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If you've any latex pointers I'd appreciate it :) I used latex to write a paper for the first time last week, and while i thoroughly enjoyed it, i'm fairly con

If you've any latex pointers I'd appreciate it :) I used latex to write a paper for the first time last week, and while i thoroughly enjoyed it, i'm fairly confident there were lots of things I could've done better.

lucb1e 10y ago
I've written two papers in it now, so I'm not a grandmaster yet either. If you managed what you wanted to do and enjoyed it, you probably know as much as me. I'm not sure there is really a wrong way to use it. If you google every little thing to find a good solution (not manually inserting and formatting references for example), I don't think there is too much to be done better. At least, to my beginner's eyes it doesn't seem like it.
dbcurtis 10y ago
I've recently discovered Quiver. Mac only, but open file format spec (if you are feeling particularly energetic). But it certainly is the nicest thing I've found for doing LaTeX.
pigscantfly 10y ago
I would recommend trying www.writelatex.com.
jloughry 10y ago
Use makefiles and git with LaTeX. Use \input{} to structure large documents as a main file that includes smaller ones. Keep all your BibTeX citations in one large .bib file (under git) and symlink it into the current directory for every new document; it makes bibliographies so much easier. PDFLaTeX makes it incredibly easy to keep all your graphics in PDF files; it makes them so much nicer to deal with. Inkscape is great for making vector graphics for use in LaTex; keep the source code of the graphics in SVG but save as PDF for LaTeX to use (tell Inkscape to export only the drawing to PDF, not the whole page, and you'll never have to crop or resize your graphics ever again). Finally, use a modern TeX like XeTeX that directly understands Unicode characters and TrueType fonts.
- justinlardinois 10y ago
  I second git and Make, but I'm not sure I agree with the single .bib file thing. That works if you're writing a lot of documents on the same subject that use many of the same sources, but that's a very specific use case.
- barsonme 10y ago
  Oooh, I like the .bib idea. I might steal it and use it for select things---I decided it'd be a good idea to go back (sorta) and finish my BS, so creating one for each class might be a very good idea. Import as .pdf not .svg? Got it. It was tricky fiddling with percentages and stuff to get the .svg to fit properly (and look decent). Thanks! I'll look into XeTex.
Analemma_ 10y ago
IME, the most important key to Latex is setting up your environment so you can have a fast turnaround time between writing some markup and seeing what it looks like (essentially, getting a "Latex REPL"). There are a bunch of different ways to do this, you'll have to pick what's best for you. On Macs I tend to use Sublime Text (substitute with your editor of choice) with a macro to invoke pdfTeX; on Windows I use TeXstudio which has live preview support. There are other ways; do whatever's best for you. The second most important thing I've found for latex is setting up macros. In TextExpander/AHK I have several dozen Latex macros set up, like \tbl3 => \begin{tabular}{ l | c | r } a & b & c \\ \end{tabular} With a bunch of variants for different styles (full borders, etc.), column numbers, etc. Once your macros have become muscle memory, writing Latex speeds up considerably.
- barsonme 10y ago
  Yeah, that makes sense. I'll make sure to do that. It was kind of time-consuming typing out the couple tables I did add. I used latexmk which watches file(s) for changes and rebuilds with pdflatex. It was nice, but made my laptop run real hot, and inotify never really works very well. Which ST plugin do you use?
  - eivarv 10y ago
    Not OP, but I've had good experiences with LaTeXTools[1]. [1]: https://packagecontrol.io/packages/LaTeXTools https://packagecontrol.io/packages/LaTeXTools
- majewsky 10y ago
  On Linux, I do the following: while inotifywait *.tex; do sleep 0.2 && pdflatex main.tex && killall -HUP mupdf; done This will, when a .tex file is written, wait a moment until all disk IO is done, then run pdflatex and trigger a reload in my PDF viewer (some also do that automatically when the .pdf file is changed). The only annoyance is that big .tex files (esp. Beamer presentations) may take long to compile, which interrupts the flow. But in that case, it helps to distribute the sources into multiple files and to comment out the source files that are not needed at the moment.
akincisor 10y ago
The only LaTeX link you'll need: https://tobi.oetiker.ch/lshort/lshort.pdf https://tobi.oetiker.ch/lshort/lshort.pdf
justanotherbody 10y ago
I'm pretty weak at LaTeX but if you haven't used macros and rerender-on-write I'd strongly recommend it The latter is something i achieved with sleep_until_modified.sh and a shell loop. Pretty rudimentary but functionally equivalent to modern webdev reload-on-write behavior. HUGELY beneficial to my learning latex syntax and behavior and formatting nuances
avn2109 10y ago
IMHO the best TeX tutorials on the internet are written by some Helpdesk guy on his blog: http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2010/02/15/lets-learn-latex-part-1/ http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2010/02/15/lets-le... I'm not affiliated in any way with that site but the pedagogy is very approachable. Also it helps to use a site like WriteLatex.com or ShareLatex.com to do the hard setting up part when you're just starting out. Edit: I see he is no longer a helpdesk guy, and his blog's tagline is (unfortunately) no longer "I will not fix your computer."
- barsonme 10y ago
  That looks great, thank you for sharing!
geff82 10y ago
Use TeXstudio to write your documents. It is an IDE with autocompletion and contextual help and an integrated viewer. Made writing LaTeX so much easier, as it also has wizards to generate repeating boilerplate. I love Latex, especially mathematical notations are a breeze.
stirner 10y ago
Many resources have been suggested, but not the guide written by the creator of TeX and computer science legend Donald Knuth: http://www.ctex.org/documents/shredder/src/texbook.pdf http://www.ctex.org/documents/shredder/src/texbook.pdf
stirner 10y ago
Many resources have been suggested, but not the guide written by the creator of TeX and computer science legend Donald Knuth: http://www.ctex.org/documents/shredder/src/texbook.pdf http://www.ctex.org/documents/shredder/src/texbook.pdf
taserian 10y ago
Adding to the list of editors: LyX is a great cross-platform editor that I've used. https://www.lyx.org/ https://www.lyx.org/

lucb1e 10y ago

I've written two papers in it now, so I'm not a grandmaster yet either. If you managed what you wanted to do and enjoyed it, you probably know as much as me. I'm not sure there is really a wrong way to use it. If you google every little thing to find a good solution (not manually inserting and formatting references for example), I don't think there is too much to be done better. At least, to my beginner's eyes it doesn't seem like it.

dbcurtis 10y ago

I've recently discovered Quiver. Mac only, but open file format spec (if you are feeling particularly energetic). But it certainly is the nicest thing I've found for doing LaTeX.

pigscantfly 10y ago

I would recommend trying www.writelatex.com.

jloughry 10y ago

Use makefiles and git with LaTeX. Use \input{} to structure large documents as a main file that includes smaller ones. Keep all your BibTeX citations in one large .bib file (under git) and symlink it into the current directory for every new document; it makes bibliographies so much easier. PDFLaTeX makes it incredibly easy to keep all your graphics in PDF files; it makes them so much nicer to deal with. Inkscape is great for making vector graphics for use in LaTex; keep the source code of the graphics in SVG but save as PDF for LaTeX to use (tell Inkscape to export only the drawing to PDF, not the whole page, and you'll never have to crop or resize your graphics ever again). Finally, use a modern TeX like XeTeX that directly understands Unicode characters and TrueType fonts.

justinlardinois 10y ago
I second git and Make, but I'm not sure I agree with the single .bib file thing. That works if you're writing a lot of documents on the same subject that use many of the same sources, but that's a very specific use case.
barsonme 10y ago
Oooh, I like the .bib idea. I might steal it and use it for select things---I decided it'd be a good idea to go back (sorta) and finish my BS, so creating one for each class might be a very good idea. Import as .pdf not .svg? Got it. It was tricky fiddling with percentages and stuff to get the .svg to fit properly (and look decent). Thanks! I'll look into XeTex.

Analemma_ 10y ago

IME, the most important key to Latex is setting up your environment so you can have a fast turnaround time between writing some markup and seeing what it looks like (essentially, getting a "Latex REPL"). There are a bunch of different ways to do this, you'll have to pick what's best for you. On Macs I tend to use Sublime Text (substitute with your editor of choice) with a macro to invoke pdfTeX; on Windows I use TeXstudio which has live preview support. There are other ways; do whatever's best for you. The second most important thing I've found for latex is setting up macros. In TextExpander/AHK I have several dozen Latex macros set up, like \tbl3 => \begin{tabular}{ l | c | r } a & b & c \\ \end{tabular} With a bunch of variants for different styles (full borders, etc.), column numbers, etc. Once your macros have become muscle memory, writing Latex speeds up considerably.

barsonme 10y ago
Yeah, that makes sense. I'll make sure to do that. It was kind of time-consuming typing out the couple tables I did add. I used latexmk which watches file(s) for changes and rebuilds with pdflatex. It was nice, but made my laptop run real hot, and inotify never really works very well. Which ST plugin do you use?
- eivarv 10y ago
  Not OP, but I've had good experiences with LaTeXTools[1]. [1]: https://packagecontrol.io/packages/LaTeXTools https://packagecontrol.io/packages/LaTeXTools
majewsky 10y ago
On Linux, I do the following: while inotifywait *.tex; do sleep 0.2 && pdflatex main.tex && killall -HUP mupdf; done This will, when a .tex file is written, wait a moment until all disk IO is done, then run pdflatex and trigger a reload in my PDF viewer (some also do that automatically when the .pdf file is changed). The only annoyance is that big .tex files (esp. Beamer presentations) may take long to compile, which interrupts the flow. But in that case, it helps to distribute the sources into multiple files and to comment out the source files that are not needed at the moment.

akincisor 10y ago

The only LaTeX link you'll need: https://tobi.oetiker.ch/lshort/lshort.pdf https://tobi.oetiker.ch/lshort/lshort.pdf

justanotherbody 10y ago

I'm pretty weak at LaTeX but if you haven't used macros and rerender-on-write I'd strongly recommend it The latter is something i achieved with sleep_until_modified.sh and a shell loop. Pretty rudimentary but functionally equivalent to modern webdev reload-on-write behavior. HUGELY beneficial to my learning latex syntax and behavior and formatting nuances

avn2109 10y ago

IMHO the best TeX tutorials on the internet are written by some Helpdesk guy on his blog: http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2010/02/15/lets-learn-latex-part-1/ http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2010/02/15/lets-le... I'm not affiliated in any way with that site but the pedagogy is very approachable. Also it helps to use a site like WriteLatex.com or ShareLatex.com to do the hard setting up part when you're just starting out. Edit: I see he is no longer a helpdesk guy, and his blog's tagline is (unfortunately) no longer "I will not fix your computer."

barsonme 10y ago
That looks great, thank you for sharing!

geff82 10y ago

Use TeXstudio to write your documents. It is an IDE with autocompletion and contextual help and an integrated viewer. Made writing LaTeX so much easier, as it also has wizards to generate repeating boilerplate. I love Latex, especially mathematical notations are a breeze.

stirner 10y ago

Many resources have been suggested, but not the guide written by the creator of TeX and computer science legend Donald Knuth: http://www.ctex.org/documents/shredder/src/texbook.pdf http://www.ctex.org/documents/shredder/src/texbook.pdf

stirner 10y ago

taserian 10y ago

Adding to the list of editors: LyX is a great cross-platform editor that I've used. https://www.lyx.org/ https://www.lyx.org/