Technical document preparation with LaTeX?

With hands on experience

Kaushik Roy

West Bengal State University, Barasat

[email protected]

May 30, 2024

Kaushik Roy (WBSU) LaTeX May 30, 2024 1/6

Common Mistakes

• Often times, you make a mistake when creating a document. You

will notice the log file reporting a problem.
• There are some common mistakes:
– “end” doesn’t follow “begin”
– $ doesn’t follow $
– Using commands from packages not defined in the preamble
– Don’t forget “\”s.

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Latex Cheatsheet-0
LATEX 2ε Cheat Sheet Lists Justification
\begin{enumerate} Numbered list. Environment Declaration
Document classes \begin{itemize} Bulleted list. \begin{center} \centering
book Default is two-sided. \begin{description}Description list. \begin{flushleft} \raggedright
report No \part divisions. \item text Add an item. \begin{flushright} \raggedleft
article No \part or \chapter divisions. \item[x ] text Use x instead of normal bullet or number.
letter Letter (?). Required for descriptions. Miscellaneous
slides Large sans-serif font. References \linespread{x} changes the line spacing by the multiplier x.
Used at the very beginning of a document:
\label{marker } Set a marker for cross-reference, often of the
\documentclass{class}. Use \begin{document} to start
form \label{sec:item}. Text-mode symbols
contents and \end{document} to end the document.
\ref{marker } Give section/body number of marker. Symbols
Common documentclass options \pageref{marker } Give page number of marker.
\footnote{text} Print footnote at bottom of page. & \& \_ ... \ldots • \textbullet
10pt/11pt/12pt Font size. $ \$ ˆ \^{} | \textbar \ \textbackslash
letterpaper/a4paper Paper size. Floating bodies % \% ˜ \~{} # \# § \S
twocolumn Use two columns.
\begin{table}[place] Add numbered table.
twoside Set margins for two-sided.
\begin{figure}[place] Add numbered figure. Accents
landscape Landscape orientation. Must use dvips ò \‘o ó \’o ô \^o õ \~o ō \=o
\begin{equation}[place] Add numbered equation.
-t landscape. ȯ \.o ö \"o o̧ \c o ǒ \v o ő \H o
\caption{text} Caption for the body.
draft Double-space lines. ç \c c o. \d o o \b o o
�o \t oo œ \oe
The place is a list valid placements for the body. t=top, ¯
Usage: \documentclass[opt,opt]{class}. Œ \OE æ \ae Æ \AE å \aa Å \AA
h=here, b=bottom, p=separate page, !=place even if ugly.
Packages Captions and label markers should be within the environment. ø \o Ø \O �l \l L
� \L ı \i
 \j ¡ ~‘ ¿ ?‘
fullpage Use 1 inch margins.
anysize Set margins: \marginsize{l}{r }{t}{b}. Text properties
Delimiters
multicol Use n columns: \begin{multicols}{n}. Font face ‘‘ “ ‘‘ { \{ [[ (( < \textless
latexsym Use LATEX symbol font. Command Declaration Effect ’’ ” ’’ } \} ]] )) > \textgreater
graphicx Show image: \includegraphics[width=x ]{file}. \textrm{text} {\rmfamily text} Roman family
url Insert URL: \url{http://. . . }. \textsf{text} {\sffamily text} Sans serif family Dashes
Use before \begin{document}. Usage: \usepackage{package} \texttt{text} {\ttfamily text} Typewriter family Name Source Example Usage
\textmd{text} {\mdseries text} Medium series hyphen - X-ray In words.
Title
\author{text} Author of document. \textbf{text} {\bfseries text} Bold series en-dash -- 1–5 Between numbers.
\title{text} Title of document. \textup{text} {\upshape text} Upright shape em-dash --- Yes—or no? Punctuation.
\date{text} Date. \textit{text} {\itshape text} Italic shape
These commands go before \begin{document}. The \textsl{text} {\slshape text} Slanted shape Line and page breaks
declaration \maketitle goes at the top of the document. \textsc{text} {\scshape text} Small Caps shape \\ Begin new line without new paragraph.
\emph{text} {\em text} Emphasized \\* Prohibit pagebreak after linebreak.
Miscellaneous \textnormal{text}{\normalfont text}Document font \kill Don’t print current line.
\pagestyle{empty} Empty header, footer and no page num- \underline{text} Underline \pagebreak Start new page.
bers. The command (tttt) form handles spacing better than the \noindent Do not indent current line.
\tableofcontents Add a table of contents here. declaration (tttt) form.
Document structure Miscellaneous
Font size \today March 28, 2017.
\part{title} \subsubsection{title} \tiny tiny \Large Large $\sim$ Prints ∼ instead of \~{}, which makes ˜.
\chapter{title}
\section{title}
\paragraph{title}
\subparagraph{title}
\scriptsize scriptsize
\footnotesize footnotesize
\LARGE LARGE ~
\@.
Space, disallow linebreak (W.J.~Clinton).
Indicate that the . ends a sentence when following
\subsection{title}
Use \setcounter{secnumdepth}{x} suppresses heading
\small small
\normalsize normalsize
\huge huge an uppercase letter.

Huge
\hspace{l} Horizontal space of length l (Ex: l = 20pt).
numbers of depth > x, where chapter has depth 0. Use a *, as \large large \Huge \vspace{l} Vertical space of length l.
in \section*{title}, to not number a particular item—these \rule{w}{h} Line of width w and height h.
items will also not appear in the table of contents. These are declarations and should be used in the form {\small
. . . }, or without braces to affect the entire document. Tabular environments
Text environments
\begin{comment} Comment (not printed). Requires verbatim Verbatim text tabbing environment
package. \begin{verbatim} Verbatim environment.
\begin{quote} Indented quotation block. \begin{verbatim*} Spaces are shown as �. \= Set tab stop. \> Go to tab stop.
\begin{quotation}Like quote with indented paragraphs. \verb!text! Text between the delimiting characters (in Tab stops can be set on “invisible” lines with \kill at the end
\begin{verse} Quotation block for verse. this case ‘!’) is verbatim. of the line. Normally \\ is used to separate lines.

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Latex Cheatsheet-1
tabular environment Citation types The LATEX document should have the following two lines just
\cite{key} Full author list and year. (Watson and Crick before \end{document}, where bibfile.bib is the name of the
\begin{array}[pos]{cols} BibTEX file.
1953)
\begin{tabular}[pos]{cols}
\citeA{key} Full author list. (Watson and Crick)
\begin{tabular*}{width}[pos]{cols} \bibliographystyle{plain}
\citeN{key} Full author list and year. Watson and Crick
(1953) \bibliography{bibfile}
tabular column specification \shortcite{key} Abbreviated author list and year. ?
l Left-justified column. \shortciteA{key} Abbreviated author list. ? BibTEX example
c Centered column. \shortciteN{key} Abbreviated author list and year. ? The BibTEX database goes in a file called file.bib, which is
r Right-justified column. \citeyear{key} Cite year only. (1953) processed with bibtex file.
p{width} Same as \parbox[t]{width}. All the above have an NP variant without parentheses; Ex.
@{decl } Insert decl instead of inter-column space. \citeNP. @String{N = {Na\-ture}}
Inserts a vertical line between columns. @Article{WC:1953,
| BibTEX entry types author = {James Watson and Francis Crick},
@article Journal or magazine article. title = {A structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid},
tabular elements @book Book with publisher. journal = N,
\hline Horizontal line between rows. @booklet Book without publisher. volume = {171},
\cline{x-y} Horizontal line across columns x through y. @conference Article in conference proceedings. pages = {737},
\multicolumn{n}{cols}{text} @inbook A part of a book and/or range of pages. year = 1953
A cell that spans n columns, with cols column @incollection A part of book with its own title. }
specification. @misc If nothing else fits.
@phdthesis PhD. thesis.
@proceedings Proceedings of a conference.
Sample LATEX document
Math mode @techreport Tech report, usually numbered in series. \documentclass[11pt]{article}
For inline math, use \(...\) or $...$. For displayed math, @unpublished Unpublished. \usepackage{fullpage}
use \[...\] or \begin{equation}. \title{Template}
BibTEX fields \author{Name}
Superscriptx ^{x} Subscriptx
� _{x} address Address of publisher. Not necessary for major \begin{document}
x n
\frac{x}{y} \sum_{k=1}^n
y
√
n
�nk=1 publishers. \maketitle
x \sqrt[n]{x} k=1
\prod_{k=1}^n author Names of authors, of format ....
booktitle Title of book when part of it is cited. \section{section}
Math-mode symbols chapter Chapter or section number. \subsection*{subsection without number}
edition Edition of a book. text \textbf{bold text} text. Some math: $2+2=5$
≤ \leq ≥ \geq �= \neq ≈ \approx editor Names of editors. \subsection{subsection}
× \times ÷ \div ± \pm · \cdot institution Sponsoring institution of tech. report. text \emph{emphasized text} text. \cite{WC:1953}
◦ ^{\circ} ◦ \circ � \prime ··· \cdots journal Journal name. discovered the structure of DNA.
∞ \infty ¬ \neg ∧ \wedge ∨ \vee key Used for cross ref. when no author.
⊃ \supset ∀ \forall ∈ \in → \rightarrow month Month published. Use 3-letter abbreviation. A table:
⊂ \subset ∃ \exists ∈
/ \notin ⇒ \Rightarrow note Any additional information. \begin{table}[!th]
∪ \cup ∩ \cap | \mid ⇔ \Leftrightarrow number Number of journal or magazine. \begin{tabular}{|l|c|r|}
ȧ \dot a â \hat a ā \bar a ã \tilde a organization Organization that sponsors a conference. \hline
α \alpha β \beta γ \gamma δ \delta pages Page range (2,6,9--12). first & row & data \\
� \epsilon ζ \zeta η \eta ε \varepsilon publisher Publisher’s name. second & row & data \\
θ \theta ι \iota κ \kappa ϑ \vartheta school Name of school (for thesis). \hline
λ \lambda µ \mu ν \nu ξ \xi series Name of series of books. \end{tabular}
π \pi ρ \rho σ \sigma τ \tau title Title of work. \caption{This is the caption}
υ \upsilon φ \phi χ \chi ψ \psi type Type of tech. report, ex. “Research Note”. \label{ex:table}
ω \omega Γ \Gamma Δ \Delta Θ \Theta volume Volume of a journal or book. \end{table}
Λ \Lambda Ξ \Xi Π \Pi Σ \Sigma year Year of publication.
Υ \Upsilon Φ \Phi Ψ \Psi Ω \Omega Not all fields need to be filled. See example below. The table is numbered \ref{ex:table}.
\end{document}
Bibliography and citations Common BibTEX style files
abbrv Standard abstract alpha with abstract
When using BibTEX, you need to run latex, bibtex, and alpha Standard apa APA Copyright �c 2014 Winston Chang
latex twice more to resolve dependencies. plain Standard unsrt Unsorted http://wch.github.io/latexsheet/

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Conclusions

• Mathematical Formulae are easy.

• Avoid GUI latex creators. (Lyx, Klyx, Scientific Word).
• Use the bibtex search engine:
http://www.cs.monsh.edu.au/mirrors/bibliography
• Consider converting Postscript files to PDF to conserve space.

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 The End
Questions? Comments?