Prosper in Kile

[edoviak]

I just spent five hours figuring out how to use the Prosper document class in Kile. I'm writing, in part, to make sure that no one else endures such a painful experience and, in part, to find out how bad my solution was.

I've been writing my dissertation in Kile, so I had already installed the TeTeX package, on which Prosper depends, (I think).

I began by installing the Prosper package (which placed the files in my /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex directory). I then tried to create some slides, but I could not understand why the slides that I compiled were always blank. I did a web search and found this page, which suggests manually installing the prosper, contrib-prosper and seminar packages manually. Before going too far however, I noticed that there already was a seminar directory in my
/usr/share/texmf-tetex/tex/latex/ directory, so I decided to untar the prosper and contrib-prosper archives into that directory. Once again, my slides were blank.

Finally, I hit upon a solution that worked:

1. Compile the TeX file with Kile's LaTeX button
2. Convert the DVI to a PS file with Kile's DVItoPS button
3. Convert the PS to PDF with Kile's PStoPDF button
4. View the PDF.

Would this clumsy solution have worked if I had not untarred the prosper and contrib-prosper archives into the /usr/share/texmf-tetex/tex/latex/ directory? In other words, was there any need to download the archives and install manually?

Thanks,
- Eric

[LaserJock]

How were you trying to build/view your slides before?
Your "clumsy solution" is how I normally use Kile . I don't think you needed to get the prosper and contrib-prosper tarballs.

-LaserJock

[edoviak]

Wow! That was fast! Thanks Laser.

How were you trying to build/view your slides before?
Your "clumsy solution" is how I normally use Kile . I don't think you needed to get the prosper and contrib-prosper tarballs.

I prior to getting the tarballs, I tried to view the DVIs (with KDVI) and I tried to compile to PDF. Upon seeing a blank DVI/ blank PDF, I got discouraged and I didn't think to convert the DVI to PS.

I was also getting a lot of error messages, which I can no longer reproduce.

(Sorry. I know that isn't very helpful, but I don't have the time to retrace my steps. I have to give a presentation on Tuesday).

- Eric