This document is NOT a LaTeX guide, to find help on LaTeX, refer to The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX, a Hypertext Help with LaTeX, a short list of LaTeX symbols, a very extensive list of LaTeX symbols (also found here) or, for best results: google.ca.
Here, I collected the files necessary to write your thesis in LaTeX,
and some suggestions concerning:
including figures, and
producing bibliography easily.
The compilation section of this guide is based on the assumption that
you are using LaTeX on a Linux system, and have access to a command
prompt. If you are using MikTeX (often combined with TeXnicCenter),
then "Step 3" does not apply to you, the rest does. If you are using
Scientific Word then all I can suggest you is to stop doing it and write
your document in the old and EASY way with a simple text editor under
Linux, or use Miktex (and TeXnicCenter) under Windows.
At the end of this page, you find a Discussion section with other usefull remarks that involve topics like creating a "List of Symbols", Most recent thesis guidlines, etc.
thesis.tex: The main LaTeX file, contains no actual text, but includes the files chap1.tex, chap2.tex. When you write a third chapter, name it chap3.tex and call it from thesis.tex.
chap1.tex, chap2.tex: Sample chapter files. This is where the content of your thesis is.
mycommands.tex: Call the packages you use and include all command definitions here.
header.tex: Fill in the fields: "Author", "Title", "Date", ...
seven.eps: Sample figure.
biblio.bib: The bibliography database. You will input all bibliography items that you want to see in your List Of References. See later.
amsplain2.bst: Bibliography style file. This is the only style file that differs from the one provided by the U of C. It is a slight modification of the standard amsplain.bst file. If you know nothing about bibtex, just use it happily, no need to modify anything in it.
Everything else (a .cls, a .clo and two .sty files): Style files provided by the U of C to make sure that your thesis satisfies the typographical requirements. I did not change them at all, they are duplicates of the files that I downloaded from the U of C IT page.
Use chap1.tex, chap2.tex, ... to write your thesis. Whenever you need to define a new command, do it in mycommands.tex.
The rest is ...Make sure that you are in your thesis directory. Issue the following commands in your Linux command prompt:
Note that you don't need to run bibtex when compiling your document if you did not make changes to the bibliography. In this case, running latex (maybe twice, to make sure references are included) is sufficient.
You can view the PostScript file by typing
>gv thesis.psTo view the pdf file, type
>acroread thesis.pdfNote that on some systems dvipdf does not produce a particulary nice and optimal size (small) pdf file. In this case, log on to ms0, and run dvipdf thesis.dvi there. You need to have your thesis.dvi and all the included .eps files in the directory where you run the above command.
First, you MUST have an .eps file; that is, an Encapsulated Postscipt file to include in the thesis. There are several ways to produce one: you can convert any format (Jpeg, ps, ...) to eps with image converting tools (e.g. The Gimp), many mathematical and drawing applications export figures into eps (e.g. Maple does). To create simple eps figures on a Linux machine, you can use Xfig.
Place your .eps file in your thesis folder and then, include your figure just like in the sample chap2.tex.
Use BibTeX!
Answer: Well, you can, but bibtex really makes your life easier, and there is not much to learn about it. It's worth the effort. Here is how bibtex works:
You collect all the bibliography items in a bibliography database file, called biblio.bib, and then it takes care of everything provided that you follow the compillation method set out in the compilation section; that is, you latex, then bibtex, then latex, and latex again your document.
Answer: That's VERY easy, in fact, that is the main reason why you should use bibtex. First, go to MathSciNet and find the publication. Then click on the red text "Clipboard" under the name of the article/book. Then, the blue word "Clipboard" appears in the upper left corner of the page. Click on it, and select "Citations (BibTeX)" from the pull-down menu. Click "Save clip", and you see the citation in bibtex format. Copy and paste it into your biblio.bib file. You are done, it will be included in your bibliography next time you compile your document.
This is one major advantage of using bibtex over the "ususal" latex method: You can't make a typo. Your references are as accurate as MathSciNet. The other major advantage is that the stlye of referencing is uniform and follows the standards of the AMS.Answer: If you want to cite a bibliography item in your text, open
biblio.bib, and replace the MR number at the top of the item by a label of your chice.
Then, you can cite this reference as
\cite{the label you used}
anywhere in your document.
Answer: You don't need to know more to write your thesis. However, if you are interested, check The BibTeX format, Wikipedia -- Bibtex, How to use Bibtex, LaTeX tricks: Bibtex or, for best results: google.ca.
can be found at:
http://www.ucalgary.ca/gs/policy/pdf/t_thesis_guidelines.pdfThis document deals with fonts sizes, spacing, the order of sections (does the "Dedication" go before or after the "Table of Contents", which sections are optional, and so on), margins, and just about everything else a thesis should do or have. The LaTeX thesis template handles most of these, except for making sure the various optional sections show up in the correct order.
by Alan SilvesterIf you want to add a "List of Symbols, Abbreviations, Nomenclature", it's very easy to use LaTeX's index commands to automatically add, sort, and list page numbers of symbols. Commands like:
\index{$symbol$}{This is a useful symbol}can turn into:
List of Symbols, Abbreviations, NomenclatureThis idea can also be extended to make another very useful section, the "List of Things To Do". Throughout your thesis, you can insert commands like \todo{Fix this} or \todo{Find a reference for this} to make a list of things to do (complete with automatically updated page numbers). If anyone is interested in these, I can dig the various parts out of my thesis files and share them.
by Alan SilvesterFirst, you need the three files from this folder. Thesisindex.sty is a modified version of index.sty that allows you to make two-column indices. Makeidx.sty is the LaTeX style file that gives you the indexing commands. Thesis.isty is the makeindex style file. This will all make sense in a moment.
Place the thesisindex.sty and makeidx.sty in your texmf directory and thesis.isty in the same folder as your thesis.tex file.
Include thesisindex and makeidx with a \usepackage{thesisindex, makeidx} command.
Create the indices with:
\newindex{not}{idx}{inx}{List of Symbols, Abbreviations, Nomenclature}This command indexes a to-do item and includes it in-place in the text: \newcommand{\todo}[1]{\index[todo]{#1}{\tt [[ TODO: #1 ]]}}
Once compiled, it will look like:
List of Things to Do
Fix this statement .........................page
and on "page", you get:
blah blah [[ TODO: Fix this statement ]] blah blah
This command formats the list of symbols to look nicer: \newcommand{\symindex}[2]{\index[not]{\parbox{1.5in}{#1} #2}}
To generate the indices, use:
\begin{singlespace}
\printindex[todo]
\printindex[not]
\end{singlespace}
...
(all your chapters go here)
...
\begin{singlespace}
%\printindex[defn] % One-column
\printindextwo[defn] % Two-column
\end{singlespace}
Finally, to use these in your actual chapters:
\index[defn]{ whatever you are defining }
\symindex{ the symbol }{ description of symbol }
\todo{ your reminder }
To compile your thesis, you need to run:
latex thesisYou'll have to find makeindex on your computer; I only know where it is in linux. The nice thing about the list of things to do is that it will only show up in the compiled thesis file if there are any \todo commands.
Just remember, LaTeX has weird (but consistent) sorting rules. When it produces the list of symbols; certain fonts have precedence over other fonts. You can force it to do per-chapter ordering by replacing:
You can get fancy in the defn index, too (actually these work in any of the indices, but it's especially good for the defn index):
You can only do that many sub-levels. It's also smart enough to automatically turn a page list like "24,25,26,28,32" into "24-26,28,32".
by Alan Silvester