604 lines
27 KiB
TeX
Executable File
604 lines
27 KiB
TeX
Executable File
% Chapter 1
|
|
|
|
\chapter{Chapter Title Here} % Main chapter title
|
|
|
|
\label{Chapter1} % For referencing the chapter elsewhere, use \ref{Chapter1}
|
|
|
|
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
% Define some commands to keep the formatting separated from the content
|
|
\newcommand{\keyword}[1]{\textbf{#1}}
|
|
\newcommand{\tabhead}[1]{\textbf{#1}}
|
|
\newcommand{\code}[1]{\texttt{#1}}
|
|
\newcommand{\file}[1]{\texttt{\bfseries#1}}
|
|
\newcommand{\option}[1]{\texttt{\itshape#1}}
|
|
|
|
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
\section{Welcome and Thank You}
|
|
Welcome to this \LaTeX{} Thesis Template, a beautiful and easy to use
|
|
template for writing a thesis using the \LaTeX{} typesetting system.
|
|
|
|
If you are writing a thesis (or will be in the future) and its
|
|
subject is technical or mathematical (though it doesn't have to be),
|
|
then creating it in \LaTeX{} is highly recommended as a way to make
|
|
sure you can just get down to the essential writing without having to
|
|
worry over formatting or wasting time arguing with your word processor.
|
|
|
|
\LaTeX{} is easily able to professionally typeset documents that run
|
|
to hundreds or thousands of pages long. With simple mark-up commands,
|
|
it automatically sets out the table of contents, margins, page
|
|
headers and footers and keeps the formatting consistent and
|
|
beautiful. One of its main strengths is the way it can easily typeset
|
|
mathematics, even \emph{heavy} mathematics. Even if those equations
|
|
are the most horribly twisted and most difficult mathematical
|
|
problems that can only be solved on a super-computer, you can at
|
|
least count on \LaTeX{} to make them look stunning.
|
|
|
|
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
\section{Learning \LaTeX{}}
|
|
|
|
\LaTeX{} is not a \textsc{wysiwyg} (What You See is What You Get)
|
|
program, unlike word processors such as Microsoft Word or Apple's
|
|
Pages. Instead, a document written for \LaTeX{} is actually a simple,
|
|
plain text file that contains \emph{no formatting}. You tell \LaTeX{}
|
|
how you want the formatting in the finished document by writing in
|
|
simple commands amongst the text, for example, if I want to use
|
|
\emph{italic text for emphasis}, I write the \verb|\emph{text}|
|
|
command and put the text I want in italics in between the curly
|
|
braces. This means that \LaTeX{} is a \enquote{mark-up} language,
|
|
very much like HTML.
|
|
|
|
\subsection{A (not so short) Introduction to \LaTeX{}}
|
|
|
|
If you are new to \LaTeX{}, there is a very good eBook -- freely
|
|
available online as a PDF file -- called, \enquote{The Not So Short
|
|
Introduction to \LaTeX{}}. The book's title is typically shortened to
|
|
just \emph{lshort}. You can download the latest version (as it is
|
|
occasionally updated) from here:
|
|
\url{http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/lshort/english/lshort.pdf}
|
|
|
|
It is also available in several other languages. Find yours from the
|
|
list on this page: \url{http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/lshort/}
|
|
|
|
It is recommended to take a little time out to learn how to use
|
|
\LaTeX{} by creating several, small `test' documents, or having a
|
|
close look at several templates on:\\
|
|
\url{http://www.LaTeXTemplates.com}\\
|
|
Making the effort now means you're not stuck learning the system when
|
|
what you \emph{really} need to be doing is writing your thesis.
|
|
|
|
\subsection{A Short Math Guide for \LaTeX{}}
|
|
|
|
If you are writing a technical or mathematical thesis, then you may
|
|
want to read the document by the AMS (American Mathematical Society)
|
|
called, \enquote{A Short Math Guide for \LaTeX{}}. It can be found online here:
|
|
\url{http://www.ams.org/tex/amslatex.html}
|
|
under the \enquote{Additional Documentation} section towards the
|
|
bottom of the page.
|
|
|
|
\subsection{Common \LaTeX{} Math Symbols}
|
|
There are a multitude of mathematical symbols available for \LaTeX{}
|
|
and it would take a great effort to learn the commands for them all.
|
|
The most common ones you are likely to use are shown on this page:
|
|
\url{http://www.sunilpatel.co.uk/latex-type/latex-math-symbols/}
|
|
|
|
You can use this page as a reference or crib sheet, the symbols are
|
|
rendered as large, high quality images so you can quickly find the
|
|
\LaTeX{} command for the symbol you need.
|
|
|
|
\subsection{\LaTeX{} on a Mac}
|
|
|
|
The \LaTeX{} distribution is available for many systems including
|
|
Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. The package for OS X is called MacTeX
|
|
and it contains all the applications you need -- bundled together and
|
|
pre-customized -- for a fully working \LaTeX{} environment and work flow.
|
|
|
|
MacTeX includes a custom dedicated \LaTeX{} editor called TeXShop for
|
|
writing your `\file{.tex}' files and BibDesk: a program to manage
|
|
your references and create your bibliography section just as easily
|
|
as managing songs and creating playlists in iTunes.
|
|
|
|
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
\section{Getting Started with this Template}
|
|
|
|
If you are familiar with \LaTeX{}, then you should explore the
|
|
directory structure of the template and then proceed to place your
|
|
own information into the \emph{THESIS INFORMATION} block of the
|
|
\file{main.tex} file. You can then modify the rest of this file to
|
|
your unique specifications based on your degree/university. Section
|
|
\ref{FillingFile} on page \pageref{FillingFile} will help you do
|
|
this. Make sure you also read section \ref{ThesisConventions} about
|
|
thesis conventions to get the most out of this template.
|
|
|
|
If you are new to \LaTeX{} it is recommended that you carry on
|
|
reading through the rest of the information in this document.
|
|
|
|
Before you begin using this template you should ensure that its style
|
|
complies with the thesis style guidelines imposed by your
|
|
institution. In most cases this template style and layout will be
|
|
suitable. If it is not, it may only require a small change to bring
|
|
the template in line with your institution's recommendations. These
|
|
modifications will need to be done on the \file{MastersDoctoralThesis.cls} file.
|
|
|
|
\subsection{About this Template}
|
|
|
|
This \LaTeX{} Thesis Template is originally based and created around
|
|
a \LaTeX{} style file created by Steve R.\ Gunn from the University
|
|
of Southampton (UK), department of Electronics and Computer Science.
|
|
You can find his original thesis style file at his site, here:
|
|
\url{http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~srg/softwaretools/document/templates/}
|
|
|
|
Steve's \file{ecsthesis.cls} was then taken by Sunil Patel who
|
|
modified it by creating a skeleton framework and folder structure to
|
|
place the thesis files in. The resulting template can be found on
|
|
Sunil's site here:
|
|
\url{http://www.sunilpatel.co.uk/thesis-template}
|
|
|
|
Sunil's template was made available through
|
|
\url{http://www.LaTeXTemplates.com} where it was modified many times
|
|
based on user requests and questions. Version 2.0 and onwards of this
|
|
template represents a major modification to Sunil's template and is,
|
|
in fact, hardly recognisable. The work to make version 2.0 possible
|
|
was carried out by \href{mailto:vel@latextemplates.com}{Vel} and
|
|
Johannes Böttcher.
|
|
|
|
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
\section{What this Template Includes}
|
|
|
|
\subsection{Folders}
|
|
|
|
This template comes as a single zip file that expands out to several
|
|
files and folders. The folder names are mostly self-explanatory:
|
|
|
|
\keyword{Appendices} -- this is the folder where you put the
|
|
appendices. Each appendix should go into its own separate \file{.tex}
|
|
file. An example and template are included in the directory.
|
|
|
|
\keyword{Chapters} -- this is the folder where you put the thesis
|
|
chapters. A thesis usually has about six chapters, though there is no
|
|
hard rule on this. Each chapter should go in its own separate
|
|
\file{.tex} file and they can be split as:
|
|
\begin{itemize}
|
|
\item Chapter 1: Introduction to the thesis topic
|
|
\item Chapter 2: Background information and theory
|
|
\item Chapter 3: (Laboratory) experimental setup
|
|
\item Chapter 4: Details of experiment 1
|
|
\item Chapter 5: Details of experiment 2
|
|
\item Chapter 6: Discussion of the experimental results
|
|
\item Chapter 7: Conclusion and future directions
|
|
\end{itemize}
|
|
This chapter layout is specialised for the experimental sciences,
|
|
your discipline may be different.
|
|
|
|
\keyword{Figures} -- this folder contains all figures for the thesis.
|
|
These are the final images that will go into the thesis document.
|
|
|
|
\subsection{Files}
|
|
|
|
Included are also several files, most of them are plain text and you
|
|
can see their contents in a text editor. After initial compilation,
|
|
you will see that more auxiliary files are created by \LaTeX{} or
|
|
BibTeX and which you don't need to delete or worry about:
|
|
|
|
\keyword{example.bib} -- this is an important file that contains all
|
|
the bibliographic information and references that you will be citing
|
|
in the thesis for use with BibTeX. You can write it manually, but
|
|
there are reference manager programs available that will create and
|
|
manage it for you. Bibliographies in \LaTeX{} are a large subject and
|
|
you may need to read about BibTeX before starting with this. Many
|
|
modern reference managers will allow you to export your references in
|
|
BibTeX format which greatly eases the amount of work you have to do.
|
|
|
|
\keyword{MastersDoctoralThesis.cls} -- this is an important file. It
|
|
is the class file that tells \LaTeX{} how to format the thesis.
|
|
|
|
\keyword{main.pdf} -- this is your beautifully typeset thesis (in the
|
|
PDF file format) created by \LaTeX{}. It is supplied in the PDF with
|
|
the template and after you compile the template you should get an
|
|
identical version.
|
|
|
|
\keyword{main.tex} -- this is an important file. This is the file
|
|
that you tell \LaTeX{} to compile to produce your thesis as a PDF
|
|
file. It contains the framework and constructs that tell \LaTeX{} how
|
|
to layout the thesis. It is heavily commented so you can read exactly
|
|
what each line of code does and why it is there. After you put your
|
|
own information into the \emph{THESIS INFORMATION} block -- you have
|
|
now started your thesis!
|
|
|
|
Files that are \emph{not} included, but are created by \LaTeX{} as
|
|
auxiliary files include:
|
|
|
|
\keyword{main.aux} -- this is an auxiliary file generated by
|
|
\LaTeX{}, if it is deleted \LaTeX{} simply regenerates it when you
|
|
run the main \file{.tex} file.
|
|
|
|
\keyword{main.bbl} -- this is an auxiliary file generated by BibTeX,
|
|
if it is deleted, BibTeX simply regenerates it when you run the
|
|
\file{main.aux} file. Whereas the \file{.bib} file contains all the
|
|
references you have, this \file{.bbl} file contains the references
|
|
you have actually cited in the thesis and is used to build the
|
|
bibliography section of the thesis.
|
|
|
|
\keyword{main.blg} -- this is an auxiliary file generated by BibTeX,
|
|
if it is deleted BibTeX simply regenerates it when you run the main
|
|
\file{.aux} file.
|
|
|
|
\keyword{main.lof} -- this is an auxiliary file generated by
|
|
\LaTeX{}, if it is deleted \LaTeX{} simply regenerates it when you
|
|
run the main \file{.tex} file. It tells \LaTeX{} how to build the
|
|
\emph{List of Figures} section.
|
|
|
|
\keyword{main.log} -- this is an auxiliary file generated by
|
|
\LaTeX{}, if it is deleted \LaTeX{} simply regenerates it when you
|
|
run the main \file{.tex} file. It contains messages from \LaTeX{}, if
|
|
you receive errors and warnings from \LaTeX{}, they will be in this
|
|
\file{.log} file.
|
|
|
|
\keyword{main.lot} -- this is an auxiliary file generated by
|
|
\LaTeX{}, if it is deleted \LaTeX{} simply regenerates it when you
|
|
run the main \file{.tex} file. It tells \LaTeX{} how to build the
|
|
\emph{List of Tables} section.
|
|
|
|
\keyword{main.out} -- this is an auxiliary file generated by
|
|
\LaTeX{}, if it is deleted \LaTeX{} simply regenerates it when you
|
|
run the main \file{.tex} file.
|
|
|
|
So from this long list, only the files with the \file{.bib},
|
|
\file{.cls} and \file{.tex} extensions are the most important ones.
|
|
The other auxiliary files can be ignored or deleted as \LaTeX{} and
|
|
BibTeX will regenerate them.
|
|
|
|
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
\section{Filling in Your Information in the \file{main.tex}
|
|
File}\label{FillingFile}
|
|
|
|
You will need to personalise the thesis template and make it your own
|
|
by filling in your own information. This is done by editing the
|
|
\file{main.tex} file in a text editor or your favourite LaTeX environment.
|
|
|
|
Open the file and scroll down to the third large block titled
|
|
\emph{THESIS INFORMATION} where you can see the entries for
|
|
\emph{University Name}, \emph{Department Name}, etc \ldots
|
|
|
|
Fill out the information about yourself, your group and institution.
|
|
You can also insert web links, if you do, make sure you use the full
|
|
URL, including the \code{http://} for this. If you don't want these
|
|
to be linked, simply remove the \verb|\href{url}{name}| and only leave the name.
|
|
|
|
When you have done this, save the file and recompile \code{main.tex}.
|
|
All the information you filled in should now be in the PDF, complete
|
|
with web links. You can now begin your thesis proper!
|
|
|
|
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
\section{The \code{main.tex} File Explained}
|
|
|
|
The \file{main.tex} file contains the structure of the thesis. There
|
|
are plenty of written comments that explain what pages, sections and
|
|
formatting the \LaTeX{} code is creating. Each major document element
|
|
is divided into commented blocks with titles in all capitals to make
|
|
it obvious what the following bit of code is doing. Initially there
|
|
seems to be a lot of \LaTeX{} code, but this is all formatting, and
|
|
it has all been taken care of so you don't have to do it.
|
|
|
|
Begin by checking that your information on the title page is correct.
|
|
For the thesis declaration, your institution may insist on something
|
|
different than the text given. If this is the case, just replace what
|
|
you see with what is required in the \emph{DECLARATION PAGE} block.
|
|
|
|
Then comes a page which contains a funny quote. You can put your own,
|
|
or quote your favourite scientist, author, person, and so on. Make
|
|
sure to put the name of the person who you took the quote from.
|
|
|
|
Following this is the abstract page which summarises your work in a
|
|
condensed way and can almost be used as a standalone document to
|
|
describe what you have done. The text you write will cause the
|
|
heading to move up so don't worry about running out of space.
|
|
|
|
Next come the acknowledgements. On this page, write about all the
|
|
people who you wish to thank (not forgetting parents, partners and
|
|
your advisor/supervisor).
|
|
|
|
The contents pages, list of figures and tables are all taken care of
|
|
for you and do not need to be manually created or edited. The next
|
|
set of pages are more likely to be optional and can be deleted since
|
|
they are for a more technical thesis: insert a list of abbreviations
|
|
you have used in the thesis, then a list of the physical constants
|
|
and numbers you refer to and finally, a list of mathematical symbols
|
|
used in any formulae. Making the effort to fill these tables means
|
|
the reader has a one-stop place to refer to instead of searching the
|
|
internet and references to try and find out what you meant by certain
|
|
abbreviations or symbols.
|
|
|
|
The list of symbols is split into the Roman and Greek alphabets.
|
|
Whereas the abbreviations and symbols ought to be listed in
|
|
alphabetical order (and this is \emph{not} done automatically for
|
|
you) the list of physical constants should be grouped into similar themes.
|
|
|
|
The next page contains a one line dedication. Who will you dedicate
|
|
your thesis to?
|
|
|
|
Finally, there is the block where the chapters are included.
|
|
Uncomment the lines (delete the \code{\%} character) as you write the
|
|
chapters. Each chapter should be written in its own file and put into
|
|
the \emph{Chapters} folder and named \file{Chapter1},
|
|
\file{Chapter2}, etc\ldots Similarly for the appendices, uncomment
|
|
the lines as you need them. Each appendix should go into its own file
|
|
and placed in the \emph{Appendices} folder.
|
|
|
|
After the preamble, chapters and appendices finally comes the
|
|
bibliography. The bibliography style (called \option{authoryear}) is
|
|
used for the bibliography and is a fully featured style that will
|
|
even include links to where the referenced paper can be found online.
|
|
Do not underestimate how grateful your reader will be to find that a
|
|
reference to a paper is just a click away. Of course, this relies on
|
|
you putting the URL information into the BibTeX file in the first place.
|
|
|
|
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
\section{Thesis Features and Conventions}\label{ThesisConventions}
|
|
|
|
To get the best out of this template, there are a few conventions
|
|
that you may want to follow.
|
|
|
|
One of the most important (and most difficult) things to keep track
|
|
of in such a long document as a thesis is consistency. Using certain
|
|
conventions and ways of doing things (such as using a Todo list)
|
|
makes the job easier. Of course, all of these are optional and you
|
|
can adopt your own method.
|
|
|
|
\subsection{Printing Format}
|
|
|
|
This thesis template is designed for double sided printing (i.e.
|
|
content on the front and back of pages) as most theses are printed
|
|
and bound this way. Switching to one sided printing is as simple as
|
|
uncommenting the \option{oneside} option of the \code{documentclass}
|
|
command at the top of the \file{main.tex} file. You may then wish to
|
|
adjust the margins to suit specifications from your institution.
|
|
|
|
The headers for the pages contain the page number on the outer side
|
|
(so it is easy to flick through to the page you want) and the chapter
|
|
name on the inner side.
|
|
|
|
The text is set to 11 point by default with single line spacing,
|
|
again, you can tune the text size and spacing should you want or need
|
|
to using the options at the very start of \file{main.tex}. The
|
|
spacing can be changed similarly by replacing the
|
|
\option{singlespacing} with \option{onehalfspacing} or \option{doublespacing}.
|
|
|
|
\subsection{Using US Letter Paper}
|
|
|
|
The paper size used in the template is A4, which is the standard size
|
|
in Europe. If you are using this thesis template elsewhere and
|
|
particularly in the United States, then you may have to change the A4
|
|
paper size to the US Letter size. This can be done in the margins
|
|
settings section in \file{main.tex}.
|
|
|
|
Due to the differences in the paper size, the resulting margins may
|
|
be different to what you like or require (as it is common for
|
|
institutions to dictate certain margin sizes). If this is the case,
|
|
then the margin sizes can be tweaked by modifying the values in the
|
|
same block as where you set the paper size. Now your document should
|
|
be set up for US Letter paper size with suitable margins.
|
|
|
|
\subsection{References}
|
|
|
|
The \code{biblatex} package is used to format the bibliography and
|
|
inserts references such as this one \parencite{Reference1}. The
|
|
options used in the \file{main.tex} file mean that the in-text
|
|
citations of references are formatted with the author(s) listed with
|
|
the date of the publication. Multiple references are separated by
|
|
semicolons (e.g. \parencite{Reference2, Reference1}) and references
|
|
with more than three authors only show the first author with \emph{et
|
|
al.} indicating there are more authors (e.g. \parencite{Reference3}).
|
|
This is done automatically for you. To see how you use references,
|
|
have a look at the \file{Chapter1.tex} source file. Many reference
|
|
managers allow you to simply drag the reference into the document as you type.
|
|
|
|
Scientific references should come \emph{before} the punctuation mark
|
|
if there is one (such as a comma or period). The same goes for
|
|
footnotes\footnote{Such as this footnote, here down at the bottom of
|
|
the page.}. You can change this but the most important thing is to
|
|
keep the convention consistent throughout the thesis. Footnotes
|
|
themselves should be full, descriptive sentences (beginning with a
|
|
capital letter and ending with a full stop). The APA6 states:
|
|
\enquote{Footnote numbers should be superscripted, [...], following
|
|
any punctuation mark except a dash.} The Chicago manual of style
|
|
states: \enquote{A note number should be placed at the end of a
|
|
sentence or clause. The number follows any punctuation mark except
|
|
the dash, which it precedes. It follows a closing parenthesis.}
|
|
|
|
The bibliography is typeset with references listed in alphabetical
|
|
order by the first author's last name. This is similar to the APA
|
|
referencing style. To see how \LaTeX{} typesets the bibliography,
|
|
have a look at the very end of this document (or just click on the
|
|
reference number links in in-text citations).
|
|
|
|
\subsubsection{A Note on bibtex}
|
|
|
|
The bibtex backend used in the template by default does not correctly
|
|
handle unicode character encoding (i.e. "international" characters).
|
|
You may see a warning about this in the compilation log and, if your
|
|
references contain unicode characters, they may not show up correctly
|
|
or at all. The solution to this is to use the biber backend instead
|
|
of the outdated bibtex backend. This is done by finding this in
|
|
\file{main.tex}: \option{backend=bibtex} and changing it to
|
|
\option{backend=biber}. You will then need to delete all auxiliary
|
|
BibTeX files and navigate to the template directory in your terminal
|
|
(command prompt). Once there, simply type \code{biber main} and biber
|
|
will compile your bibliography. You can then compile \file{main.tex}
|
|
as normal and your bibliography will be updated. An alternative is to
|
|
set up your LaTeX editor to compile with biber instead of bibtex, see
|
|
\href{http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/154751/biblatex-with-biber-configuring-my-editor-to-avoid-undefined-citations/}{here}
|
|
for how to do this for various editors.
|
|
|
|
\subsection{Tables}
|
|
|
|
Tables are an important way of displaying your results, below is an
|
|
example table which was generated with this code:
|
|
|
|
{\small
|
|
\begin{verbatim}
|
|
\begin{table}
|
|
\caption{The effects of treatments X and Y on the four groups studied.}
|
|
\label{tab:treatments}
|
|
\centering
|
|
\begin{tabular}{l l l}
|
|
\toprule
|
|
\tabhead{Groups} & \tabhead{Treatment X} & \tabhead{Treatment Y} \\
|
|
\midrule
|
|
1 & 0.2 & 0.8\\
|
|
2 & 0.17 & 0.7\\
|
|
3 & 0.24 & 0.75\\
|
|
4 & 0.68 & 0.3\\
|
|
\bottomrule\\
|
|
\end{tabular}
|
|
\end{table}
|
|
\end{verbatim}
|
|
}
|
|
|
|
\begin{table}
|
|
\caption{The effects of treatments X and Y on the four groups studied.}
|
|
\label{tab:treatments}
|
|
\centering
|
|
\begin{tabular}{l l l}
|
|
\toprule
|
|
\tabhead{Groups} & \tabhead{Treatment X} & \tabhead{Treatment Y} \\
|
|
\midrule
|
|
1 & 0.2 & 0.8\\
|
|
2 & 0.17 & 0.7\\
|
|
3 & 0.24 & 0.75\\
|
|
4 & 0.68 & 0.3\\
|
|
\bottomrule\\
|
|
\end{tabular}
|
|
\end{table}
|
|
|
|
You can reference tables with \verb|\ref{<label>}| where the label is
|
|
defined within the table environment. See \file{Chapter1.tex} for an
|
|
example of the label and citation (e.g. Table~\ref{tab:treatments}).
|
|
|
|
\subsection{Figures}
|
|
|
|
There will hopefully be many figures in your thesis (that should be
|
|
placed in the \emph{Figures} folder). The way to insert figures into
|
|
your thesis is to use a code template like this:
|
|
\begin{verbatim}
|
|
\begin{figure}
|
|
\centering
|
|
\includegraphics{Figures/Electron}
|
|
\decoRule
|
|
\caption[An Electron]{An electron (artist's impression).}
|
|
\label{fig:Electron}
|
|
\end{figure}
|
|
\end{verbatim}
|
|
Also look in the source file. Putting this code into the source file
|
|
produces the picture of the electron that you can see in the figure below.
|
|
|
|
\begin{figure}[th]
|
|
\centering
|
|
\includegraphics{Figures/Electron}
|
|
\decoRule
|
|
\caption[An Electron]{An electron (artist's impression).}
|
|
\label{fig:Electron}
|
|
\end{figure}
|
|
|
|
Sometimes figures don't always appear where you write them in the
|
|
source. The placement depends on how much space there is on the page
|
|
for the figure. Sometimes there is not enough room to fit a figure
|
|
directly where it should go (in relation to the text) and so \LaTeX{}
|
|
puts it at the top of the next page. Positioning figures is the job
|
|
of \LaTeX{} and so you should only worry about making them look good!
|
|
|
|
Figures usually should have captions just in case you need to refer
|
|
to them (such as in Figure~\ref{fig:Electron}). The \verb|\caption|
|
|
command contains two parts, the first part, inside the square
|
|
brackets is the title that will appear in the \emph{List of Figures},
|
|
and so should be short. The second part in the curly brackets should
|
|
contain the longer and more descriptive caption text.
|
|
|
|
The \verb|\decoRule| command is optional and simply puts an aesthetic
|
|
horizontal line below the image. If you do this for one image, do it
|
|
for all of them.
|
|
|
|
\LaTeX{} is capable of using images in pdf, jpg and png format.
|
|
|
|
\subsection{Typesetting mathematics}
|
|
|
|
If your thesis is going to contain heavy mathematical content, be
|
|
sure that \LaTeX{} will make it look beautiful, even though it won't
|
|
be able to solve the equations for you.
|
|
|
|
The \enquote{Not So Short Introduction to \LaTeX} (available on
|
|
\href{http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/lshort/english/lshort.pdf}{CTAN})
|
|
should tell you everything you need to know for most cases of
|
|
typesetting mathematics. If you need more information, a much more
|
|
thorough mathematical guide is available from the AMS called,
|
|
\enquote{A Short Math Guide to \LaTeX} and can be downloaded from:
|
|
\url{ftp://ftp.ams.org/pub/tex/doc/amsmath/short-math-guide.pdf}
|
|
|
|
There are many different \LaTeX{} symbols to remember, luckily you
|
|
can find the most common symbols in
|
|
\href{http://ctan.org/pkg/comprehensive}{The Comprehensive \LaTeX~Symbol List}.
|
|
|
|
You can write an equation, which is automatically given an equation
|
|
number by \LaTeX{} like this:
|
|
\begin{verbatim}
|
|
\begin{equation}
|
|
E = mc^{2}
|
|
\label{eqn:Einstein}
|
|
\end{equation}
|
|
\end{verbatim}
|
|
|
|
This will produce Einstein's famous energy-matter equivalence equation:
|
|
\begin{equation}
|
|
E = mc^{2}
|
|
\label{eqn:Einstein}
|
|
\end{equation}
|
|
|
|
All equations you write (which are not in the middle of paragraph
|
|
text) are automatically given equation numbers by \LaTeX{}. If you
|
|
don't want a particular equation numbered, use the unnumbered form:
|
|
\begin{verbatim}
|
|
\[ a^{2}=4 \]
|
|
\end{verbatim}
|
|
|
|
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
\section{Sectioning and Subsectioning}
|
|
|
|
You should break your thesis up into nice, bite-sized sections and
|
|
subsections. \LaTeX{} automatically builds a table of Contents by
|
|
looking at all the \verb|\chapter{}|, \verb|\section{}| and
|
|
\verb|\subsection{}| commands you write in the source.
|
|
|
|
The Table of Contents should only list the sections to three (3)
|
|
levels. A \verb|chapter{}| is level zero (0). A \verb|\section{}| is
|
|
level one (1) and so a \verb|\subsection{}| is level two (2). In your
|
|
thesis it is likely that you will even use a \verb|subsubsection{}|,
|
|
which is level three (3). The depth to which the Table of Contents is
|
|
formatted is set within \file{MastersDoctoralThesis.cls}. If you need
|
|
this changed, you can do it in \file{main.tex}.
|
|
|
|
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
\section{In Closing}
|
|
|
|
You have reached the end of this mini-guide. You can now rename or
|
|
overwrite this pdf file and begin writing your own
|
|
\file{Chapter1.tex} and the rest of your thesis. The easy work of
|
|
setting up the structure and framework has been taken care of for
|
|
you. It's now your job to fill it out!
|
|
|
|
Good luck and have lots of fun!
|
|
|
|
\begin{flushright}
|
|
Guide written by ---\\
|
|
Sunil Patel: \href{http://www.sunilpatel.co.uk}{www.sunilpatel.co.uk}\\
|
|
Vel: \href{http://www.LaTeXTemplates.com}{LaTeXTemplates.com}
|
|
\end{flushright}
|