Title: LaTeX notes Author: Darin Brezeale Date Created: 05-13-2004 Updated: Sunday, 12-Jul-2009 22:12:11 EDT

a simple LaTeX file

 \documentclass{article} \begin{document} This is a LaTeX document. \end{document}

Note that when creating an index or bibliography, it may be necessary to run latex or pdflatex twice; the first time xxxxxxxxxx counts.

create a .dvi file from the file somefile.tex (assumes that the extension is lowercase)

 latex somefile

view the file somefile.tex

 xdvi somefile &

create a PDF

 pdflatex somefile

create an index

in the header of the .tex file, include
 \usepackage{makeidx} \makeindex

and at the place in the file where the index should appear place
 \printindex

then run using
 makeindex somefile

create a bibliography

at the end of the file where the bibliography should appear, include (style alpha is used here)
 \bibliography{somefile} \bibliographystyle{alpha}

then run using
 bibtex somefile

check spelling -- words not in the dictionary but that are spelled correctly can be saved from within ispell (they will be in the file ~/.aspell.english.pws)

 ispell -t somefile.tex

remove the LaTeX statements and check spelling

 detex somefile | spell > errors.txt

extract the images from somefile.pdf

 pdfimages somefile.pdf root

to skip a number in the eqnarray environment
something &=& somethingelse \nonumber\\

change section numbers to capital Roman numerals:
\renewcommand \thesection{\Roman{section}}

to insert an Arabic section number after the section title:
\section {Section Title \arabic{section}}

to skip a line:
\vspace{\baselineskip}

to get first level enumerations to use lowercase letters:
\renewcommand{\labelenumi}{(\alph{enumi})}

to get second level enumerations to use lowercase Roman numerals:
\renewcommand{\labelenumii}{(\roman{enumii})}

to create side-by-side tables:
\begin{minipage}{2in}
\begin{tabular}{c}
Table1
\end{tabular}
\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{2in}
\begin{tabular}{c}
Table2
\end{tabular}
\end{minipage}


options for package hyperref

\usepackage[
]
pdfpagemode=FullScreen % begin in fullscreen (ctrl-L) mode
pdfpagelayout=SinglePage % put each section on a separate page
pdfstartview=FitH % fit to window

box around equation
\usepackage{amsmath}
\boxed{\theta = \frac{\mu + 3}{5}}
Can't remember the command for a symbol? Go to Detexify. There you can draw the symbol and the website will tell you the command.

## References

1. LaTeX for Word Processor Users
2. The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2e
3. Using Imported Graphics in LaTeX2e
4. A BibTeX Guide Through Examples
5. BibTeX and bibliography styles good examples of style files
6. A Guide to LaTeX, 4th Ed., Addison Wesley
7. More Math Into LaTeX, 4th Ed.
8. LaTeX Tips and Tricks — great collection of tips
9. LaTeX isn't for everyone but it could be for you — the benefits of using LaTeX
10. Sebastien's Latex Tricks — good examples of working with figures
11. http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~hildebr/tex/ — good tutorials for representing math in LaTeX
12. AMS-LaTeX — how and why you should use the AMS-LaTeX packages