2.2. LaTeX¶

2.2.1. Characters¶

LaTeX is a command language and as such uses some special characters as part of the language. Thus if you want to use these characters either in your text or bibliography you need to be especially carful about. These characters include % $ # _

Other than in hypreref links and urls you need to put a backslash in front of them. For example to print a % in the text you need to use:

\%

Furthermore tthe character ” is not at all used as discussed in the next section.

2.2.2. Highlighting Text¶

Quotes are not written with the ” character, but are embedded in two left single quotes and two right single quotes:

``This is a quote''

which will result in:

“This is a quote”

In many papers we see that the quote is misused while putting quotes around a word. However quotes are often just used to quote a text from another paper. Instead of using quotes authors may actually emphasise a word. LaTeX has a special command for that using:

{\em this is emphasized}

resulting in

this is emphasized

To write a text as bold (which should also be avoided as bold is typically used in section headers), you can use:

{\em this is bold fett}

resulting in

this is bold fett

2.2.3. Sections¶

LaTeX provides a convenient mechanism to structure a paper with sections and subsections THis is achieved with the following commands:

\section{This is a Section}
\subsection{This is a Subsection}
\subsubsection{This is a Subsubsection}

Once you use one of these commands the next paragraph will start bellow the section command.

In addition you have the command:

\paragraph{This is a paragraph.}

The line is behind the paragraph heading

The command is special as it does not introduce a new line between the Heading and the next line even if you include empty lines

2.2.4. Empty Lines¶

Multiple empty lines will be reduced to asingle empty line.

2.2.5. Itemize¶

Itemized lists can be written as:

\begin{itemize}
   \item First item
   \item Second item
\begin{itemize}

resulting in

• First item
• Second item

2.2.6. Enumerate¶

Enumerations can be written as:

\begin{enumerate}
   \item First item
   \item Second item
\begin{enumerate}

resulting in

1. First item
2. Second item

2.2.7. Descriptions¶

Description lists can be written as:

\begin{itemize}
   \item[Cloud] My definition of a Cloud.
   \item[Big Data] My definition of Big Data
\begin{itemize}

Cloud:

My definition of a Cloud

Big Data:

My definition of Big Data

2.2.8. Images¶

Figures are extremly easy to handle by including them from source. We realy do never worry about the placement as LaTeX does typically a very good job of doing this.:

In Figure \ref{F:graph} we show a black and white graph about ... .

\begin{figure}
  \includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{images/graph.pdf}
  \caption{A sample black and white graphic. \cite{las17graph}}
  \label{F:graph}
\end{figure}

Note that las17graph must be a label of a valid bibtex entry. This is needed if you have copied the image from elsewhere to avoid plagiarism. However, if you came up with the graph yourself than you do not need a citation.

We recommend that you place in your paper drafts all images at the which can be done with the endfloat package

This can be enabled if you include the following lines before begin document command:

\usepackage{endfloat}
\renewcommand{\efloatseparator}{\mbox{}}

\begin{document}

2.2.9. Tables¶

tables from csv tables by hand

2.2.10. Labels¶

As we saw already for figures and tables it is recommended to use the label and ref commands to refer to figure or table numbers. This applies also to sections. Thus I can place a label after a section:

\section{Introduction}\label{S:introduction}

and write elswhere in the paper:

As we showcased in Section \ref{S:introduction}

Furthermore to conveniently distinguish sections tables and figures, we use the prefix S T F followed by a colon for the label. This helps organizing your paper in case you have many lables.

2.2.11. Math¶

One of the strength of LaTeX thi the ability to write easily sophisticated mathematical expressions on paper with high quality. A good online resouce is provided by the following online resource from which we have copied some examples:

• https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Mathematics

Exponensts are using the ^ charater:

$ (a + b)^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b^{c+2} $

Greek letters are referred to by their name preceeded by the slash:

$ \alpha, \Alpha, \beta, \Beta, \gamma, \Gamma, \pi, \Pi, \phi $

Limits can be written as follows:

$ \lim_{x \to \infty} \exp(-x) = 0 $

Fractions are indicated by the frac command, and binomials by binom:

$ \frac{n!}{k!(n-k)!} = \binom{n}{k} $

Matricies can be created as follows:

A_{m,n} =
\begin{pmatrix}
  a_{1,1} & a_{1,2} & \cdots & a_{1,n} \\
  a_{2,1} & a_{2,2} & \cdots & a_{2,n} \\
  \vdots  & \vdots  & \ddots & \vdots  \\
  a_{m,1} & a_{m,2} & \cdots & a_{m,n}
\end{pmatrix}

2.2.12. ACM Proceedings Format¶

• http://www.acm.org/publications/proceedings-template

2.2.13. IEEE Proceedings Format¶

• https://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/templates.html

2.2.14. Bibliography¶

Point to separate section

https://wch.github.io/latexsheet/latexsheet.pdf

http://tug.ctan.org/info/lshort/english/lshort.pdf

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/LaTeX.pdf

2.2.15. Introduction¶

https://latexforhumans.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/the-best-guides-to-latex/ https://www.latex-project.org/help/books/

Mastering a text processing system is an essential part of a researcher’s life. Not knowing how to use a text processing system can slow down the productivity of research drastically.

The information provided here is not intended to replace one of the many text books available about LaTeX. For the beginning, you might be just fine with the documentation provided here. For serious users, I recommend purchasing a book. Examples for books include

• LaTeX Users and Reference Guide, by Leslie Lamport https://www.amazon.com/LaTeX-Document-Preparation-System-2nd/dp/0201529831/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1507114870&sr=1-2&keywords=lamport
• LaTeX an Introduction, by Helmut Kopka https://www.amazon.com/Guide-LaTeX-4th-Helmut-Kopka/dp/0321173856/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=2BB4APDFEX34A4JM65ZB
• The LaTeX Companion, by Frank Mittelbach https://www.amazon.com/LaTeX-Companion-Techniques-Computer-Typesetting/dp/0201362996

If you do not want to buy a book you can find a lot of useful information in the LaTeX reference manual.

2.2.16. LaTeX vs. X¶

We will refrain from providing a detailed analysis on why we use LaTeX in many cases versus other technologies. In general, we find that LaTeX:

• is incredibly stable
• produces high-quality output
• is platform independent
• has lots of templates
• has been around for many years so it works well
• removes you from the pain of figure placements
• focusses you on content rather tan the appearance of the paper
• integrates well with code repositories such as git to write collaborative papers.
• has superior bibliography integration
• has a rich set of tools that make using LaTeX easier
• authors do not play with layouts much so papers in a format are uniform

In case you need a graphical view to edit LaTeX or LateX exportable files you also find AucTeX and Lyx.

2.2.17. Editing¶

2.2.18. LyX¶

We have made very good experiences with Lyx. You must assure that the team you work with uses it consistently and that you all use the same version.

Using the ACM templates is documented here:

• https://wiki.lyx.org/Examples/AcmSiggraph

On OSX it is important that you have a new version of LaTeX and Lyx installed. As it takes up quite some space, you ma want to delete older versions. The new version of LyX comes with the acmsigplan template included. However on OSX and other platforms the .cls file is not included by default. However the above link clearly documents how to fix this.

2.2.19. WYSIWYG locally¶

We have found that editors such as Lyx and Auctex provide very good WYSIWYG alike features. However, we found an even easier way while using skim, a pdf previewer, in conjunction with emacs and latexmk. This can be achieved while using the following command assuming your latex file is called report.tex:

latexmk -pvc -view=pdf report

This command will update your pdf previewer (make sure to use skim) whenever you edit the file report.tex and save it. It will maintain via skim the current position, thus you have a real great way of editing in one window, while seeing the results in the other.

2.2.20. Installation¶

which pdflatex
which bibtex
which jabref (on OSX you may have an icon for it)

sudo apt-get install texlive-full

sudo apt-get install texmaker

2.2.21. Paperia¶

We do not know where this service is located. However it offers similar services as Sharelatex and Overleaf.

• https://papeeria.com/

2.2.22. The LaTeX Cycle¶

To create a PDF file from latex yo need to generate it following a simple development and improvement cycle.

First, Create/edit ASCII source file with file.tex file:

emacs file.tex

Create/edit bibliography file:

jabref refs.bib

Create the PDF:

pdflatex file
bibtex file
pdflatex file
pdflatex file

View the PDF:

open file

It not only showcases you an example file in ACM 2 column format, but also integrates with a bibliography. Furthermore, it provides a sample Makefile that you can use to generate view and recompile, or even autogenerate. A compilation would look like:

make
make view

If however you want to do things on change in the tex file you can do this automatically simply with:

make watch

2.2.23. Generating Images¶

To produce high quality images the programs PowerPoint and omnigraffle on OSX are recommended. When using powerpoint please keep the image ratio to 4x3 as they produce nice size graphics which you also can use in your presentations. When using other rations they may not fit in presentations and thus you may increase unnecessarily your work. We do not recommend vizio as it is not universally available and produces images that in case you have to present them in a slide presentation does not easily reformat if you do not use 4x3 aspect ratio.

Naturally, graphics should be provided in SVG or PDF format so they can scale well when we look at the final PDF. Including PNG, gif, or jpeg files often do not result in the necessary resolution or the files become real big. For this reason we for example can also not recommend tools such as tablaeu as they do not provide proper exports to high quality publication formats. For interactive display such tool may be good, but for publications it produces inferior formatted images.

2.2.24. Bibliographies¶

LaTeX integrates very well with bibtex. There are several preformatted styles available. It includes also styles for ACM and IEEE bibliographies. For the ACM style we recommend that you replace abbrv.bst with abbrvurl.bst, add hyperref to your usepackages so you can also display URLs in your citations:

\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}
\bibliography{references.bib}

Then you have to run latex and bibtex in the following order:

latex  file
bibtex file
latex  file
latex  file

or simply call make from our makefile.

The reason for the multiple execution of the latex program is to update all cross-references correctly. In case you are not interested in updating the library every time in the writing progress just postpone it till the end. Missing citations are viewed as [?].

Two programs stand out when managing bibliographies: emacs and jabref:

• http://www.jabref.org/

Other programs such as Mendeley, Zotero, and even endnote integrate with bibtex. However their support is limited, so we recommend that you just use jabref. Furthermore its free and runs on all platforms.

2.2.25. Slides¶

Slides are best produced with the seminar package:

\documentclass{seminar}

\begin{slide}

    Hello World on slide 1

\end{slide}

The text between slides is ignored

\begin{slide}

    Hello World on slide 2

\end{slide}

However, in case you need to have a slide presentation we recommend you use ppt. Just paste and copy content from your PDF or your LaTeX source file into the ppt.

2.2.26. Links¶

• The LaTeX Reference Manual provides a good introduction to Latex.

LaTeX is available on all modern computer systems. A very good installation for OSX is available at:

• https://tug.org/mactex/

However, if you have older versions on your systems you may have to first completely uninstall them.

2.2.27. Tips¶

Including figures over two columns:

• http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/30985/displaying-a-wide-figure-in-a-two-column-document

• positioning figures with textwidth and columnwidth https://www.sharelatex.com/learn/Positioning_images_and_tables

• An organization as the author. Assume the author is National Institute of Health and want to have the author show up, please do:

  key= {National Institute of Health},
  author= {{National Institute of Health}},
  

  Please note the {{ }}

• words containing ‘fi’ or ‘ffi’ showing blank places like below after recompiling it: find as nd efficiency as e ciency

  You copied from word or PDF ff which is actually not an ff, but a condensed character, change it to ff and ffi, you may find other such examples such as any non ASCII character. A degree is for example another common issue in data science.

• do not use | & and other latex characters in bibtex references, instead use , and the word and

• If you need to use _ it is _ but if you use urls leave them as is

• We do recommend that you use sharelatex and jabref for writing papers. This is the easiest solution and beats in many cases MSWord as you can focus on writing and not on formatting.