Transcript Intro to LaTeX

Intro to LaTeX
WING meeting 12 Jan 2007
What’s LaTeX?
> An alternative to using MS Word for writing
reports and papers
> Our target today:
HYP Thesis
ACM Conference Submissions
PhD Thesis
> Best Practice Tools
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Why LaTeX?
> Plain Text with Markup
> Forces you to concentrate on writing
> Takes care of math, figure positioning,
references, and tables of contents quite well.
> Free!
> Why not LaTeX?
Steep learning curve
Not WYSIWYG (even with 3rd party tools)
Needs compilation
Ugly tables and Figure inclusion is hard
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> Conclusion: use if you have time to learn
Example of LaTeX
document
\documentclass{article}
\title{Simple Example}
\author{Andrei Gurtov}
\date{March 2000}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
Hello world!
\end{document}
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Tabular
> Columns
Two Columns
\begin{tabular}{|…|…|}
\end{tabular}
> Rows
& - Split text into columns
\\ - End a row
\hline - Draw line under row
e.g. 123123 & 34.00\\ \hline
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l = automatically adjust
size, left justify
r = automatically adjust
size, right justify
p = set size
e.g p{4.7cm}
c = centre text
Example of table
\begin{tabular}{|l|r|c|} \hline
Date & Price & Size \\ \hline
Yesterday & 5 & big \\ \hline
Today & 3 & small \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
Date
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Price
Size
Yesterday
5
Big
Today
3
Small
Floating Objects
> Floating objects can stop splitting of tables and
images over pages.
\begin{figure}[options]
\end{figure}
\begin{table}[options]
\end{table}
> They will now appear in the
List of Figures (LOF) and
List of Tables (LOT).
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Options (recommendations)
h = place table here
t = place at top of page
b = place at bottom of page
Example of floating
figure
>
>
>
>
>
\begin{figure}[ht]
\centering\epsfig{file=uni.ps, width=5cm}
\caption{University of Helsinki}
\label{uni}
\end{figure}
Width and height modifiers
Figure~\ref{uni}
shows...
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Some Math
\begin{center}
{\large
$$ y=\frac{a^3+2c_{x}}{1+\sqrt{b_{x}}}
$$ \\
\vspace{0.2in}
$$
Q=\sum_{i=1}^{j}\int_{\mu}^{\infty}
f(x_{j})dx $$ \\
\vspace{0.2in}
$$ \Psi = \oint_{\infty}^{\infty}f_{xy}({\frac{\partial
Qx}{\partial Qy}})^{\Im_{\pi}^ \prime}
$$ \\ }
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Local .sty and .cls files
> These are the files that control the
formatting of the final file (look&feel)
LaTeX uses .sty (style files)
LaTeX2E uses .cls (class files)
> For HYP reports use Wei Tsang’s page
Google “latex ooiwt” or “latex nus soc”
> For Ph.D. thesis use Hang’s template
www.cuihang.com/software/thesis_template.zip
Or WING cvs sg/edu/nus/comp/hang/thesis_template
> For papers, start with the ACM template
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Google “acm latex template”, use alternate tighter style
Trivial to do
> Create a table of contents
> Create a table of figures
> Create the bibliography
Only records that were referenced will be included
This means you can keep all of the references you will
ever use in one BibTex file.
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Bibliography using
BibTex
> Bibliography information is stored in a
*.bib file, in BibTex format.
> Include chicago package (at top)
\usepackage{chicago}
> Set referencing style (at end)
\bibliographystyle{chicago}
> Create reference section by
\bibliography{bibfile with no extension}
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Bibliography using
Bibtex
@book{Come95,
author=“D. E. Comer”,
title={Internetworking with TCP/IP:
Principles, Protocols and Architecture},
publisher=“Prentice-Hall”,
year=1995,
volume=1,
edition=“Third”}
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Bibliography
contd.
> Citing references in text
\cite{cuc98} = (Cuce 1998)
\citeN{cru98} = Crud (1998)
\shortcite{tom98} = (Tom, et. al. 1998)
> Creating Bibtex Files
Use Emacs with extensions.
or copy Bibtex entries from bibliography database.
ACM Portal has option to get BibTex reference
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Problems
> Often LaTeX will fail with an error.
> If it has a question mark for you,
type “x” and press enter.
> This will quit LaTeX.
> When LaTeX dies like this, it is
almost always because you
screwed up.
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How to solve problems
> Look at the error LaTeX gave you.
> It will have a line number which will help you
find the error.
> Common mistakes:
Mismatched \begin{}/\end{} blocks
Mismatched {/}
Mismatched $, $$, or \(\) or \[\]
Misspelled keywords
> Sometimes lines are too long. This isn’t fatal
but looks bad. LaTeX outputs a warning with
a line number so you can fix it.
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Best Practice Tools
> make to create your pdf file
> Use another program to create eps or pdf
figures for inclusion.
PowerPoint, or xfig
Use graphicx or epsfig package for eps figures
You can import raster graphics (jpg) but this is trickier;
make sure resolution is correct
> Use GhostView to see revisions
Can read PDF, not as slow or feature heavy as Acrobat
Reader
Handles re-opens well
> Need to count words?
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Use my texWordCount.pl script, from my software page.
General Best Practices
> Check in your revisions very often to get CVS
to backup your stuff
You may need to refer to your old files
Do comment your revisions
Use in file CVS $Id$ and $Log$ to see revision history
> Use specific comments
Comments start with % but don’t show
Use % BUG: to tell me what to correct, I will do the same
Use % GUB: to tell me what’s fixed; I will then delete the
line if I agree
> Use inline notes {\em BUG: xxx }
If you need me to see a thing wrt to the actual file.
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Need help?
> Use the web; learn by example
> One in particular:
Hypertext help for LaTeX
http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~kanmy/latex (local)
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