3  A bare-bones sample

The basic structure of a Beamer input file is pretty simple. Consider the file small.tex, the content of which is shown below:

% small.tex
\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{default}
\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
  \frametitle{A sample slide}

A displayed formula:

\[
  \int_{-\infty}^\infty e^{-x^2} \, dx = \sqrt{\pi}
\]

An itemized list:

\begin{itemize}
  \item itemized item 1
  \item itemized item 2
  \item itemized item 3
\end{itemize}

\begin{theorem}
  In a right triangle, the square of hypotenuse equals
  the sum of squares of two other sides.
\end{theorem}

\end{frame}

\end{document}

The input file above produces the following slide:

Remark: In Beamer, a frame is what you would normally call a "slide". The image shown above is the realization of a single "frame". In what follows, I use the terms "frame" and "slide" interchangeably.¹

The \begin{frame}...\end{frame} block may be repeated any number of times to produce a sequence of slides.

Remark: The \frametitle{...} command puts a title on the slide. Although its use is optional, it is only in very rare cases where omitting a slide title would make sense.