Ignoring page numbers in backup slides

Question

I am using the beamer document class in latex to make a presentation. I will have a number of back up slides which are there for offline viewing, reference etc. Beamer has a feature that shows the progress through the presentation as {page#}/{total pages} on each slide. I would really like it if {total pages} was equivalent to my total number of pages w/out counting the back up slides (I don't want to discourage my audience on the first page!). Does anyone know how this can be done?

Answer 1

This can now be achieved with the following option on all "backup" slides:

\begin{frame}[noframenumbering]{My Title}
\end{frame}

Source

This will cause the final number (e.g. 25/25) to be displayed on such pages.

As always, a matter of taste.

Answer 2

This can be done with the appendixnumberbeamer package. Just add \usepackage{appendixnumberbeamer} to the preamble and use \appendix before the first backup slide.

Answer 3

I have defined two commands to do this:

\newcommand{\beginbackup}{
   \newcounter{framenumbervorappendix}
   \setcounter{framenumbervorappendix}{\value{framenumber}}
}
\newcommand{\backupend}{
   \addtocounter{framenumbervorappendix}{-\value{framenumber}}
   \addtocounter{framenumber}{\value{framenumbervorappendix}} 
}

You can then use \beginbackup and \backupend before and after your backup slide to adjust the number of slides.

For my beamer template I also like to add

\setbeamertemplate{footline}{
  \leavevmode%
  \hbox{%
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.333333\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,center]{author in head/foot}%
    \usebeamerfont{author in head/foot}\insertshortauthor~~(\insertshortinstitute)
  \end{beamercolorbox}%
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.333333\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,center]{title in head/foot}%
    \usebeamerfont{title in head/foot}\insertshorttitle
  \end{beamercolorbox}%
  \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.333333\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,right]{date in head/foot}%
    \usebeamerfont{date in head/foot}\insertshortdate{}\hspace*{2em}
    \insertframenumber{} \hspace*{2ex} % hier hat's sich geändert
  \end{beamercolorbox}}%
  \vskip0pt%
}

in the definition of the \beginbackup command to hide to total page number in the backup slides, otherwise you'll get something like "24/18".

Using all this, your slides will be numbered like "x/Y" for all slides before the backup, where Y is the total number of slides before the first backup slide, and the backup slides will continue the numbering of the previous slides.

Answer 4

To manually fix the total frame count to a certain number, say 25, you could add the following command

\renewcommand{\inserttotalframenumber}{25}

right after the \begin{document} command.

You can also add the \appendix command right before the beginning of your backup slides, so that the corresponding sections/subsections do not appear in the table of contents/navigation structure.

It should be possible to tweak the renewcommand above so that it automatically uses the last frame number before the appendix, but I don't know how to do it.

Answer 5

Just insert

\renewcommand{\inserttotalframenumber}{\pageref{lastslide}}

after \begin{document}, and place the marker

\label{lastslide}

on your last slide.

Answer 6

You can put all of your backup slides in appendix and use the appendixnumberbeamer package.

\documentclass[12pt]{beamer}
\usepackage{appendixnumberbeamer}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}{Frames that counts}
\end{frame}
\appendix
\begin{frame}{Backup slides}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

Answer 7

Fanfan, thanks for your answer, your answer steered me to this sty file that one can include in a beamer document class that will automatically count only the number of frames before the appendix, and then restart the a separate count for the appendix slides, pretty neat.

http://www.ensta.fr/~lelong/Latex/appendixnumberbeamer.sty

Thanks also to Jérôme LELONG for having this available online.

Answer 8

The great command \insertpresentationendpage will take care of your problem. Just place \appendix at the begin of your backup slides.

\documentclass[t]{beamer}

\usepackage[absolute,overlay]{textpos}
\setbeamertemplate{navigation symbols}{}

\def\insertpresentationendframe{\inserttotalframenumber}
\makeatletter
\g@addto@macro{\appendix}{\immediate\write\@auxout{\string\@writefile{nav}{\noexpand\headcommand{\noexpand\def\noexpand\insertpresentationendframe{\the\c@framenumber}}}}}
\makeatother

\setbeamertemplate{footline}{%
    \begin{picture}(54,12.5)(0,0)
    \put(0.9,0.52){%
        \begin{minipage}[b][12.5mm][c]{112.5mm}
        \raggedleft
        \insertframenumber/\insertpresentationendframe
        \end{minipage}
    }
    \end{picture}
}

\begin{document}

    \begin{frame}
        slide in the main part
        \only<2>{blub}
    \end{frame}

    \appendix
    \section*{Backup}

    \begin{frame}
        \frametitle{backup}
        not counting in the total frame number
    \end{frame}

\end{document}

Answer 9

Another possibility - which was recently added to beamer - is to use the appendixframenumber template:

\documentclass[t]{beamer}

\setbeamertemplate{footline}{
  \hfill%
  \usebeamercolor[fg]{page number in head/foot}%
  \usebeamerfont{page number in head/foot}%
  \setbeamertemplate{page number in head/foot}[appendixframenumber]%
  \usebeamertemplate*{page number in head/foot}\kern1em\vskip2pt%
}

\begin{document}

    \begin{frame}
        slide in the main part
        \only<2>{blub}
    \end{frame}

    \appendix
    \section*{Backup}

    \begin{frame}
        \frametitle{backup}
        not counting in the total frame number
    \end{frame}

\end{document}