LaTeX

LaTeX (pronounced Lay-Tech or Lah-Tech) is a text markup language that can effectively process notes, chapter numbers, and other notation in a clear and consistent manner. LaTeX can simultaneously make documents in print, PDF, and HTML form.

• Background
  • Packages and File Types
  • Special Characters
  • Sample Basic Document
   
• Making a Basic Document
  • The Basics
  • The Preamble, which begins any LaTeX document
  • Basic Spacing
  • Columns
  • Fonts
  • Margins
   
• Advanced Document Options
  • Sections, Divisions, and Page Numbering
  • Table of Contents Design
  • Footnotes, Endnotes, & Cross-referencing
  • Document Spacing: includes how to double-space a document
  • Headers and Footers
  • Textual Tools (Quotations, Citations)
  • Formatting Lists
  • Formatting Tables and Graphics
  • Indexes and Glossaries
   
• Saving and Converting Your Document

• BIBTeX, LaTeX's bibliographic database
  • BIBTeX Basics: How to Run BIBTeX
  • BIBTeX Entry Format
  • Making BIBTeX Entries for Use in Citation
  • Changing BIBTeX's Layout
  • Using Emacs for BIBTeX
  • Citations
  • Running BIBTeX
   
• Programming LaTeX Macros

You can find the thesis template here. Don't worry about extracting it in your main directory since it creates its own folder phdcsb so that the files aren't sprayed all over your root directory.

This is an abridged version of my thesis with many embedded LaTeX examples found throughout. The main file is called phd.tex and by latexing this file, it automatically includes all the chapters, dedication, vita, etc. in the order required for the thesis. It is assumed that the figures will be placed in the figures folder and that any style file extensions that are not part of the standard LaTeX package are placing in the packages folder. There is also a readme file which just repeats the above paragraph. I've tried to comment the phd.tex quite liberally so that you might learn a bit about LaTeX as you go.