Writing LaTeX documents¶

For my degree, and generally, I write a lot of articles in LaTeX. Often I find myself having to refer to previous documents, so I thought I would include skeletal document here.

Table of Contents¶

Templates
Listings
Commonly used snippets
1. Creating lists
2. Figures
Meta formatting
1. Table of contents and appendix

Templates¶

List of templates for different LaTeX document types (this will grow as I update my notes)

Listings¶

Using code snippets is something often required in scientific writing. My general format for listings is

\definecolor{codebg}{gray}{0.8}%
\definecolor{codegreen}{rgb}{0,0.6,0}%
\definecolor{codegray}{rgb}{0.5,0.5,0.5}%
\definecolor{codepurple}{rgb}{0.58,0,0.82}%
\definecolor{backcolour}{rgb}{0.97,0.96,0.96}%
\lstdefinestyle{mystyle}{%
    backgroundcolor=\color{backcolour},%   
    commentstyle=\color{codegreen},%
    keywordstyle=\color{blue},%
    numberstyle=\tiny\color{codegray},%
    stringstyle=\color{codepurple},%
    basicstyle=\footnotesize\ttfamily,%
    breakatwhitespace=false,%         
    breaklines=true,%                 
    captionpos=b,%                    
    keepspaces=true,%                 
    numbers=left,%                    
    numbersep=5pt,%                  
    showspaces=false,%                
    showstringspaces=false,%
    showtabs=false,%                  
    tabsize=4%
}%
\lstset{style=mystyle}% 

Listings can be included using

\begin{lstlisting}[language]
sample code here
\end{lstlisting}

or used inline with

\lstinline{sample inline code}

Commonly used snippets¶

I often find myself create a document fully of generic LaTeX extract for e.g. equations or figures, so that I can easily insert new items.

Creating lists¶

For numerical lists, we can use

\begin{enumerate}
	\item first item
	\item second item
\end{enumerate}

If we require this to start at a specific number, e.g. 3, use \setcounter{enumi}{3}, and for alphabetical counters, use enumii in the setcounter prearg.

Bullet point lists are create in a similar fashion, with

\begin{itemize}
	\item first item
	\item second item
\end{itemize}

Figures¶

Single figures I include with the generic

\begin{figure}[h!]
\centering
\includegraphics[scale=1.0]{imagepath}
\captionsetup{format=hang}
\caption{sample caption text}
\label{fig:label}
\end{figure}

For figures with multiple subfigures, I use the subfig package, and the generic

\begin{figure}[h!]
\centering
\subfloat[subcaption1]{{\includegraphics{image1}}}\hspace{30pt}%
\subfloat[subcaption2]{{\includegraphics{image2}}}\hspace{30pt} \\%
\subfloat[subcaption3]{{\includegraphics{image3}}}%
\captionsetup{format=hang}
\caption{sample caption text}
\label{fig:label}
\end{figure}

I use \hspace to bad out the figure so that the figures are spaced nicely across the breadth of the page; these values are obviously tailored towards the specific images. If the subfigures do not require a caption, remove the subcaption text, but leave empty square brackets, else no alphabetical reference the subfigure will be rendered.

Meta formatting¶

Formatting the overall look and feel of the document often requires changes in the preamble. Solutions to problems I often face are included here

Table of contents and appendix¶

So that the appendix references in the ToC are preceded by ‘Appendix A’, and not just ‘A’, the following packages should be included

\usepackage{tocloft}%
\usepackage[titletoc]{appendix}%
\usepackage{appendix}%