on-screen presentations in Linux

[RAYNER Peter <ray060@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I complained about powerpoint envy (just joking :-) a while ago.
Turns out a bunch of the anti-microsoft mavrics around here have been
using a solution for some time.  I now have this working well enough
to pass on to others.  It involves using pdflatex to generate my
slides in pdf then acroread to display them.

I'll include a sample file in this message showing the latex.  The
sequence for the displaying, in my case anyway is
boot Redhat 7.1  to run-level 5.  This fires up xdm by the look of it.
If you don't want to be here then ctrl-alt-f1 will get you back to a
normal virtual console.  Note the extra ctrl key there, looks like X
is doing things to keymaps.  To get back into the X virtual console
it's just alt-f1, confused yet?  

I have a filed called X in my home directory which simply starts
emacspeak.  Here's the file
----------------------------------------------------------------------

emacspeak -o 
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
For my set-up I have stuff  in my .Xdefaults file like
----------------------------------------------------------------------

! emacs, xemacs

emacs*Background: DarkSlateGray
emacs*Foreground: Wheat
emacs*pointerColor: Orchid
emacs*cursorColor: Orchid
emacs*bitmapIcon: on
emacs*font: fixed
emacs.geometry: 165x52
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
the last line is the only important one, on my laptop it sets up 165
columns times 52 lines which must be almost unreadably small ... who
cares.  
Once in there fire up a shell
then if you're displaying a file called slides enter
acroread slides.pdf
This may not come up in full-screen mode.  Entering ctrl-l seems to
get that.  You will come up on the first page which you might want to
make blank if you want a dramatic entry to your title slide.  Then
page-down  gets you the next page etc.  The other thing to remember is
that if you're using a laptop check out what key sequence is required
to activate the external CRT not the internal LCD screen.  I would
have had a disaster with my first attempt but for quick-witted help on
that score.  
I've got things working to that level.  It should also be possible to
have the system announce a title for each page as you go through so
you as well as the audience have a clue what's happening.  This is
possible since acroread can launch applications as each page is
opened.   I'm still working through a problem of acroread wanting you
to click a "yes" to launch this, an obvious security need but one I'd
like to turn off anyway
an obvious application is something running cmdlinespeak to announce
the title for the page.

Here's the latex test file.  It uses the foiltex package and some
capabilities of pdflatex.  Note that the pagewidth and height settings
are important so the page has a vaguely correct aspect ratio for a
screen rather than a page.
I hope someone else finds this useful, I certainly have.  
And thanks to Martin Dix for showing me how to do this.  
cheers
Peter
----------------------------------------------------------------------
\documentclass[30pt,a4paper,landscape]{foils}
\usepackage{times}
\setlength{\paperwidth}{279mm}
\setlength{\paperheight}{208mm}
% These values chosen to fill 4/3 aspect ratio screen
\pdfpagewidth = 279mm
\pdfpageheight = 208mm
\rightfooter{}
\MyLogo{}
\begin{document}

\foilhead{Page 1}
\pdfpageattr{/AA <</O <</F (runtest) /S /Launch  >> >> }
This is page 1

\foilhead{Page 2}
\pdfpageattr{/AA <</O <</F (runtest2) /S /Launch  >> >> }
This is page 2

\foilhead{Page 3}
% Do nothing on this page
\pdfpageattr{/AA <</O << >> >> }
This is page 3

\end{document}

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