How to have the next slide in a second screen in PDF presentations

I do my presentations in latex – beamer, and something that I miss from other software applications is to see the upcoming slide in the notes screen, so I can prepare my speech and make the transitions between slides smoother.

Although I usually use pstricks, and typeset everything with Tex + Ghostscript, for this presentation I’m going to use pdftex so I can include pdf as graphics.

Here is what I did, and you might find it useful too, tweak it as needed:

Compile your presentation without notes first, and include an extra slide (empty if you like).

Save it with another name, e.g.: reference.pdf

Add this lines to your preamble:

\usepackage[absolute,showboxes]{textpos}
\usepackage[]{eso-pic}
\TPGrid{210}{297}
\newcounter{pdfPage}
 \addtocounter{pdfPage}{1}
\newcommand{\insertslideintonotesA}{
 \addtocounter{pdfPage}{1}
  \begin{textblock}{100}(125,177)
\includegraphics[page=\value{pdfPage} , scale=.4]{reference.pdf}
  \end{textblock}
 }

And these lines after your \begin{document}

\AtBeginNote{
\scriptsize
}\AtEndNote{
\insertslideintonotesA
}

Compile again your presentation WITH notes, and delete the extra slide you included in the first step.

Your next slide will appear in the bottom right of the notes screen.

You can use tdclock.sty (see more here) if you want to have a clock too, although in Mac, it doesn’t work with SplitShow.

You will need to add this line to the preamble:

\usepackage[timeinterval=30]{tdclock}

this line to your first slide:

\initclock

and this line to your \AtBeginNote{} section

\tdtime