Creating latex-beamer handouts with notes

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