$\LaTeX$ Tips

I use $\LaTeX$ a lot. In this post, I summarize the tips I believe useful.

Tools and general references:

0. CTAN

The Com­pre­hen­sive $\TeX$ Archive Net­work (CTAN) is the cen­tral place for all kinds of ma­te­rial around $\TeX$. CTAN has cur­rently 4431 pack­ages. They have been con­tributed by 2078 au­thors. Most of the pack­ages are free and can be down­loaded and used im­me­di­ately.
url: http://www.ctan.org/

1. Detexify
A $\LaTeX$ symbol classifier

2. The Comprehensive $\LaTeX$ Symbol List
The Comprehensive $\LaTeX$ Symbol List is an organized list of over 5900 symbols commonly available to LaTeX users.

3. $\LaTeX$, a tutorial Wikibook
$\LaTeX$ is a guide to the LaTeX markup language. It is intended that this can serve as a useful resource for everyone from new users who wish to learn, to old hands who need a quick reference.

4. CodeCogs
CodeCogs is a online LaTeX equation editor. BTW: CodeCogs is also useful if you want to hide your email and/or telephone number in a picture. For example,

<img src="http://latex.codecogs.com/gif.latex?\mathfrak{Email:foobar@email.org}\\ \mathfrak{Tel:}\mathit{123-456-7890}" title="\mathfrak{Email:foobar@email.org}\\ \mathfrak{Tel:}\mathit{123-456-7890}" />

5. Art of Problem Solving
This page provides a short list of commonly used LaTeX symbols.

6. LaTeX Lab
LaTeX Lab is an online LaTeX document processing app based on Google Document.

7. Kile
Kile is a user-friendly TeX/LaTeX editor for the KDE desktop environment. KDE is available for many architectures and operating systems such as PC, Mac, and BSD, including Linux and Microsoft Windows.

8. VIM-LaTeX
Vim-LaTeX attempts to provide a comprehensive set of tools to view, edit and compile LaTeX documents without needing to ever quit Vim. Together, they provide tools starting from macros to speed up editing LaTeX documents to compiling tex files to forward searching .dvi documents.

9. MathJaX

;

MathJax is an open source JavaScript display engine for mathematics that works in all modern browsers.

I've introduced MathJax for Blogger in a previous post based on (mainly copying) this post.

Exotic symbols

1. "d-bar" notation,
Used in integration measures, as
%% dbar notation \def\dbar{{\mathchar'26\mkern-12mu \mathrm{d}}}

2. Roman numbers
%% make roman numerals<br /> %% example: \rmnum{7}, \Rmnum{7}<br /> \makeatletter \newcommand{\rmnum}[1]{\romannumeral #1} \newcommand{\Rmnum}[1]{\expandafter\@slowromancap\romannumeral #1@} \makeatother

3. Feynman slash notations
\usepackage{slashed} \slashed{a}

4. Inline Feynman diagrams
\usepackage{feyn} %inline feynman diagrams

Formatting

1. Tabular raw spacing
from Everything You Forget About LaTeX. Use
[1ex] \hline \\ [-1ex]
instead of \hline to add extra spaces above and below the horizontal line \hline.

2. Less margins
\usepackage{fullpage}

3. Equation justification
\usepackage[fleqn]{amsmath} % but don't load amsmath package twice

argument fleqn means,
fleqn % justify all equations to the left

other arguments are also available:
leqno (reqno) % put all equation numbers on the left (right)

4. Combining images
\usepackage{float} \begin{figure} \centering \subfloat[$L_n^0(x)$]{\includegraphics[width = 0.4\textwidth]{fig1}} \quad \subfloat[$L_4^\alpha(x)$]{\includegraphics[width = 0.4\textwidth]{fig2}} \caption{ Laguerre Polynomials } \label{laguerre} \end{figure}

5. Multiline subscripts and superscripts
reference: http://www.nada.kth.se/~carsten/latex/amsldoc/node51.html

Long subscripts could be ugly:
\[ \sum_{0\le i\le m 0<j<n} P(i,j) \]
\[ \sum_{0\le i\le m, 0 < j < n} P(i, j) \] Use \substack: \[ \sum_{\substack{0\le i\le m\\ 0<j<n}} P(i,j) \]
\[ \sum_{\substack{0\le i\le m\\ 0 < j < n}} P(i, j) \] Use \subarray: \[ \sum_{\begin{subarray}{l} 0\le i\le m \\ 0 < j < n \end{subarray}} P(i,j) \]
\[
\sum_{\begin{subarray}{l} 0\le i\le m \\ 0 < j < n \end{subarray}} P(i,j)
\]