4 A docutils script converting restructured text into Beamer-flavoured LaTeX.
6 Beamer is a LaTeX document class for presentations. rst2beamer [#homepage]_
7 provides a Docutils [#docutils]_ writer that transforms restructured text
8 [#rst]_ into Beamer-flavoured LaTeX. and provides a commandline script for the
9 same. Via this script, ReST can therefore be used to prepare slides and
16 rst2beamer can be installed via setuptools / easy_install or manually. Consult
17 the enclosed manual for further details.
23 rst2beamer should interpret a reasonable subset of restructured text and
24 produce reasonable LaTeX. Not all features of beamer have been implemented,
25 just a (large) subset that allows the quick production of good looking slides.
28 * Overlay lists (i.e. list items that appear point-by-point)
30 * Automatic centering and resizing of figures
31 * Embedded notes and the output of note slides.
32 * Arranging slide contents into columns.
34 Some examples can be found in the ``docs/examples`` directory of the
35 distribution. In practice, rst2beamer can be used with ``pdflatex`` to get PDF
36 versions of a presentation.
40 Depending on your platform, the script may be installed as ``rst2beamer``,
43 rst2beamer is called::
45 rst2beamer [options] [<source> [<destination>]]
49 rst2beamer infile.txt outfile.tex
51 where ``infile.txt`` contains the ReST and ``outfile.tex`` contains the
52 produced Beamer LaTeX.
54 It supports the usual docutils and LaTeX writer (rst2latex) options, save the
55 ``documentclass`` option (which is fixed to ``beamer``) and hyperref options
56 (which are already set in beamer). It also supports:
58 --theme=THEME Specify Beamer theme.
59 --overlaybullets=OVERLAYBULLETS
60 Overlay bulleted items. Put [<+-| alert@+>] at the end
61 of \begin{itemize} so that Beamer creats an overlay
62 for each bulleted item and the presentation reveals
64 --centerfigs=CENTERFIGS
65 Center figures. All includegraphics statements will
66 be put inside center environments.
67 --documentoptions=DOCUMENTOPTIONS
68 Specify document options. Multiple options can be
69 given, separated by commas. Default is
71 --shownotes=SHOWNOTES Print embedded notes along with the slides. Possible
72 arguments include 'false' (don't show), 'only' (show
73 only notes), 'left', 'right', 'top', 'bottom' (show in
74 relation to the annotated slide).
80 Earlier versions of rst2beamer did not work with docutils 0.4, seemingly due
81 to changes in the LaTeX writer. While this has been fixed, most work has been
82 done with docutils snapshots from version 0.5 and up. In balance, users are
83 recommended to update docutils.
85 More recently, changes in the LaTeX writer in docutils 0.6 broke rst2beamer
86 again. We think all those bugs have been caught.
88 Not all features of beamer are supported, and some - that deal with with page
89 layout or presentation - may never be. Introducing complex syntax to achieve
90 complex and specific page effects defeats the point of ReST's simple and
91 easy-to-write format. If you need a complex presentation, use Powerpoint or
94 If the content for an individual slide is too large, it will simply overflow
95 the edges of the slide and disappear. Arguably, this is a sign you should put
102 rst2beamer is developed by `Ryan Krauss <ryanwkrauss@gmail.com>`__ and
103 `Paul-Michael Agapow <agapow@bbsrc.ac.uk>`__. Thanks to those who reported and
104 helped us track down bugs: Perttu Laurinen, Mike Pennington, James Haggerty
111 .. [#homepage] rst2beamer homepages at `agapow.net
112 <http://www.agapow/net/software/rst2beamer>`__ and `cs.siue.edu
113 <http://home.cs.siue.edu/rkrauss/python_website/>`__
115 .. [#docutils] `Docutils homepage <http://docutils.sourceforge.net/>`__
117 .. [#rst] `Restructured text <http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html>`__
119 .. [#beamer] `Beamer homepage <http://latex-beamer.sourceforge.net/>`__