I find that the first step is to read PGF manual. It meticulously teaches us from each every detail of drawing. This is quite enough for a simple presentation.
However, the PGF manual has error in header setting:
%% Plain TeX file
\input tikz.tex
\usetikzlibrary{arrows,decorations.pathmorphing,backgrounds,placments,fit}…
we have to replace “placement” by “positioning” as suggestion in here.
One of common mistake in writing paper is we prepare figures from other packages, say Matlab or Mathematica, and then scale them down (or up) in the paper body. This will subsequently change the figures’ text size! If we want to have a consistent font sizes throughout long paper or thesis, then we must follow a well pre-defined workflow.
Regarding to animation, there are several options:
- TikZ + overlay / pause commands
- Use the animate package of Alexander Grahn. To me, it just like Mathematica’s Manipulation command. The result is stunning presentation in pdf file, of course with the cost of very long time study in order to master this technique.
Some cute examples:
- Animated distributions. It would be quite a challenging task for Visio. We, however, have to download the packet from CTAN, and put animate.sty and animfp.sty to the working directory.
- Inertial navigation system. Ironically and unexpectedly, one of the advantages of learning TikZ is to improve my presentation by Visio. Especially the way we handle color and structuring the figure.
