Course on Latex

COURSE ON LATEX

Mikkel Madsen, 5th semester Data/Electronics

latex.mikkl.dk – [email protected]

Welcome

Copy content from DVD to your PC and pass it on

You can install while I talk (see the ”Install Help” link from the DVD)

I will help with installs in ~10 minutes About me: Mikkel Madsen, D/E 5th semester You can not learn LaTeX in 1 evening


Course Wiki

LATEX.MIKKL.DK Objective – aimed at students here at AAUE,

get you started on report writing Use the site to quickly find examples In case of errors or if you would like something

added to the site, contact us on [email protected]

You are always welcome to send us an e-mail if you have a LaTeX issue (we might not be able to help, but we will try)

These slides are available on the site

mailto:[email protected]


Program

Intro – Why use LaTeX? – (5 min.) Installation of software – (25 min.) LaTeX (1): Syntax, sections, figures, formula and tables –

(30 min.) Short break – (15 min.) Report structure and template – (15 min.) Version control / SVN – (15 min.) LaTeX (2): Preamble, bibtex, cross-references and FiXme –

(30 min.) Break (Sandwich + soda) / Installation help / Questions –

(30 min.) Practice assignments for those interested – (30-60

minutes)


What is LaTeX?

Documents without WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get)

Pronounced ”Lah-tech” Based on the ”TeX” typeset language from

1982 Popular for technical reports and books


LaTeX Microsoft Word

Harder to learn Easy to use with WYSIWYG

No WYSIWYG – You can concentrate on content

Most people are familiar with it already

You must ”compile” your document to see the result (this can take up to 2-3 minutes at worst)

Handles large reports with images and cross-references very poorly

Can handle multiple authors well – But this requires the use of SVN

Poor support for multiple authors

Time consuming in the beginning, but more efficient (and satisfying) in the long run

Seems easier to use, but is more time consuming over a longer period of time


Program





minutes)


Installation

LaTeX distribution Windows: MiKTeX (Basic Installation) Mac: MacTex

Text editor Windows: TeXnicCenter Mac: TeXShop

PDF viewer PDF X-Change recommended Adobe/other pdf-viewer is fine


Program

Intro – Why use LaTeX? – (5 min.) Installation of software – (25 min.) LaTeX (1): Syntax, sections, figures, formula and

tables – (30 min.) Short break – (15 min.) Report structure and template – (15 min.) Version control / SVN – (15 min.) LaTeX (2): Preamble, bibtex, cross-references and FiXme –



minutes)


LaTeX Syntax

LaTeX is written in ”.tex” files ”\” (backslash) before a command ”{}” (curly braces) around the text the

command is applied to. E.g.:

”\textit{Italic font}” = Italic font”\textbf{Bold font}” = Bold font

Some editors have buttons that will insert commands for you.

”%” (percent sign) before comments. Comments don’t show up in the compiled PDF.


A LaTeX document consists of:

Preamble – defines the style, what packages to be used (packages are used for certain commands and styles – more on this in LaTeX part 2}

\begin{Document}Content goes here!

\end{document}


Sections

Numbered sections:\part{Part} (-1) I. Part \chapter{Chapter} (0) 1 Chapter\section{Section} (1) 1.1 Section\subsection{Subsection} (2) 1.1.1 Subsection

Non-numbered sections:\section*{Section}\subsection*{Subsection}Just add ”*” before {}

Figures

Basic float:\begin{figure}[htb] \includegraphics{images/chap1/image.jpg} \end{figure}

h – Heret – topb – bottomp – ”page of floats”H – HERE! Must place figure here! (use sparingly)


Figures

With more options:\begin{figure}[htb]

\centering \includegraphics{images/chap1/image.jpg} \caption{This is my caption} \end{figure}

Caption can be above image as well Easy with TeXnicCenter Many examples on latex.mikkl.dk



Formula

”Inline formula” – together with the text:dollar sign ($) before and after formula.$2*\pi*r$

Numbered/Non-numbered formula:\begin{displaymath} 2*\pi*r \end{displaymath}

\begin{equation} 2*\pi*r \end{equation}

See ”The comprehensive latex symbol list (PDF)” for symbols (link on course wiki)


Tables

One of the harder things in LaTeX Basic table:

\begin{tabular}{ l | c || r | } 1 & 2 & 3 \\ 4 & 5 & 6 \\ 7 & 8 & 9 \\\end{tabular}

Column adjusting & - change columnl – left \\ - change rowc – center \hline – horizontal line between rowsr – right | - Vertical line between columns


Tables

Numbered table:\begin{table}

\centering\begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|c|}\hline& Firma 1 & Firma 2 & Firma 3 \\\hlineGrundpris & 3000 & 2800 & 3100 \\\hlineLiftkort & 1000 & 1100 & 1000 \\\hlineSkileje & 750 & 750 &

700 \\\hlineSamlet & 4750 & 4650 & 4800 \\\

hline\caption{Pris for skiferie}

\end{table}


Program





minutes)


Program





minutes)


“Includes”

\include{path/to/file}insert all content of ”file.tex” (do not include ”.tex”)

Path is relative to root .tex file E.g.: Our root file ”report.tex is in C:/report

Make includes from index.tex in ”content” folder to chap1.tex in the same folder.

WRONG: \include{C:/report/content/chap1} WRONG: \include{chap1} CORRECT: \include{content/chap1}


Report structure


Report structure

Make up your own structure to fit your needs and style

Rules of thumb: Remember to make \includes whenever you add a file

to the report Paths are relative to the ROOT file (report.tex) Avoid long file and path names Avoid very large .tex files (problematic with several

authors)


Report template

http://latex.mikkl.dk/index.php?title=Fil:Rapportskabelon.zip

Containts the folder structure we just discussed, along with preamble, frontpage and a .tex file with a range of examples.

Let’s test if it compiles correctly!




Program





minutes)


Version control

Referred to as ”SVN” or ”Subversion” Awesome tool for cooperative authoring SVN terms:

”Update” – Update my local copy so I have the newest version

”Commit” – Create a new version with my changes ”History” – Lists versions (who changed what file and

when) ”Merge” – If several authors have edited the same file ”Conflict” – If several authors have edited the same

lines of a file ”Revert” – Rollback to a previous version (file or folder)


Version control

SVN explained graphically: http://aliensystems.ic.cz/svn.swf

Demo of Commit/Update with TortoiseSVN Handling an SVN conflict SVN server?

http://aliensystems.ic.cz/svn.swf


Program


(30 min.) Short break – (15 min.) Report structure and template – (15 min.) Version control / SVN – (15 min.) LaTeX (2): Preamble, bibtex, cross-references and

FiXme – (30 min.) Break (Sandwich + soda) / Installation help / Questions –


minutes)


Preamble

The preamble is everything from the start of the Latex source file until the \begin{document} command

Defines commands, styles, etc. Some basic preamble settings: \documentclass[a4paper,openright,final]

{memoir} \usepackage[danish]{babel} \setcounter{secnumdepth}{2} \usepackage{graphicx} \usepackage{tabularx}


Labels and Cross-references

\label{my_label_name} \ref{my_label_name} E.g.:

\begin{figure}[htb] **** Image centering, path, caption ***\label{img:duck}

\end{figure} Image ~\ref{img:duck} is a picture of a duck! Output will be: ”Figure 1 is a picture of a duck!”



Agree on a naming scheme for your labels, e.g.:fig:label, tab:label, img:label, math:label, sec:label etc.

Labels are case-sensitive - easier to use all lower case letters

You can NOT have 2 of the same labels References to an unknown label will result in ”??” Files must be compiled several times – LaTeX can’t

know about all labels on the first run-through See the latex.mikkl.dk page on ”TeXnicCenter” for

setup of a build profile that compiles latex, bibtex, latex, latex.



Reference to section:\section{My Section}\label{sec:my_section}Hello!

\section{Another Section}In section ~\ref{sec:my_section} I said ”Hello!”.


Bibtex and Citations

Sources are stored in a ”.bib” file with entries like: @article{latexarticle1,

author = ”Mikkel Madsen", title = ”The LaTeX Cookbook", year = ”2010", pages = "342--351" }

Citing a source:\cite{latexarticle1} will output ”[X]” with x being the number of the source.

The bibliography will list your sources under their own number, so readers can consult it for details


Bibtex and Citations

See the LaTeX wikibook for bibtex exampleshttp://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Bibliography_Management

Inserting the bibliography (bib.bib): \bibliography{bib}

Changing style (put this before \bibliography{}):\bibliographystyle{ieeetr}”ieeetr” numbers in order of appearance, for other styles see:http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~kjt/software/latex/showbst.html

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Bibliography_Management

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Bibliography_Management

http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~kjt/software/latex/showbst.html

http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~kjt/software/latex/showbst.html


The FiXme package

Add the package in Preamble:\usepackage[footnote,draft,english,silent,nomargin]{fixme}

Add a fixme for stuff that needs to be taken care of, or that other authors must look at.

\fxnote{Note here} – inserts a footnote with your note

\listoffixmes generates a list of fixme’s and their page numbers

For long notes use \anfxnote{summary}{long description}Only the summary appears in \listoffixmes, and the long description is in the footnote.


Program



(30 min.) Break (Sandwich + soda) / Installation help /

Questions – (30 min.) Practice assignments for those interested – (30-60

minutes)


Program





minutes)