on that, but with the source for the “4 on 1 with notes” it should be relatively easy to modify it in such a way that it will be 2 on 1 page.
Hello
I’ve made a landscape mode of your style, 1 slide per page. I’ve placed in a separate file. Are you interested in publishing it?
Regards
Edson
I’d be interested.
regards kc853
Thank you very very much! One last thing: Would it be complicated to draw a frame around the slides (useful for white backgrond slides).
I’m now going to compare the original “4 on 1″ with the new ones to learn how all this works …
regards kc853
I don’t know about drawing a frame around it. Whenever I have some spare time I will take a look at it, but I can’t guarantee anything
Guido Diepen
Dear Guido and other contributors
Thank you very much. These all have been very useful in teaching. I would not find time to do these things on my own! Much appreciated! (One curious detail: When I first downloaded the style file using the wget command on my linux desktop, the result was a bit corrupted for some reason. I then saved the file using the browser, and everything works now!)
Best wishes,
Alexey
Great to hear that they are useful
Regarding the wget command not working, I guess there must have been some glitch somewhere. I have just tried it with wget on my linux machine and I am not seeing any differences.
Let me know if you keep on seeing this behaviour, or if it was just something that happened once.
Guido Diepen
I have made a new style for the handoutWithNotes.sty which is “1 on 1 with notes portrait”. I’d like to send you a patch but could not find your e-mail address on this page. Please contact me by e-mail and I will send you the patch.
Regards,
Harald
Thank you very for this very useful file !
For drawing a frame around the slides, I’ve just added the 3 lines (for a 3 on 1 output) :
\pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{1}{border
code=\pgfsetlinewidth{2.5bp}\pgfusepath{stroke}}
\pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{2}{border
code=\pgfsetlinewidth{2.5bp}\pgfusepath{stroke}}
\pgfpageslogicalpageoptions{3}{border
code=\pgfsetlinewidth{2.5bp}\pgfusepath{stroke}}
Regards,
Olivier
Hi! I’m having a lot of troubles trying to compilate my handout. I get the following error:
“Sorry Pandora. (You sneaky devil)
I refuse to unbox an \hbox in vertical mode or vice versa.
And I can’t open any boxes in math mode.”
Can anyone help me??
Great job, I wonder: is it possible to get this into texlive2009?
Regards
Koen
@Koen: I am not sure what I would need to do for that.
@Habby: I am not sure what that error is. I have never seen it before, wished I could help you with it.
Excellent! Exactly what I was looking for.
Excellent work!
Is there any possibility to add additional horizontal space (e.g. for “3 on 1 with notes”) on the left sheet side in order to be then able to create holes in sheets of paper?
Thanks in advance.
Kind regards,
Malik
@Malik
I left that out on purpose, because this way I had some more room on the paper to draw things.
Should not be too difficult to change this. If you download the .sty file, it is relatively straight forward to place the things a bit more to the right. First look for the 3 on 1 with notes mark, and after that you have to play with the x coordinates a bit.
Kind regards,
Guido Diepen
Quick question: how can I create notes on each page that show up in the “Notes” section?
Thanks.
Hi Shige,
unfortunately, I do not completely understand your question.
For example, one page of my slide looks like this:
————————————————
\frame{
\frametitle{Competing arguments}
\begin{itemize}
\item The “fetal origins” hypothesis and its variants predict that
prenatal famine exposure reduces fecundity;
\item The “life history regulation” argument, on the other hand,
predicts that prenatal famine exposure \textit{may} enhance fecundity.
\end{itemize}
}
—————————————-
And I want to add a note on this page that shows up on the right, as in your “2 on 1 with notes landscape” example, how do I do it?
I tried:
————————————————
\frame{
\frametitle{Competing arguments}
\begin{itemize}
\item The “fetal origins” hypothesis and its variants predict that
prenatal famine exposure reduces fecundity;
\item The “life history regulation” argument, on the other hand,
predicts that prenatal famine exposure \textit{may} enhance fecundity.
\end{itemize}
\note{I want to put a note here.}
}
—————————————-
But the note either does not show up at all, or does not show up the same way in your example.
By the way, I did put your .sty file in my local LaTeX folder and it compiles without complaining. So I don’t think that is the problem.
Thanks.
aaaaaaah, now I understand.
Unfortunately, the answer is that you can’t….
The reason for this is that the notes that I am printing are NOT the notes that are taken from your Latex file. In my style file, I print a ’static’ notes page containing only the text notes and some horizontal lines. The purpose of my style is to print out a handout version that can be distributed to your audience, and it allows the audience to write their own notes next to your slides.
Hope this clarifies it for you.
Guido Diepen
Thanks, this is helpful to you.