Useful Little Things

These are some notes I’ve made during a self-guided, crash course on getting started with LaTeX. Mac OS X only, though.

• Downloaded a LaTeX editor for the Mac: MacTex. Installed in the normal way.
• It created a TeX folder inApplications.
• BibDesk – Maintains a list of references for a manuscript in a .BIB file.
• TeXShop – Editor for .TEX files. My favorite so far.
• TeXWorks – Another editor for .TEX files. Didn’t like it as much as TeXShop.
• Really haven’t done anything with the other apps in the group.
• Using BibDesk
• This is a file-based software for managing references.
• To add a reference
• Locate a publication to reference (ACM, IEEE, etc.)
• Locate and click the BibTeX link.
• This will either display a text block beginning with “@something{” or a file will download.
• If text block is displayed, copy the entire text block, switch to BibDesk, and click Publication, New Publication from Clipboard…
• If a file is downloaded, locate the file in Finder and drag it onto the BibDesk window.
• If you can’t find a BibDesk link on the site, try finding the article in CiteSeerX or even Google Scholar.
• For ease of use, I standardize the cite key value for each publication. In my case, that means every reference follows the pattern {author}{year}, such as Thackston2012. Makes it much easier to remember, find, and cite publications.
• Save the BibDesk file using a .BIB extension. Put it in the same folder as your manuscript.
• Note: Not all BibDesk references are created equal. I have found websites with incomplete reference data. Verify!
• Using TeXShop
• Hopefully, the publisher provides a class file, a style file, and a template. For example, the ACM provides all three. Beware! ACM has some older pages with outdated class files.
• The class file and style file should never need editing and can be dropped into the same folder as your .TEX file.
• Editing a .TEX file
• Note: LaTeX obviously has strong roots in the technical world, since a .TEX file looks like source code and pretty much behaves like source code.
• Launch TeXShop and open the template. If you were not provided one, I suggest making a personal one. You don’t want to start documents from scratch every time.
• Probably will need to set the document class to reference the provided class file. Leave of the file extension.
• \documentclass[acmcsur]{acmsmall}  <– This line references the acmsmall.cls file and a specific journal name, acmcsur, defined inside the class file.
• Will also need to set a few things like title, authors, etc.
• The abstract goes between the \begin{abstract} and \end{abstract} tags.
• The body of the document goes between the \begin{document} and \end{document} tags.
• References in your document
• To cite a reference, use \cite{CiteKey}, where CiteKey is the cite key from the BibDesk file.
• The bibliography gets inserted by adding \bibliography{MyDocument.bib}, where MyDocument.bib is the BibDesk file with your references.
• When you compile your document, the references and bibliography get built and updated for you.
• You can also manually manage your bibliography by using \begin{thebibliography}{}, \bibitem{}, and \end{thebibliography}.
• Some random notes
• The \usepackage{} tag brings in new functionality, like an import in Java.
• Emphasis should be made using \emph{} (i.e. italics)
• Tables are constructed using an \array{}.
• Figures and tables a labeled using \label{} and referenced using \ref{}.
• Spanning rows and columns in tables can be accomplished using \multirow{} and \multicolumn{}.
• Column borders are created using a pipe symbol (|); row borders are created using a \hline.
• Equations are entered using \begin{equation}.
• Comments can be entered using the percent sign (%).
• Paragraphs can be kept together using \begin{samepage}.
• Creating a PDF from the .TEX file
• TeXShop actually is just a text editor that can run some command line stuff in the background and show you the results.
• To generate a PDF, make sure the first dopdown list on the toolbar has “LaTeX” selected. Click the Typeset button. A PDF window should appear.
• If a PDF window did not appear, you did not generate the PDF properly, likely due to an syntax error in your document.
• Note: If you are using a .BIB file for your citations, you need to follow these steps each time you build the PDF (to get all the cross-references right)
• Select “LaTeX” in the toolbar and click Typeset.
• Select “BibDesk” in the toolbar and click Typeset. Check the output window and make sure there are no fatal errors.
• Select “LaTeX” in the toolbar and click Typeset.
• Select “LaTeX” in the toolbar and click Typeset.
• (No, I haven’t bothered to figure out why you have to do this. I’m sure there’s a good reason. but I don’t really care.)
• You should get a PDF window each time you do a LaTeX build. If you don’t you have a problem. No, I won’t help you figure out what the problem is…
• Best overall references for getting started with LaTeX are The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX 2e and LaTeX for Word Processor Users.