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Powerdot is a powerful presentation class for LaTeX. It provides several features that make easier for the presenter to create professional-looking slides in a short amount of time. This article explains how to use powerdot.

Introduction

In powerdot, to create a new slide the corresponding text and images must be enclosed in a special environment. See the example below.

\documentclass[paper=smartboard]{powerdot}
\title{Powerdot Presentation}
\author{Overleaf}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\begin{slide}{Slide Title}
  \begin{itemize}
  \item This is an item
  \item Second item
  \item Third item
  \end{itemize}
\end{slide}
\end{document}

 Open this basic powerdot example in Overleaf


Opening the above example will create a project which produces these two slides:

OLPowerdot1f.png

OLPowerdot2f.png

The first command in a powerdot document must be to load the powerdot class; for example:

\documentclass[paper=smartboard]{powerdot}

where [paper=smartboard] sets the size of the presentation slides. See the powerdot documentation for additional paper option values. After that, the usual data (author, title and date) can be included in the preamble. Within the document, the commands \maketitle and \section will create a new slide to display the corresponding information.

In between the tags \begin{slide} and \end{slide} the contents of a new slide must be typed. A title for the slide can be set as an optional parameter inside braces right after the opening command. In the example, the title is "Slide Title".

Note: To compile a powerdot document (e.g., on Overleaf) you need use the latex compiler instead of pdflatex or xelatex.

Basic usage

Some extra parameters can be added to the class declaration command.

\documentclass[
    mode=print,
    paper=smartboard,
    orient=landscape
]{powerdot}

% Presentation metadata
\title{Powerdot Presentation}
\author{Overleaf}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}
\maketitle
     
% section: title takes up full slide
\section{First section}
           
\begin{slide}{Slide Title}
    \begin{itemize}
    \item This is an item
    \item Second item
    \item Third item
    \end{itemize}
\end{slide}
                                         
\begin{slide}{Slide N 2}
    This is the content of slide 2.
    Math $x=2\pi r$.
\end{slide}
\end{document}

 Open this powerdot document in Overleaf


In this example several options are set inside brackets in the command \documentclass[...]{powerdot}:

mode=print
This mode can be used to print the slides, it deletes the overlays and transition effects. Other modes are present, which is the default mode for presentations; and handout which produces a black and white overview of the slides, printing two slides per page.
paper=smartboard
This is the paper size to use in a presentation on a smartboard or a wide screen. Other paper sizes are screen (4/3 ratio), a4paper and letterpaper.
orient=landscape
Document orientation. Possible values are landscape and portrait

Note: If want to explore a more complete example, open the following project in Overleaf:

 Open a larger powerdot example in Overleaf


Adding notes

In powerdot it's possible to add notes to the slides as an aid to the presenter.

\documentclass[
    display=notes,
    mode=print,
    paper=smartboard,
    orient=landscape
]{powerdot}

% Presentation metadata
\title{Powerdot Presentation}
\author{Overleaf}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}
\maketitle
     
% section: title takes up full slide
\section{First section}
           
\begin{slide}{Slide Title}
    \begin{itemize}
    \item This is an item
    \item Second item
    \item Third item
    \end{itemize}
\end{slide}
\begin{note}{About items}
    Mention that lists of items can be customised.
\end{note}
\end{document}

 Open this powerdot example in Overleaf


To create a note the environment note must be used right below the corresponding slide. The syntax is the same as in the slide environment, you can also set a title for the note.

To render only the notes the option display=notes is passed to the document class command. Other values for this parameter are : slidesnotes that print the notes and the slides, and slides that prints only the slides.

Note: If want to explore a more complete example, open the following project in Overleaf:

 Open a larger powerdot example in Overleaf


Styles and palettes

The appearance of a powerdot presentation can be changed by means of styles and palettes. The styles change the overall look of the presentation while the palettes determine the set of colours used in a style.

\documentclass[
    style=sailor,
    paper=smartboard
]{powerdot}

\pdsetup{palette=Chocolate}

...

PowerdotEx4Chocolate.PNG

Some extra option can be passed to the \documentclass in the previous example that change the appearance of the slides:

style=sailor
Set the sailor style.

Other options such as palette can be included in \pdsetup{...}.

\pdsetup{palette=Chocolate}
Set the chocolate colour palette.

See the reference guide for a list of available styles and palettes.

 Open an example of the powerdot package in Overleaf


Transitions

Transition effects can be added to a powerdot presentation to make it more visually attractive.

\documentclass[
    style=sailor,
    display=slides,
    paper=smartboard,
    orient=landscape,
]{powerdot}

\pdsetup{trans=Split}
...

PowerdotEx5.png

In this example, a transition effect called Split is added to the presentation by the command

\pdsetup{trans=Split}

It shows the new slide by splitting it and animating each half to appear on the screen. These effects depend on the PDF viewer and are supported by the most popular options, in full screen mode.

Other possible transition effects are

  • Blinds
  • Box
  • Wipe
  • Dissolve
  • Glitter
  • Replace
  • Fly
  • Push
  • Cover
  • Uncover
  • Fade

 Open an example of the powerdot package in Overleaf


Overlays

Special commands can be used to unveil only some elements of the slide instead of the entire content. There are two ways to achieve this.

\begin{slide}{Slide Title}
You can see a list of items below. \pause \\
There are commands to make them appear sequentially
 \begin{itemize}[type=1]
   \item<2> This is an item
   \item<3> Second item
   \item<4> Third item
 \end{itemize}
\end{slide}

PowerdotEx6.gif

The two overlay-related commands are:

  • \pause which will show the text after the command till the next overlay,
  • \begin{itemize}[type=1] the extra parameter enables overlays in itemize and enumerate environments. It's possible to use the \pause command here or, as in the example, pass an extra parameter to each item. This extra parameter determines which overlies will display the current item. For instance, the first item appears only on the second overly.

Examples of other possible syntax for the extra parameters in the \item command are:

  • \item<-2>. This item will show up in all overlies except the second one.
  • \item<2->. This item will appear in all overlies from the second.
  • \item<2-5>. This item is printed from overly two to overly five.

 Open an example of the powerdot package in Overleaf


Verbatim on slides

Some content in a powerdot presentation requires special commands. For instance, to add verbatim text to a slide an additional parameter must be added to the slide environment.

\documentclass[
    style=sailor,
    display=slides,
    paper=smartboard,
    orient=landscape,
]{powerdot}

\usepackage{listings}
\lstnewenvironment{code}{%
\lstset{frame=single,escapeinside=`',
  backgroundcolor=\color{yellow!20},
  basicstyle=\footnotesize \ttfamily}
}{}

\begin{document}
\begin{slide}[method=direct]{Slide 2}
 Steps 1 and 2:
 \begin{code}
    compute a;

    compute b;
 \end{code}
\end{slide}
\end{document}

 Open this powerdot document in Overleaf


PowerdotEx7.png

The parameter inside brackets, method=direct is mandatory to add verbatim text to a slide, but don't allow overlays. Another option is to use method=file that allows verbatim text and overlays, but could be slow if many slides use this method.

 Open an example of the powerdot package in Overleaf


Reference guide

Below all official powerdot styles and all available palettes for the corresponding styles are listed.

main page inner page palettes
simple Style1P1.png Style1P2.png
tycja Style2P1.png Style2P2.png
ikeda Style3P1.png Style3P2.png
fyma Style4P1.png Style4P2.png blue, green, gray, brown, orange
ciment Style5P1.png Style5P2.png
elcolors Style6P1.png Style6P2.png
aggie Style7P1.png Style7P2.png
husky Style8P1.png Style8P2.png
sailor Style9P1.png Style9P2.png River, Wine, Chocolate, Cocktail
upen Style10P1.png Style10P2.png
bframe Style11P1.png Style11P2.png
horatio Style12P1.png Style12P2.png
paintings Style13P1.png Style13P2.png Syndics, Skater, GoldenGate, Moitessier, PearlEarring,

Lamentation, HolyWood, Europa, MayThird, Charon

klope Style14P1.png Style14P2.png Spring, PastelFlower, BlueWater, BlackWhite
jefka Style15P1.png Style15P2.png brown, seagreen, blue, white
pazik Style16P1.png Style16P2.png red, brown

Further reading

For more information see the

Overleaf guides

LaTeX Basics

Mathematics

Figures and tables

References and Citations

Languages

Document structure

Formatting

Fonts

Presentations

Commands

Field specific

Class files

Advanced TeX/LaTeX