I’m lazy.
When I write a presentation I want to be able to use it in three forms:
- As a slide show. Over some kind of projector. Using whatever is available. Given the instability of powerpoint and the fact I don’t run windows, this means some form of .pdf file
- As handouts online. Preferably without any need for anything but a browser. This requires html5.
- As something interactive… when I’m using tools. Again, this should be able to be done in html5.
What I don’t want is people having to use special tools.
And that is the reason that I am trying not to use Open Office, Microsoft Office, or any other Office clone to write slides. You cannot get nice html stuff that will work on everything. And if you have ever had to translate an openoffice text file into powerpoing and then get ir right — at the last minute — it can take hours, simply hours.
Now there are some good resources for most people that answer this question. The problem with this is that I is not most people. I’m odd. Most of the time I want to work with text files and illustrations. But I need to use multimedia, equations, and be able to work over some distance. Finally, I can write Latex, but I am not good at it. I need spell-checkers. And, for copyright reasons, I cannot use google docs and hope it will work everywhere.
Finally, this has to work in bulk. I teach about 40 — 50 hours a year. The most beautiful presentation software I know of — Sozi — works in an SVG monitor, and I don’t think that way. I think text, not graphics. (the same thing applies to jessyink).
That leaves me with LyX. Most installations have two slide pro grammes — beamer and powerdot. I used beamer last year, and the main problem I had with it was getting a good UK spell-checker up and running. (the main reason I don’t just use emacs and LaTeX is I cannot spell)
The good thing is that there are templates for both. Powerdot is simpler. And the output is nice…
The main issue is finding style sheets for powerdot that work with Lyx, but CTAN has three you can start with.