Tips & Tricks
Latex
How to define new math symbols or short cuts for the Latex math mode?
How to draw several blocks on top of each other in Latex beamer?
How to convert PDF to PS with T1 fonts?
How to use TTF/OTF fonts in Latex?
How to use bold and small caps fonts?
The Latex package semantic provides a command called \mathlig which can be used to define new symbols/short cuts. Below is a small collection of some very useful symbols (at least for me):
\mathlig{->}{\to}
\mathlig{|->}{\mapsto}
\mathlig{|=>}{\Mapsto}
\mathlig{=>}{\Rightarrow}
\mathlig{|-}{\vdash}
\mathlig{~>}{\leadsto}
\mathlig{=/=}{\neq}
You can use \vspace{} command to move the blocks up. But if you have more than two blocks you do not know the height of
each block. Therefore instead of moving boxes vertical, you can move the horizontal by using the coloumns environment
provided by the beamer package. You set the column width to the \textwidth and the first column represents the main
content. The other columns have all the same height and you can easily position boxes, pictures, ... on those columns and
then move them to the left. Below a simple example is shown. You can download the source or
the final \mathlig{|->}{\mapsto}
\mathlig{|=>}{\Mapsto}
\mathlig{=>}{\Rightarrow}
\mathlig{|-}{\vdash}
\mathlig{~>}{\leadsto}
\mathlig{=/=}{\neq}
\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{Darmstadt}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
\frametitle{FrameTitle}
\begin{columns}[onlytextwidth]
%% this column contains the main content
\begin{column}{\textwidth}
\begin{block}{Title1}
\begin{itemize}
\item item1
\item item2
\item item3
\item item4
\item item5
\item item6
\item item7
\end{itemize}
\end{block}
\end{column}
%% this column contains the content next
%% to the previous one. Therfore we have to
%% move all the content to the left
\begin{column}{\textwidth}
%% move block over to the
\hspace{-1.01\textwidth} %% move block to the
\begin{minipage}{\textwidth}
\begin{exampleblock}{Title2}<2->
TODO
\end{exampleblock}
\end{minipage}
\end{column}
%% How about a rotated box
\begin{column}{\textwidth}
%% move block over to the
\hspace{-1.9\textwidth} %% move block to the
\begin{minipage}{.9\textwidth}
\rotatebox{15} {
\begin{minipage}{.9\textwidth}
\begin{alertblock}{Title2}<3->
{\huge IMPORTANT }
\end{alertblock}
\end{minipage}
}
\end{minipage}
\end{column}
\end{columns}
\end{frame}
\end{document}
%% use fontenc package
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
...
%% the use bf and sc
{\bf\scshape ... }
To use TTF/OTF fonts in Latex you need to include the fontspec package and need
compile the latex file with the xelatex command (a pdflatex dropin replacement).
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
...
%% the use bf and sc
{\bf\scshape ... }