Overview

Teaching: 5 min
Exercises: 0 min

Questions

• How do I format URLs into my document?

• How do I insert some common symbols?

• How do I get images into the right place?

• Is LaTeX really worth all this hassle?

• Are there any easier to use alternatives?

• How do I convert LaTeX to MS Word for my colleague/journal who insists we use Word?

Objectives

• Understand some common problems encountered in LaTeX and solutions to them

• Know about some utilities to make LaTeX easier to use

URL Formatting

LaTeX often doesn’t like URLs in the code. Use the hyperref package and the \url{} command to include them, this will also make them a clickable hyperlink in the PDF. Sometimes certain characters have to be escaped with \ character in front of them. Alternatively you can change them to an ASCII code with the code \%<code>, using a code from asciitable.com. For example http://www.mysite.com/somepage?a=1&b=2 would become either \url{http://www.mysite.com/somepage\?a=1\&b=2} or \url{http://www.mysite.com/somepage\%3Fa=1\%26b=2.

Special Characters

• £ sign, use \pounds or \textsterling
• < or > symbols: \textless or \textgreater
• Exponents (e.g. 2 8 ): 2\textsuperscript{8}
• Degrees symbol (e.g. 45 ◦ ), load the siunitx package and use $\SI{45}{\degree}$

Images in the wrong place

• Use [ht!] on the begin figure line: \begin{figure}[ht!]
• Move the source location of the image, this can make reading the source annoying but can make it appear in a better place on the page.
• Resize the image slightly by adjusting the [width=xcm] or [height=xcm] to the \includegraphics command.

Is it worth the hassle?

• LaTeX might be more effort for smaller documents but it really pays off with bigger documents.
• Many Journals offer a LaTeX template and an example file which takes away a lot of the hard work.

Useful Utilities

• LyX is a “What you see is what you mean” editor, it shows things in a nice graphical format that represent’s how you intend it to look but is nothing like how it will really look on paper. It can use LaTeX commands, import/export LaTeX files and produces documents by converting to LaTeX first.

• latex2rtf converts LaTeX output to RTF files which can be read by MS Word. Useful for when you need to give somebody who doesn’t know LaTeX a document for them to edit or a Journal insists on Word file submissions.

• jabref is a BibTeX database manager that lets you manage your BibTeX database. Mendeley can also export to BibTeX.

Key Points

• Use the hyperref package and url command to handle URLs. Some characters might need escaping.

• LaTeX has lots of commands for common special characters you might type in on the keyboard.

• Images often appear in the wrong place, use [ht!], resize the image or move the reference to the image to a different place in the LaTeX code.

• LaTeX can be hassle especially on smaller documents but really comes into its own on big documents.