Latex tips by A. Fornasiero

Links

Recommended

• FAQs A must read
• LaTeX manual Hypertext Help with Latex
• Latex symbols list A complete list of Latex symbols
• TeX: reference TeX Primitive Control Sequences
• CTAN Catalogue TeX Catalogue at CTAN: all (La)TeX packages
• Getting Started with LaTeX by David R. Wilkins
• A Latex encyclopedia Lot of documentation
• My own Latex tips (this page)

Tex search path

By default, TeX and friends will look for a file in the following locations (in order):

1. the user tex directory: in my case, ~/texmf (where ~ stands for the home directory);
2. the local tex directory: /usr/local/share/texmf
3. the main tex directory: /usr/share/texmf

The defaults are set in the file texmf.cnf (in our system, the complete path is /usr/share/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf).
If you want to install a tex file, copy it in a suitable subdirectory of ~/texmf (e.g., you will copy a Latex .sty file in a subdirectory of ~/texmf/tex/latex/), and then re-build the database, using the comand texhash . from inside ~/texmf (note the dot).

Suppose now that you want to modify the search path. We will consider the following case: you want tex to search (in order) your texmf directory, the texmf directory of the user fornasiero (me), and then the "system" texmf directories. Of course, we will assume that you can read the contents of the directory /home/fornasiero/texmf. You have to set the system variable $TEXMF. Assume that your home is /home/pippo. With the value
TEXMF= {!!/home/pippo/texmf,!!/usr/local/share/texmf,!!/usr/share/texmf}
you obtain the default behaviour described above. You have to modify TEXMF, and obtain:
TEXMF= {!!home/pippo/texmf,!!/home/fornasiero/texmf,!!/usr/local/share/texmf,!!/usr/share/texmf}

Method: for a temporary change, write (on you shell: we will assume that you use the bash shell)
export TEXMF='{!!$HOME/texmf,!!/home/fornasiero/texmf,!!/usr/local/share/texmf,!!/usr/share/texmf}'
for a permanent change, add the above line to your .bashrc file (it should be in your home directory; if it is not there, create one containing the above line).

Interesting packages

babel

adding for hyphenation and changing names (ad es. section -> sezione)
\usepackage[british]{babel}

amsmath amssymb amsthm

AMS maths packages. amssymb for symbols (greek letters, \prod, etc.) amsthm for theorem environments

nicefrac

for better looking "small" fractions
\usepackage[nice]{nicefrac}

cases

case construction with numeration of every formula

enumerate

better enumeration environment
\begin{enumerate}[{punto }a.]
enumerates using the format punto a, punto b etc. You can use I for roman etc.
You could use instead \renewcommand{\enumi}{punto \alph{enumi}}

makeidx

indexing package

multind

allows many different indexes

xspace

defines the command \xspace

newcent

NewCentury, AvantGarde, Courier fonts

yfonts

additional fonts: gothic, etc. allows to use \textfrak and \textswab

letterspace

to enlarge the space between letters:
\letterspace to 1.5\naturalwidth{abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz}
prints the alphabet with large space between letters

hyperref

embeds hyperlinks nel file dvi (o pdf) should be installed as the last one but before using \newtheorem

hypbmsex

bookmark entries can be given in another argument of the sectioning commands, for compatibility with pdftex

nohyperref

simulates some commands in hyperref, for compatibility with hyperref
\usepackage[hypertex,colorlinks=true]{hyperref}

srcltx

activates source specials for forward searching
\usepackage[active]{srcltx}

preview

previews the dvi file in the emacs buffer; works with AUCTeX and (X)Emacs
\usepackage[sections,floats,textmath,displaymath]{preview}

showkeys

show key labels in the dvi file
\usepackage[notref]{showkeys}

Tricks

• \DeclareFontFamily{OT1}{pzc}{}
  \DeclareFontShape{OT1}{pzc}{m}{it}%
                {<-> s * [0.900] pzcmi7t}{}
  \DeclareMathAlphabet{\mathpzc}{OT1}{pzc}%
                                   {m}{it}

  Zapf Chancery is the standard PostScript calligraphic font. Allows to use the command \mathpzc for calligraphic letters (uppercase and lowecase) in math mode. s* means silently the number in [] is the magnification factor (default 1).
  Usage: \fontfamily{pzc}\selectfont to switch to Zapf Chancery in normal text; $\mathpzc{text}$ to use Zapf Chancery inside math mode.
• \renewcommand\@makefnmark{\@textsuperscript{\normalfont(\@thefnmark)}}
  change style of footnotes: (1) instead of 1

• \renewcommand{\@pnumwidth}{1.75em}
  \renewcommand{\@tocrmarg}{2.75em}  

  redefine the page number width in the toc, in order to avoid overflowing

• \newcommand{\rst}[1]{\ensuremath{{\mathbin\upharpoonright}%
  \raise-.5ex\hbox{$#1$}}}  

  define the \rst command. \rst{A} print something like |A, with the A slightly lowered. $f\rst{A}$ should mean the function f restricted to the set A.

• \newcommand{\unover}[1]{\ensuremath{%
      \frac{\raisebox{-.1ex}{\ensuremath{1}}}%
           {\raisebox{.2ex}{\ensuremath{#1}}}}}  

  define \unover
\unover{x} prints a better looking fraction 1/x to be used in display math mode

• \newcommand{\unosu}[1]{\ensuremath{\mathchoice%
      {\unover{#1}}%        display math mode
      {\nicefrac{1}{#1}}%   in-line math mode
      {\nicefrac{1}{#1}}%   scriptstyle
      {\nicefrac{1}{#1}}}}% scriptscriptstyle  

  define \unosu
\unsosu{x} print a better version of 1/x uses the package nicefrac

Commands

\ensuremath{formula}

ensures to be in math mode

\newcommand[2][normal]{\pippo}{text #1 #2d}

defines the commands \pippo, with 2 arguments, the first optional, and with default value normal.
\pippo[first]{second}
output
text first second

\providecommand{\pippo}{something}

defines the command \pippo, if it does not already exists; otherwise, does nothing

\renewcommand{\pippo}{something}

redefines the command \pippo, if it does not already exists; otherwise, gives error

\input{nomefile}

inserts the contents of file nomefile as it is

\include{nomefile}

start a new page and inputs nomefile. You cannot \include inside an included file (bu you can use \input instead)

\includeonly{file1,file2}(in the preamble)

tells to use only the files file1 and file2 among the ones mentioned by the \include However, it keeps page numbering and labels as if all files were included

Index

\makeindex \makeglossary (in the preamble)

create index and glossary files

\printindex (in the text)

print the index

\index{$\exp$|see{exponential}} (in the text, at any point, better at the beginnig)

create the index entry $\exp$ (a symbol), with the caption see exponential

\index{$\exp$}(in the text)

add the current page to the $\exp$ entry

\index{length!common}

add the common subetry to the length entry

\index{exponential|(} many pages of text ... text \index{exponential|)}

add a page-range to the exponential entry

Usage

index filename
or index -s indextyle filename
e.g. index -s gind.ist plan
creates an index file for plan.tex using the style gind.ist

Fonts

Mathematics fonts

\mathbf

Bold

\mathsf

Sans-serif

\mathit

Italics

\mathtt

Typewriter

\mathrm

Roman

\mathfrak

Fraktur

\mathcal

CALLIGRAPHIC; only uppercase letters

\mathbb

Blackboard BOLD; only uppercase letters

\mathpzc

Zapf chancery

\text

Text inside math formula

Text fonts

\textit

Italics

\textsl

Slanted

\textbf

Bold

\texttt

Typewriter

\textsc

Small caps

\textsf

Sans-serif

\emph

emphasized (italics)

Font sizes

\tiny

\scriptsize

\footnotesize

\small

\normalsize

default

\large

\Large

\LARGE

\huge

\Huge

Math operators, spacing and dimension

\mathord

normal symbol (eg. a)

\mathop

operator

\mathbin

binary operator

\mathopen \mathclose

parentheses

\mathpunct

punctuation

\left \middle \right

size changing symbols

\bigl \bigm \bigr

large size symbols

For example

\newcommand{\paren}[1]{\ensuremath{\left(#1\right)}}

(1) parentheses of variable height

\newcommand{\Paren}[1]{\ensuremath{\bigl(#1\bigr)}}

(1) big parentheses

\newcommand{\squares}[1]{\ensuremath{\left[#1\right]}}

[1] parentheses of variable height

\newcommand{\Squares}[1]{\ensuremath{\bigl[#1\bigr]}}

[1] big parentheses

Citations and references

\label{labelname}

create a new label

\ref{labelname}

insert a reference to the label

\cite{labelname}

insert a reference to a bibliographical item

\bibliography{surreals}

insert the bibliography from the surreals.bib database

\bibliographystyle{abbrv}

uses the abbrv style for the bibliography

\nocite{label1,label2}

insert label1 an label2 works in the bibliography, even if not actually cited in the text

\nocite{*}

inserts all works in the database

Usage

bibtex filename.tex

\tableofcontents

print a table of contents

\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Index}

add the chapter Index to the table of contents. E.g.

\clearpage
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Index}
\printindex

will create an index and put the entry Index 117 in the Table of Contents (if, say, the index appears at page 117). You might want to use \cleadoublepage instead of \clearpage. Sometimes, no \clearpage is needed.
Thank to Jan Somorcik for a correction.

Hyphenation

\hyphenation{Ar-chi-me-dean De-de-kind sche-ma-ta}

tell how to hyphenate Archimedean, etc.

\def\hyph{\nobreakdash-\hspace{0pt}\relax}

define the \hyph command (using the amsmath package). \hyph prints a hyphen that does not prevent hyphenation.
E.g. non\hyph Archimedean $p$\hyph adic prints non-Archimedean p-adic and can be now hyphenated normally

Programming

\show\commandname

print in output the definition of the command \commandname

\xspace

print a space if necessary. E.g. \newcommand{\namely}{namely\xspace}

\namely x=y

prints namely x=y

\namely, x=y

prints namely, x=y

note that the spacing is correct in both cases.
There is a problem if before \xspace there is a point: TeX puts some extra space after a point. You can either use \frenchspacing to get rid of this space everywhere. Or you can disable it with \newcommand{\ie}{i.e.\@\xspace} or \newcommand{\ie}{i.e\mbox{.}\xspace} Ulrike Fischer.

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Last modified: Mon Jan 9 12:02:43 CET 2012 by A. Fornasiero