Re: Presentation tip: was LyX as a presentation tool

[Liviu Andronic]

On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 9:15 PM, Steve Litt sl...@troubleshooters.com wrote:
 I can't help you with your LyX questions because I know little about
 the LyX authoring environment, but I can give you one tip that's helped
 me a heck of a lot.

 When presenting, I use one of those wireless optical mice they sell for
 between $10 and $20. I make sure the mouse is:

 1) 1000dpi and
 2) Can be used up to 30 meters away.
 3) Has a scroll wheel between the left and right mouse buttons

I was also hesitating to take a high-resolution mouse, but I think
I'll go for a laser pointer. I'm only a bit lost on which brand and
model to buy. Anyone care to share their experience?


 Then I can use the mouse normally while I'm at the computer, but can
 walk around the audience using the left and right mouse button to
 advance or go back a slide (I use Evince with a PDF presentation, so
 this works). Also, I can use the scroll wheel to quickly advance or go
 backward.

Personally I use Impressive [1][2] (instead of Evince or any other PDF
reader) to display my LyX-created Beamer PDFs. Impressive is, well,
impressive. Other than benefiting from left/right mouse clicks to go
to next/prev slide, you get many additional features: Page
transitions, Overview screen, Highlight boxes, Spotlight effect,
zooming, a time tracker, etc. (To some these would be useless
eye-candy, to others genuinely useful features. It may well depend on
the specific presentation, audience and setting.)

There is also an open ticket [3] that, when fixed (patch available),
would improve the process: LyX - Beamer - Impressive.

Regards
Liviu

[1] http://impressive.sourceforge.net/
[2] http://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/Presentations#toc4
[3] http://www.lyx.org/trac/ticket/8018

Re: Presentation tip: was LyX as a presentation tool

[Neal Becker]

Thanks for the tip about Impressive!  That is pretty Impressive.  
Finding/installing deps on fedora 16 was a little bit of a pain (mostly due to 
differing package names on different systems)

Re: Presentation tip: was LyX as a presentation tool

[Liviu Andronic]

On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 2:59 PM, Neal Becker ndbeck...@gmail.com wrote:
 Thanks for the tip about Impressive!  That is pretty Impressive.

Most welcome. :)


 Finding/installing deps on fedora 16 was a little bit of a pain (mostly due to
 differing package names on different systems)

As for Ubuntu, I maintain a PPA here [1].
Liviu

[1] https://launchpad.net/~landronimirc/+archive/impressive


-- 
Do you know how to read?
http://www.alienetworks.com/srtest.cfm
http://goodies.xfce.org/projects/applications/xfce4-dict#speed-reader
Do you know how to write?
http://garbl.home.comcast.net/~garbl/stylemanual/e.htm#e-mail

Re: Presentation tip: was LyX as a presentation tool

[Liviu Andronic]

On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 9:15 PM, Steve Litt sl...@troubleshooters.com wrote:
 I can't help you with your LyX questions because I know little about
 the LyX authoring environment, but I can give you one tip that's helped
 me a heck of a lot.

 When presenting, I use one of those wireless optical mice they sell for
 between $10 and $20. I make sure the mouse is:

 1) 1000dpi and
 2) Can be used up to 30 meters away.
 3) Has a scroll wheel between the left and right mouse buttons

I was also hesitating to take a high-resolution mouse, but I think
I'll go for a laser pointer. I'm only a bit lost on which brand and
model to buy. Anyone care to share their experience?


 Then I can use the mouse normally while I'm at the computer, but can
 walk around the audience using the left and right mouse button to
 advance or go back a slide (I use Evince with a PDF presentation, so
 this works). Also, I can use the scroll wheel to quickly advance or go
 backward.

Personally I use Impressive [1][2] (instead of Evince or any other PDF
reader) to display my LyX-created Beamer PDFs. Impressive is, well,
impressive. Other than benefiting from left/right mouse clicks to go
to next/prev slide, you get many additional features: Page
transitions, Overview screen, Highlight boxes, Spotlight effect,
zooming, a time tracker, etc. (To some these would be useless
eye-candy, to others genuinely useful features. It may well depend on
the specific presentation, audience and setting.)

There is also an open ticket [3] that, when fixed (patch available),
would improve the process: LyX - Beamer - Impressive.

Regards
Liviu

[1] http://impressive.sourceforge.net/
[2] http://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/Presentations#toc4
[3] http://www.lyx.org/trac/ticket/8018

Re: Presentation tip: was LyX as a presentation tool

[Neal Becker]

Thanks for the tip about Impressive!  That is pretty Impressive.  
Finding/installing deps on fedora 16 was a little bit of a pain (mostly due to 
differing package names on different systems)

Re: Presentation tip: was LyX as a presentation tool

[Liviu Andronic]

On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 2:59 PM, Neal Becker ndbeck...@gmail.com wrote:
 Thanks for the tip about Impressive!  That is pretty Impressive.

Most welcome. :)


 Finding/installing deps on fedora 16 was a little bit of a pain (mostly due to
 differing package names on different systems)

As for Ubuntu, I maintain a PPA here [1].
Liviu

[1] https://launchpad.net/~landronimirc/+archive/impressive


-- 
Do you know how to read?
http://www.alienetworks.com/srtest.cfm
http://goodies.xfce.org/projects/applications/xfce4-dict#speed-reader
Do you know how to write?
http://garbl.home.comcast.net/~garbl/stylemanual/e.htm#e-mail

Re: Presentation tip: was LyX as a presentation tool

[Liviu Andronic]

On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 9:15 PM, Steve Litt  wrote:
> I can't help you with your LyX questions because I know little about
> the LyX authoring environment, but I can give you one tip that's helped
> me a heck of a lot.
>
> When presenting, I use one of those wireless optical mice they sell for
> between $10 and $20. I make sure the mouse is:
>
> 1) 1000dpi and
> 2) Can be used up to 30 meters away.
> 3) Has a scroll wheel between the left and right mouse buttons
>
I was also hesitating to take a high-resolution mouse, but I think
I'll go for a laser pointer. I'm only a bit lost on which brand and
model to buy. Anyone care to share their experience?


> Then I can use the mouse normally while I'm at the computer, but can
> walk around the audience using the left and right mouse button to
> advance or go back a slide (I use Evince with a PDF presentation, so
> this works). Also, I can use the scroll wheel to quickly advance or go
> backward.
>
Personally I use Impressive [1][2] (instead of Evince or any other PDF
reader) to display my LyX-created Beamer PDFs. Impressive is, well,
impressive. Other than benefiting from left/right mouse clicks to go
to next/prev slide, you get many additional features: Page
transitions, Overview screen, Highlight boxes, Spotlight effect,
zooming, a time tracker, etc. (To some these would be useless
eye-candy, to others genuinely useful features. It may well depend on
the specific presentation, audience and setting.)

There is also an open ticket [3] that, when fixed (patch available),
would improve the process: LyX -> Beamer -> Impressive.

Regards
Liviu

[1] http://impressive.sourceforge.net/
[2] http://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/Presentations#toc4
[3] http://www.lyx.org/trac/ticket/8018

Re: Presentation tip: was LyX as a presentation tool

[Neal Becker]

Thanks for the tip about Impressive!  That is pretty Impressive.  
Finding/installing deps on fedora 16 was a little bit of a pain (mostly due to 
differing package names on different systems)

Re: Presentation tip: was LyX as a presentation tool

[Liviu Andronic]

On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 2:59 PM, Neal Becker  wrote:
> Thanks for the tip about Impressive!  That is pretty Impressive.
>
Most welcome. :)


> Finding/installing deps on fedora 16 was a little bit of a pain (mostly due to
> differing package names on different systems)
>
As for Ubuntu, I maintain a PPA here [1].
Liviu

[1] https://launchpad.net/~landronimirc/+archive/impressive


-- 
Do you know how to read?
http://www.alienetworks.com/srtest.cfm
http://goodies.xfce.org/projects/applications/xfce4-dict#speed-reader
Do you know how to write?
http://garbl.home.comcast.net/~garbl/stylemanual/e.htm#e-mail

LyX as a presentation tool

[Ronen Abravanel]

Hello,

I've been using LyX for writing notes and papers for the last ~8 years, and
lately I started using lyx in a new form, that might be of an interest to
others: As a presentation tool.

The general idea is simple: As I teach (modern physics for EE students),
instead of writing on a white-board with my awful handwrite, I just type
the lesson into a computer connected into a projector. Both text and math.
I stand in front of the class, talking to them, looking at them, and type.
Occasionally I leave my laptop and draw something on the board, or do some
demonstration, For illustrations, I'm either insert them into the document
(god bless inset-insert graphics and the minibuffer), or, if the figures
are simple, and I find that it may be instructive to draw them gradually, I
draw on the board.  If I wont to remind the students something from earlier
part of the class, I split the display into Left\Right half, and scroll one
of them up while continue working on the other half.

This methods have many advantages

Over handwriting on the board:
* The main one, the the one lead me to do it: Not forcing the student dose
not have to read my bad handwrite, and I don't spend much time on writing
neatly.
* I'm always facing the class -- I'm not turn my back to them as I write
(only look little bit down, at my screen), so I can see them, and they can
see my face and hear me better.
* When I have complex illustration, I can just add it to the document..

And over pre-made slides:
* Saves time -- I do not have to typeset slides in advance (Also:
Beamer+Hebrew+LyX is a disaster, so it would force me to turn into OO\MS PP
or something like that, which is almost as bad)
* Dynamic -- I can write notes and skip\add steps and lines during the
class.
* Slow -- Doing math on slides is bad. Most of the time, the slides are too
crowded to understand, and fill-up at once, and not character by character
as one would like on the board. When I'm typing with the class, I'm keeping
on slow paste, so the can understand the math and follow by it.

But also some disadvantages:
* My screen is about 1/4 the size of the whiteboard, and LyX is rather
lossy in screen-space. So, instead of just pointing into other parts of the
board, I have to split\scroll.
* The class's screen reaches to low, So, in order to let the students see
the all screen, I switch into fullscreen mode, and then add toolbars from
below in order to push the effective screen upwards.
* When writing in lyx, one always writes on the bottom part of the screen.
There is no good way  (after writing more then screen-full of text) to
start from top, add lines from beneath and then shift to a new screen
when I fill it.
* It's rather ugly when I write \latexCommand in red, and just when I'm
finish its render into symbol.

Few points one can improve (mostly theoretical. some will demand big many
expanse from my university, and some are Itches I should scratch when I'll
have time to code)
* Create half-slide-mode in lyx: Copy one document into another, character
by character, When I'm pressing a single key. It will require preparation
(but anyhow, I prepared the lesson in advance as a lyx document... I don't
remember all by heart , and anyway, it's still a lot easier then creating
lyx\beamer slides), but it will save effort and mistakes during the class ,
while still enable grate flexibility.
* I wish I had 2 VGA output and 2 projectors, and LyX would switch from the
end of one screen into the top of a new-clean-page at the other screen
whenever I fill out the 1st. That would be just perfect :-P.
* I should get something higher then the teacher's table to put my laptop
on. For now, I have to bend over it, and my back is not happy.

Anyway, I'm doing it for a month now,  3 hours a week, and the  experience
for both me and my students is positive. If you have to teach stuff and
don't wont to write on a board, you may consider using lyx. it's fun!

- Ronen.

Presentation tip: was LyX as a presentation tool

[Steve Litt]

On Thu, 5 Apr 2012 21:56:43 +0300
Ronen Abravanel ron...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hello,
 
 I've been using LyX for writing notes and papers for the last ~8
 years, and lately I started using lyx in a new form, that might be of
 an interest to others: As a presentation tool.

Hi Ronen,

I can't help you with your LyX questions because I know little about
the LyX authoring environment, but I can give you one tip that's helped
me a heck of a lot.

When presenting, I use one of those wireless optical mice they sell for
between $10 and $20. I make sure the mouse is:

1) 1000dpi and
2) Can be used up to 30 meters away.
3) Has a scroll wheel between the left and right mouse buttons

Then I can use the mouse normally while I'm at the computer, but can
walk around the audience using the left and right mouse button to
advance or go back a slide (I use Evince with a PDF presentation, so
this works). Also, I can use the scroll wheel to quickly advance or go
backward.

I'm not sure how well this would adapt to LyX as the presentation
medium, but it's worth a try.

HTH

SteveT

Re: LyX as a presentation tool

[Thomas Coffee]

Hi Ronen,

Very interesting ideas --- thanks for sharing. It occurs to me you could
get a good start to the 2-projector solution you describe by telling your
monitor setup that the screens are above  below, then stretching your LyX
window vertically across the two. Then when you reach the end of the
right screen, its contents would be scrolled onto the left screen.

On the topic of class presentations using LyX, I thought I'd also share my
current experience.

Since the equations I deal with in my current teaching are too cumbersome
to type in real time (even with LyX), I have been using beamer to generate
projector slides. However, I really wanted fine-grained control of display
to support the kind of interactive development of the material in class
that one can achieve with a blackboard.

I discovered that (with a little ugliness) it is possible to use some of
beamer's more complex visibility constructs (e.g., \only and \onslide)
inside math mode, in ways that are not obvious from the beamer
documentation. I've attached an excerpt from one of my lectures to
illustrate what I mean. This kind of control lets you replicate many
aspects of dynamically writing and erasing on the blackboard; and in fact,
I have found the process of constructing these sequences a valuable tool in
thinking about how to arrange and develop the material in class. (For
drawings or additional clarifications, I still use the blackboards adjacent
to the projector screen, but there usually few enough of these that I don't
need to erase anything.)

With fine-grained animation, the lecture presentations end up being
hundreds of PDF pages, but I have had no problems with this because:

* to generate a print version with no animations, I need only add handout
under Document  Settings  Document Class  Class options  Custom

* the presentation PDF compresses to nearly the same size as the handout PDF

* going forward and backward during presentation can be done very quickly
(at least, in the evince document viewer) by simply holding down the Page
Up or Page Down key, or using beamer's automatically inserted hyperlinks.

As Ronen described, I find the freedom of not writing and erasing on the
blackboard greatly improves my ability to face the class and devote
attention to leading the presentation and discussion of the material. For a
small class, I actually stay seated most of the time to improve the
ergonomics.

In terms of LyX development, certainly the ability to insert arbitrary ERT
in math mode would ease this approach, though this is clearly true for many
other things as well, and macros always provide a workaround. Further
beamer integration generally could be nice, but none of this is really
holding me up.

The only idea I've thought about implementing near-term is a setup I saw
described somewhere that allows the presenter to have two separate document
viewers (one on the laptop, one on the projector) both operating in
presentation mode simultaneously, that both advance with a key press. This
is not LyX-specific, and would allow the presenter to either (a) play a
copy of the presentation ahead on the laptop to see what's coming next,
or (b) use the notes features of beamer or other packages (or use a
lecture notes file) to guide verbal delivery.

I'd be interested to hear what other instructors have come up with.

- Thomas


On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 2:56 PM, Ronen Abravanel ron...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hello,

 I've been using LyX for writing notes and papers for the last ~8 years,
 and lately I started using lyx in a new form, that might be of an interest
 to others: As a presentation tool.

 The general idea is simple: As I teach (modern physics for EE students),
 instead of writing on a white-board with my awful handwrite, I just type
 the lesson into a computer connected into a projector. Both text and math.
 I stand in front of the class, talking to them, looking at them, and type.
 Occasionally I leave my laptop and draw something on the board, or do some
 demonstration, For illustrations, I'm either insert them into the document
 (god bless inset-insert graphics and the minibuffer), or, if the figures
 are simple, and I find that it may be instructive to draw them gradually, I
 draw on the board.  If I wont to remind the students something from earlier
 part of the class, I split the display into Left\Right half, and scroll one
 of them up while continue working on the other half.

 This methods have many advantages

 Over handwriting on the board:
 * The main one, the the one lead me to do it: Not forcing the student dose
 not have to read my bad handwrite, and I don't spend much time on writing
 neatly.
 * I'm always facing the class -- I'm not turn my back to them as I write
 (only look little bit down, at my screen), so I can see them, and they can
 see my face and hear me better.
 * When I have complex illustration, I can just add it to the document..

 And over pre-made slides:
 * Saves time -- I do not have to typeset 

Re: LyX as a presentation tool

[menoncin]

I sometimes use LyX as a presentation tool myself.

To what has already been written, I add that for showing how a graph  
is created step by step I use JPicEdt

http://jpicedt.sourceforge.net/site/index.php?language=en
which is a WONDERFUL software by itself but whose LaTeX code can be  
copied in LyX (in an ERT cell) and shown through the preview tool.


Francesco


Thomas Coffee thomasmcof...@gmail.com ha scritto:


Hi Ronen,

Very interesting ideas --- thanks for sharing. It occurs to me you could
get a good start to the 2-projector solution you describe by telling your
monitor setup that the screens are above  below, then stretching your LyX
window vertically across the two. Then when you reach the end of the
right screen, its contents would be scrolled onto the left screen.

On the topic of class presentations using LyX, I thought I'd also share my
current experience.

Since the equations I deal with in my current teaching are too cumbersome
to type in real time (even with LyX), I have been using beamer to generate
projector slides. However, I really wanted fine-grained control of display
to support the kind of interactive development of the material in class
that one can achieve with a blackboard.

I discovered that (with a little ugliness) it is possible to use some of
beamer's more complex visibility constructs (e.g., \only and \onslide)
inside math mode, in ways that are not obvious from the beamer
documentation. I've attached an excerpt from one of my lectures to
illustrate what I mean. This kind of control lets you replicate many
aspects of dynamically writing and erasing on the blackboard; and in fact,
I have found the process of constructing these sequences a valuable tool in
thinking about how to arrange and develop the material in class. (For
drawings or additional clarifications, I still use the blackboards adjacent
to the projector screen, but there usually few enough of these that I don't
need to erase anything.)

With fine-grained animation, the lecture presentations end up being
hundreds of PDF pages, but I have had no problems with this because:

* to generate a print version with no animations, I need only add handout
under Document  Settings  Document Class  Class options  Custom

* the presentation PDF compresses to nearly the same size as the handout PDF

* going forward and backward during presentation can be done very quickly
(at least, in the evince document viewer) by simply holding down the Page
Up or Page Down key, or using beamer's automatically inserted hyperlinks.

As Ronen described, I find the freedom of not writing and erasing on the
blackboard greatly improves my ability to face the class and devote
attention to leading the presentation and discussion of the material. For a
small class, I actually stay seated most of the time to improve the
ergonomics.

In terms of LyX development, certainly the ability to insert arbitrary ERT
in math mode would ease this approach, though this is clearly true for many
other things as well, and macros always provide a workaround. Further
beamer integration generally could be nice, but none of this is really
holding me up.

The only idea I've thought about implementing near-term is a setup I saw
described somewhere that allows the presenter to have two separate document
viewers (one on the laptop, one on the projector) both operating in
presentation mode simultaneously, that both advance with a key press. This
is not LyX-specific, and would allow the presenter to either (a) play a
copy of the presentation ahead on the laptop to see what's coming next,
or (b) use the notes features of beamer or other packages (or use a
lecture notes file) to guide verbal delivery.

I'd be interested to hear what other instructors have come up with.

- Thomas


On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 2:56 PM, Ronen Abravanel ron...@gmail.com wrote:


Hello,

I've been using LyX for writing notes and papers for the last ~8 years,
and lately I started using lyx in a new form, that might be of an interest
to others: As a presentation tool.

The general idea is simple: As I teach (modern physics for EE students),
instead of writing on a white-board with my awful handwrite, I just type
the lesson into a computer connected into a projector. Both text and math.
I stand in front of the class, talking to them, looking at them, and type.
Occasionally I leave my laptop and draw something on the board, or do some
demonstration, For illustrations, I'm either insert them into the document
(god bless inset-insert graphics and the minibuffer), or, if the figures
are simple, and I find that it may be instructive to draw them gradually, I
draw on the board.  If I wont to remind the students something from earlier
part of the class, I split the display into Left\Right half, and scroll one
of them up while continue working on the other half.

This methods have many advantages

Over handwriting on the board:
* The main one, the the one lead me to do it: Not forcing the student dose
not have

Re: LyX as a presentation tool

[Liviu Andronic]

On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 8:56 PM, Ronen Abravanel ron...@gmail.com wrote:
 * Slow -- Doing math on slides is bad. Most of the time, the slides are too
 crowded to understand, and fill-up at once, and not character by character
 as one would like on the board. When I'm typing with the class, I'm keeping
 on slow paste, so the can understand the math and follow by it.

Hmm, is there a Beamer command that would force the slides to always
display math sequentially, line-by-line? I guess this is SF, but what
about word-by-word?

Liviu

LyX as a presentation tool

[Ronen Abravanel]

Hello,

I've been using LyX for writing notes and papers for the last ~8 years, and
lately I started using lyx in a new form, that might be of an interest to
others: As a presentation tool.

The general idea is simple: As I teach (modern physics for EE students),
instead of writing on a white-board with my awful handwrite, I just type
the lesson into a computer connected into a projector. Both text and math.
I stand in front of the class, talking to them, looking at them, and type.
Occasionally I leave my laptop and draw something on the board, or do some
demonstration, For illustrations, I'm either insert them into the document
(god bless inset-insert graphics and the minibuffer), or, if the figures
are simple, and I find that it may be instructive to draw them gradually, I
draw on the board.  If I wont to remind the students something from earlier
part of the class, I split the display into Left\Right half, and scroll one
of them up while continue working on the other half.

This methods have many advantages

Over handwriting on the board:
* The main one, the the one lead me to do it: Not forcing the student dose
not have to read my bad handwrite, and I don't spend much time on writing
neatly.
* I'm always facing the class -- I'm not turn my back to them as I write
(only look little bit down, at my screen), so I can see them, and they can
see my face and hear me better.
* When I have complex illustration, I can just add it to the document..

And over pre-made slides:
* Saves time -- I do not have to typeset slides in advance (Also:
Beamer+Hebrew+LyX is a disaster, so it would force me to turn into OO\MS PP
or something like that, which is almost as bad)
* Dynamic -- I can write notes and skip\add steps and lines during the
class.
* Slow -- Doing math on slides is bad. Most of the time, the slides are too
crowded to understand, and fill-up at once, and not character by character
as one would like on the board. When I'm typing with the class, I'm keeping
on slow paste, so the can understand the math and follow by it.

But also some disadvantages:
* My screen is about 1/4 the size of the whiteboard, and LyX is rather
lossy in screen-space. So, instead of just pointing into other parts of the
board, I have to split\scroll.
* The class's screen reaches to low, So, in order to let the students see
the all screen, I switch into fullscreen mode, and then add toolbars from
below in order to push the effective screen upwards.
* When writing in lyx, one always writes on the bottom part of the screen.
There is no good way  (after writing more then screen-full of text) to
start from top, add lines from beneath and then shift to a new screen
when I fill it.
* It's rather ugly when I write \latexCommand in red, and just when I'm
finish its render into symbol.

Few points one can improve (mostly theoretical. some will demand big many
expanse from my university, and some are Itches I should scratch when I'll
have time to code)
* Create half-slide-mode in lyx: Copy one document into another, character
by character, When I'm pressing a single key. It will require preparation
(but anyhow, I prepared the lesson in advance as a lyx document... I don't
remember all by heart , and anyway, it's still a lot easier then creating
lyx\beamer slides), but it will save effort and mistakes during the class ,
while still enable grate flexibility.
* I wish I had 2 VGA output and 2 projectors, and LyX would switch from the
end of one screen into the top of a new-clean-page at the other screen
whenever I fill out the 1st. That would be just perfect :-P.
* I should get something higher then the teacher's table to put my laptop
on. For now, I have to bend over it, and my back is not happy.

Anyway, I'm doing it for a month now,  3 hours a week, and the  experience
for both me and my students is positive. If you have to teach stuff and
don't wont to write on a board, you may consider using lyx. it's fun!

- Ronen.

Presentation tip: was LyX as a presentation tool

[Steve Litt]

On Thu, 5 Apr 2012 21:56:43 +0300
Ronen Abravanel ron...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hello,
 
 I've been using LyX for writing notes and papers for the last ~8
 years, and lately I started using lyx in a new form, that might be of
 an interest to others: As a presentation tool.

Hi Ronen,

I can't help you with your LyX questions because I know little about
the LyX authoring environment, but I can give you one tip that's helped
me a heck of a lot.

When presenting, I use one of those wireless optical mice they sell for
between $10 and $20. I make sure the mouse is:

1) 1000dpi and
2) Can be used up to 30 meters away.
3) Has a scroll wheel between the left and right mouse buttons

Then I can use the mouse normally while I'm at the computer, but can
walk around the audience using the left and right mouse button to
advance or go back a slide (I use Evince with a PDF presentation, so
this works). Also, I can use the scroll wheel to quickly advance or go
backward.

I'm not sure how well this would adapt to LyX as the presentation
medium, but it's worth a try.

HTH

SteveT

Re: LyX as a presentation tool

[Thomas Coffee]

Hi Ronen,

Very interesting ideas --- thanks for sharing. It occurs to me you could
get a good start to the 2-projector solution you describe by telling your
monitor setup that the screens are above  below, then stretching your LyX
window vertically across the two. Then when you reach the end of the
right screen, its contents would be scrolled onto the left screen.

On the topic of class presentations using LyX, I thought I'd also share my
current experience.

Since the equations I deal with in my current teaching are too cumbersome
to type in real time (even with LyX), I have been using beamer to generate
projector slides. However, I really wanted fine-grained control of display
to support the kind of interactive development of the material in class
that one can achieve with a blackboard.

I discovered that (with a little ugliness) it is possible to use some of
beamer's more complex visibility constructs (e.g., \only and \onslide)
inside math mode, in ways that are not obvious from the beamer
documentation. I've attached an excerpt from one of my lectures to
illustrate what I mean. This kind of control lets you replicate many
aspects of dynamically writing and erasing on the blackboard; and in fact,
I have found the process of constructing these sequences a valuable tool in
thinking about how to arrange and develop the material in class. (For
drawings or additional clarifications, I still use the blackboards adjacent
to the projector screen, but there usually few enough of these that I don't
need to erase anything.)

With fine-grained animation, the lecture presentations end up being
hundreds of PDF pages, but I have had no problems with this because:

* to generate a print version with no animations, I need only add handout
under Document  Settings  Document Class  Class options  Custom

* the presentation PDF compresses to nearly the same size as the handout PDF

* going forward and backward during presentation can be done very quickly
(at least, in the evince document viewer) by simply holding down the Page
Up or Page Down key, or using beamer's automatically inserted hyperlinks.

As Ronen described, I find the freedom of not writing and erasing on the
blackboard greatly improves my ability to face the class and devote
attention to leading the presentation and discussion of the material. For a
small class, I actually stay seated most of the time to improve the
ergonomics.

In terms of LyX development, certainly the ability to insert arbitrary ERT
in math mode would ease this approach, though this is clearly true for many
other things as well, and macros always provide a workaround. Further
beamer integration generally could be nice, but none of this is really
holding me up.

The only idea I've thought about implementing near-term is a setup I saw
described somewhere that allows the presenter to have two separate document
viewers (one on the laptop, one on the projector) both operating in
presentation mode simultaneously, that both advance with a key press. This
is not LyX-specific, and would allow the presenter to either (a) play a
copy of the presentation ahead on the laptop to see what's coming next,
or (b) use the notes features of beamer or other packages (or use a
lecture notes file) to guide verbal delivery.

I'd be interested to hear what other instructors have come up with.

- Thomas


On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 2:56 PM, Ronen Abravanel ron...@gmail.com wrote:

 Hello,

 I've been using LyX for writing notes and papers for the last ~8 years,
 and lately I started using lyx in a new form, that might be of an interest
 to others: As a presentation tool.

 The general idea is simple: As I teach (modern physics for EE students),
 instead of writing on a white-board with my awful handwrite, I just type
 the lesson into a computer connected into a projector. Both text and math.
 I stand in front of the class, talking to them, looking at them, and type.
 Occasionally I leave my laptop and draw something on the board, or do some
 demonstration, For illustrations, I'm either insert them into the document
 (god bless inset-insert graphics and the minibuffer), or, if the figures
 are simple, and I find that it may be instructive to draw them gradually, I
 draw on the board.  If I wont to remind the students something from earlier
 part of the class, I split the display into Left\Right half, and scroll one
 of them up while continue working on the other half.

 This methods have many advantages

 Over handwriting on the board:
 * The main one, the the one lead me to do it: Not forcing the student dose
 not have to read my bad handwrite, and I don't spend much time on writing
 neatly.
 * I'm always facing the class -- I'm not turn my back to them as I write
 (only look little bit down, at my screen), so I can see them, and they can
 see my face and hear me better.
 * When I have complex illustration, I can just add it to the document..

 And over pre-made slides:
 * Saves time -- I do not have to typeset 

Re: LyX as a presentation tool

[menoncin]

I sometimes use LyX as a presentation tool myself.

To what has already been written, I add that for showing how a graph  
is created step by step I use JPicEdt

http://jpicedt.sourceforge.net/site/index.php?language=en
which is a WONDERFUL software by itself but whose LaTeX code can be  
copied in LyX (in an ERT cell) and shown through the preview tool.


Francesco


Thomas Coffee thomasmcof...@gmail.com ha scritto:


Hi Ronen,

Very interesting ideas --- thanks for sharing. It occurs to me you could
get a good start to the 2-projector solution you describe by telling your
monitor setup that the screens are above  below, then stretching your LyX
window vertically across the two. Then when you reach the end of the
right screen, its contents would be scrolled onto the left screen.

On the topic of class presentations using LyX, I thought I'd also share my
current experience.

Since the equations I deal with in my current teaching are too cumbersome
to type in real time (even with LyX), I have been using beamer to generate
projector slides. However, I really wanted fine-grained control of display
to support the kind of interactive development of the material in class
that one can achieve with a blackboard.

I discovered that (with a little ugliness) it is possible to use some of
beamer's more complex visibility constructs (e.g., \only and \onslide)
inside math mode, in ways that are not obvious from the beamer
documentation. I've attached an excerpt from one of my lectures to
illustrate what I mean. This kind of control lets you replicate many
aspects of dynamically writing and erasing on the blackboard; and in fact,
I have found the process of constructing these sequences a valuable tool in
thinking about how to arrange and develop the material in class. (For
drawings or additional clarifications, I still use the blackboards adjacent
to the projector screen, but there usually few enough of these that I don't
need to erase anything.)

With fine-grained animation, the lecture presentations end up being
hundreds of PDF pages, but I have had no problems with this because:

* to generate a print version with no animations, I need only add handout
under Document  Settings  Document Class  Class options  Custom

* the presentation PDF compresses to nearly the same size as the handout PDF

* going forward and backward during presentation can be done very quickly
(at least, in the evince document viewer) by simply holding down the Page
Up or Page Down key, or using beamer's automatically inserted hyperlinks.

As Ronen described, I find the freedom of not writing and erasing on the
blackboard greatly improves my ability to face the class and devote
attention to leading the presentation and discussion of the material. For a
small class, I actually stay seated most of the time to improve the
ergonomics.

In terms of LyX development, certainly the ability to insert arbitrary ERT
in math mode would ease this approach, though this is clearly true for many
other things as well, and macros always provide a workaround. Further
beamer integration generally could be nice, but none of this is really
holding me up.

The only idea I've thought about implementing near-term is a setup I saw
described somewhere that allows the presenter to have two separate document
viewers (one on the laptop, one on the projector) both operating in
presentation mode simultaneously, that both advance with a key press. This
is not LyX-specific, and would allow the presenter to either (a) play a
copy of the presentation ahead on the laptop to see what's coming next,
or (b) use the notes features of beamer or other packages (or use a
lecture notes file) to guide verbal delivery.

I'd be interested to hear what other instructors have come up with.

- Thomas


On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 2:56 PM, Ronen Abravanel ron...@gmail.com wrote:


Hello,

I've been using LyX for writing notes and papers for the last ~8 years,
and lately I started using lyx in a new form, that might be of an interest
to others: As a presentation tool.

The general idea is simple: As I teach (modern physics for EE students),
instead of writing on a white-board with my awful handwrite, I just type
the lesson into a computer connected into a projector. Both text and math.
I stand in front of the class, talking to them, looking at them, and type.
Occasionally I leave my laptop and draw something on the board, or do some
demonstration, For illustrations, I'm either insert them into the document
(god bless inset-insert graphics and the minibuffer), or, if the figures
are simple, and I find that it may be instructive to draw them gradually, I
draw on the board.  If I wont to remind the students something from earlier
part of the class, I split the display into Left\Right half, and scroll one
of them up while continue working on the other half.

This methods have many advantages

Over handwriting on the board:
* The main one, the the one lead me to do it: Not forcing the student dose
not have

Re: LyX as a presentation tool

[Liviu Andronic]

On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 8:56 PM, Ronen Abravanel ron...@gmail.com wrote:
 * Slow -- Doing math on slides is bad. Most of the time, the slides are too
 crowded to understand, and fill-up at once, and not character by character
 as one would like on the board. When I'm typing with the class, I'm keeping
 on slow paste, so the can understand the math and follow by it.

Hmm, is there a Beamer command that would force the slides to always
display math sequentially, line-by-line? I guess this is SF, but what
about word-by-word?

Liviu

LyX as a presentation tool

[Ronen Abravanel]

Hello,

I've been using LyX for writing notes and papers for the last ~8 years, and
lately I started using lyx in a new form, that might be of an interest to
others: As a presentation tool.

The general idea is simple: As I teach (modern physics for EE students),
instead of writing on a white-board with my awful handwrite, I just type
the lesson into a computer connected into a projector. Both text and math.
I stand in front of the class, talking to them, looking at them, and type.
Occasionally I leave my laptop and draw something on the board, or do some
demonstration, For illustrations, I'm either insert them into the document
(god bless inset-insert graphics and the minibuffer), or, if the figures
are simple, and I find that it may be instructive to draw them gradually, I
draw on the board.  If I wont to remind the students something from earlier
part of the class, I split the display into Left\Right half, and scroll one
of them up while continue working on the other half.

This methods have many advantages

Over handwriting on the board:
* The main one, the the one lead me to do it: Not forcing the student dose
not have to read my bad handwrite, and I don't spend much time on writing
neatly.
* I'm always facing the class -- I'm not turn my back to them as I write
(only look little bit down, at my screen), so I can see them, and they can
see my face and hear me better.
* When I have complex illustration, I can just add it to the document..

And over pre-made slides:
* Saves time -- I do not have to typeset slides in advance (Also:
Beamer+Hebrew+LyX is a disaster, so it would force me to turn into OO\MS PP
or something like that, which is almost as bad)
* Dynamic -- I can write notes and skip\add steps and lines during the
class.
* Slow -- Doing math on slides is bad. Most of the time, the slides are too
crowded to understand, and fill-up at once, and not character by character
as one would like on the board. When I'm typing with the class, I'm keeping
on slow paste, so the can understand the math and follow by it.

But also some disadvantages:
* My screen is about 1/4 the size of the whiteboard, and LyX is rather
lossy in screen-space. So, instead of just pointing into other parts of the
board, I have to split\scroll.
* The class's screen reaches to low, So, in order to let the students see
the all screen, I switch into fullscreen mode, and then add toolbars from
below in order to push the effective screen upwards.
* When writing in lyx, one always writes on the bottom part of the screen.
There is no good way  (after writing more then screen-full of text) to
start from top, add lines from beneath and then shift to a "new" screen
when I fill it.
* It's rather ugly when I write \latexCommand in red, and just when I'm
finish its render into symbol.

Few points one can improve (mostly theoretical. some will demand big many
expanse from my university, and some are "Itches I should scratch when I'll
have time to code")
* Create half-slide-mode in lyx: Copy one document into another, character
by character, When I'm pressing a single key. It will require preparation
(but anyhow, I prepared the lesson in advance as a lyx document... I don't
remember all by heart , and anyway, it's still a lot easier then creating
lyx\beamer slides), but it will save effort and mistakes during the class ,
while still enable grate flexibility.
* I wish I had 2 VGA output and 2 projectors, and LyX would switch from the
end of one screen into the top of a new-clean-page at the other screen
whenever I fill out the 1st. That would be just perfect :-P.
* I should get something higher then the teacher's table to put my laptop
on. For now, I have to bend over it, and my back is not happy.

Anyway, I'm doing it for a month now,  3 hours a week, and the  experience
for both me and my students is positive. If you have to teach stuff and
don't wont to write on a board, you may consider using lyx. it's fun!

- Ronen.

Presentation tip: was LyX as a presentation tool

[Steve Litt]

On Thu, 5 Apr 2012 21:56:43 +0300
Ronen Abravanel  wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> I've been using LyX for writing notes and papers for the last ~8
> years, and lately I started using lyx in a new form, that might be of
> an interest to others: As a presentation tool.

Hi Ronen,

I can't help you with your LyX questions because I know little about
the LyX authoring environment, but I can give you one tip that's helped
me a heck of a lot.

When presenting, I use one of those wireless optical mice they sell for
between $10 and $20. I make sure the mouse is:

1) 1000dpi and
2) Can be used up to 30 meters away.
3) Has a scroll wheel between the left and right mouse buttons

Then I can use the mouse normally while I'm at the computer, but can
walk around the audience using the left and right mouse button to
advance or go back a slide (I use Evince with a PDF presentation, so
this works). Also, I can use the scroll wheel to quickly advance or go
backward.

I'm not sure how well this would adapt to LyX as the presentation
medium, but it's worth a try.

HTH

SteveT

Re: LyX as a presentation tool

[Thomas Coffee]

Hi Ronen,

Very interesting ideas --- thanks for sharing. It occurs to me you could
get a good start to the 2-projector solution you describe by telling your
monitor setup that the screens are above & below, then stretching your LyX
window vertically "across" the two. Then when you reach the end of the
"right" screen, its contents would be scrolled onto the "left" screen.

On the topic of class presentations using LyX, I thought I'd also share my
current experience.

Since the equations I deal with in my current teaching are too cumbersome
to type in real time (even with LyX), I have been using beamer to generate
projector slides. However, I really wanted fine-grained control of display
to support the kind of interactive development of the material in class
that one can achieve with a blackboard.

I discovered that (with a little ugliness) it is possible to use some of
beamer's more complex visibility constructs (e.g., \only and \onslide)
inside math mode, in ways that are not obvious from the beamer
documentation. I've attached an excerpt from one of my lectures to
illustrate what I mean. This kind of control lets you replicate many
aspects of dynamically writing and erasing on the blackboard; and in fact,
I have found the process of constructing these sequences a valuable tool in
thinking about how to arrange and develop the material in class. (For
drawings or additional clarifications, I still use the blackboards adjacent
to the projector screen, but there usually few enough of these that I don't
need to erase anything.)

With fine-grained animation, the lecture presentations end up being
hundreds of PDF pages, but I have had no problems with this because:

* to generate a print version with no animations, I need only add "handout"
under Document >> Settings >> Document Class >> Class options >> Custom

* the presentation PDF compresses to nearly the same size as the handout PDF

* going forward and backward during presentation can be done very quickly
(at least, in the evince document viewer) by simply holding down the Page
Up or Page Down key, or using beamer's automatically inserted hyperlinks.

As Ronen described, I find the freedom of not writing and erasing on the
blackboard greatly improves my ability to face the class and devote
attention to leading the presentation and discussion of the material. For a
small class, I actually stay seated most of the time to improve the
ergonomics.

In terms of LyX development, certainly the ability to insert arbitrary ERT
in math mode would ease this approach, though this is clearly true for many
other things as well, and macros always provide a workaround. Further
beamer integration generally could be nice, but none of this is really
holding me up.

The only idea I've thought about implementing near-term is a setup I saw
described somewhere that allows the presenter to have two separate document
viewers (one on the laptop, one on the projector) both operating in
presentation mode simultaneously, that both advance with a key press. This
is not LyX-specific, and would allow the presenter to either (a) play a
copy of the presentation "ahead" on the laptop to see what's coming next,
or (b) use the "notes" features of beamer or other packages (or use a
lecture notes file) to guide verbal delivery.

I'd be interested to hear what other instructors have come up with.

- Thomas


On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 2:56 PM, Ronen Abravanel  wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I've been using LyX for writing notes and papers for the last ~8 years,
> and lately I started using lyx in a new form, that might be of an interest
> to others: As a presentation tool.
>
> The general idea is simple: As I teach (modern physics for EE students),
> instead of writing on a white-board with my awful handwrite, I just type
> the lesson into a computer connected into a projector. Both text and math.
> I stand in front of the class, talking to them, looking at them, and type.
> Occasionally I leave my laptop and draw something on the board, or do some
> demonstration, For illustrations, I'm either insert them into the document
> (god bless inset-insert graphics and the minibuffer), or, if the figures
> are simple, and I find that it may be instructive to draw them gradually, I
> draw on the board.  If I wont to remind the students something from earlier
> part of the class, I split the display into Left\Right half, and scroll one
> of them up while continue working on the other half.
>
> This methods have many advantages
>
> Over handwriting on the board:
> * The main one, the the one lead me to do it: Not forcing the student dose
> not have to read my bad handwrite, and I don't spend much time on writing
> neatly.
> * I'm always facing the class -- I'm not turn my back to them as I write
> (only look little bit down, at my screen), so I can see them, and they can
> see my face and hear me better.
> * When I have complex illustration, I can just add it to the document..
>
> And over pre-made 

Re: LyX as a presentation tool

[menoncin]

I sometimes use LyX as a presentation tool myself.

To what has already been written, I add that for showing how a graph  
is created step by step I use JPicEdt

http://jpicedt.sourceforge.net/site/index.php?language=en
which is a WONDERFUL software by itself but whose LaTeX code can be  
copied in LyX (in an ERT cell) and shown through the preview tool.


Francesco


Thomas Coffee <thomasmcof...@gmail.com> ha scritto:


Hi Ronen,

Very interesting ideas --- thanks for sharing. It occurs to me you could
get a good start to the 2-projector solution you describe by telling your
monitor setup that the screens are above & below, then stretching your LyX
window vertically "across" the two. Then when you reach the end of the
"right" screen, its contents would be scrolled onto the "left" screen.

On the topic of class presentations using LyX, I thought I'd also share my
current experience.

Since the equations I deal with in my current teaching are too cumbersome
to type in real time (even with LyX), I have been using beamer to generate
projector slides. However, I really wanted fine-grained control of display
to support the kind of interactive development of the material in class
that one can achieve with a blackboard.

I discovered that (with a little ugliness) it is possible to use some of
beamer's more complex visibility constructs (e.g., \only and \onslide)
inside math mode, in ways that are not obvious from the beamer
documentation. I've attached an excerpt from one of my lectures to
illustrate what I mean. This kind of control lets you replicate many
aspects of dynamically writing and erasing on the blackboard; and in fact,
I have found the process of constructing these sequences a valuable tool in
thinking about how to arrange and develop the material in class. (For
drawings or additional clarifications, I still use the blackboards adjacent
to the projector screen, but there usually few enough of these that I don't
need to erase anything.)

With fine-grained animation, the lecture presentations end up being
hundreds of PDF pages, but I have had no problems with this because:

* to generate a print version with no animations, I need only add "handout"
under Document >> Settings >> Document Class >> Class options >> Custom

* the presentation PDF compresses to nearly the same size as the handout PDF

* going forward and backward during presentation can be done very quickly
(at least, in the evince document viewer) by simply holding down the Page
Up or Page Down key, or using beamer's automatically inserted hyperlinks.

As Ronen described, I find the freedom of not writing and erasing on the
blackboard greatly improves my ability to face the class and devote
attention to leading the presentation and discussion of the material. For a
small class, I actually stay seated most of the time to improve the
ergonomics.

In terms of LyX development, certainly the ability to insert arbitrary ERT
in math mode would ease this approach, though this is clearly true for many
other things as well, and macros always provide a workaround. Further
beamer integration generally could be nice, but none of this is really
holding me up.

The only idea I've thought about implementing near-term is a setup I saw
described somewhere that allows the presenter to have two separate document
viewers (one on the laptop, one on the projector) both operating in
presentation mode simultaneously, that both advance with a key press. This
is not LyX-specific, and would allow the presenter to either (a) play a
copy of the presentation "ahead" on the laptop to see what's coming next,
or (b) use the "notes" features of beamer or other packages (or use a
lecture notes file) to guide verbal delivery.

I'd be interested to hear what other instructors have come up with.

- Thomas


On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 2:56 PM, Ronen Abravanel <ron...@gmail.com> wrote:


Hello,

I've been using LyX for writing notes and papers for the last ~8 years,
and lately I started using lyx in a new form, that might be of an interest
to others: As a presentation tool.

The general idea is simple: As I teach (modern physics for EE students),
instead of writing on a white-board with my awful handwrite, I just type
the lesson into a computer connected into a projector. Both text and math.
I stand in front of the class, talking to them, looking at them, and type.
Occasionally I leave my laptop and draw something on the board, or do some
demonstration, For illustrations, I'm either insert them into the document
(god bless inset-insert graphics and the minibuffer), or, if the figures
are simple, and I find that it may be instructive to draw them gradually, I
draw on the board.  If I wont to remind the students something from earlier
part of the class, I split the display into Left\Right half, and scroll one
of them up while continue working on the other half.

This methods have many 

Re: LyX as a presentation tool

[Liviu Andronic]

On Thu, Apr 5, 2012 at 8:56 PM, Ronen Abravanel  wrote:
> * Slow -- Doing math on slides is bad. Most of the time, the slides are too
> crowded to understand, and fill-up at once, and not character by character
> as one would like on the board. When I'm typing with the class, I'm keeping
> on slow paste, so the can understand the math and follow by it.
>
Hmm, is there a Beamer command that would force the slides to always
display math sequentially, line-by-line? I guess this is SF, but what
about word-by-word?

Liviu