[texhax] New to presentations (PDF), what to use?

[Thomas Schneider]

> If a person is gonig to make presentations in PDF, what TeX based 
> package should a person use?  There seem to be lots out there.

I've been using powerdot.  I use a very simple slide format (just blue
strips at the top and bottom,
http://alum.mit.edu/www/toms/ftp/powerdot-zen.sty).  It works nicely
with pstricks.  Generally I position the current point with

\vspace{8.6cm}\hspace{0cm}% start at lower left point

One can temporarily put a grid up (by removing the comment):
%\psgrid(0,0)(-20,-20)(20,20)%

Then I place objects using rput:

\rput[bl]{0}(1.0,0.3){%
 {\rotatebox{0}{%
   {\scalebox{0.40}{\includegraphics*{slidesfigs/bits.eps}}}%
   }%
 }%
}%

This makes it really easy to position parts of the slide.
Paragraphs can be placed inside an rput:

     \parbox[t][3.0cm][t]{3.0cm}{% \parbox[c][\height][t]{\width}%

Sometimes I even nest rputs so that there are parts of the slide that
move together as a unit.

Tom

  Thomas D. Schneider, Ph.D.
  Senior Investigator
  National Institutes of Health
  National Cancer Institute
  Gene Regulation and Chromosome Biology Laboratory
  Molecular Information Theory Group
  Frederick, Maryland  21702-1201
  http://alum.mit.edu/www/toms (permanent)