Writing LaTeX for multiple output formats: Standard structures

2.2 Standard structures

Quotations

For block quotes the following quote environment should be used to provide adequate whitespace however, the space is lost to the screenreader user and so double quotes must also be used. Block quotes cannot be used within other environments.

“In the quote environment [paragraphs] are indicated with more vertical spacing between them.
Additional vertical spacing is inserted above and below the displayed text to separate it visually from the the normal text.”

Basic use of \cite with a non-bibtex bibliography is possible, bibtex is untested. The quotation above is from “A Guide to L^aT_eX” [3]. Footnotes¹ can be used.

List environments

You may and should make use of the itemize list environment for bullet point lists. You cannot override the marker with, for instance, \item[\dag] or via any other method as this will not be preserved (best case) or result in significantly incorrect structure (worst case) on transformation. You may use the description environment for full override of markers (see below).

All list points should be punctuated e.g. with a full stop, comma, colon or semi-colon at the end of each line to ensure appropriate pauses for the screenreader or text-to-speech user.

Some environments cannot be used within a list environment as they are either lost on transformation (best case) or cause the compilation to fail (worst case). Quote, the equation environment, tables and images cannot be used within a list environment. Some environments, including verbatim, other list environments, unnumbered displayed math, eqnarray, gather and align do function correctly in this context.

An itemized list,
using standard itemize.
- With a level 2 sub-point.
  - With a level 3 sub-point.
    - With a level 4 sub-point.
  - Punctuation is important for screenreaders and text to speech.

You may use enumerate list, you cannot override the marker with, for instance, \item[(II)] or via any other method as this will not be preserved (best case) or result in significantly incorrect structure (worst case) on transformation. You may use the description environment for full override of markers (see below).

All list points should be punctuated e.g. with a full stop, comma, colon or semi-colon at the end of each line to ensure appropriate pauses for the screenreader or text-to-speech user.

An enumerated list,
using standard enumerate.
1. With a level 2 sub-point.
  1. With a level 3 sub-point.
    1. With a level 4 sub-point.
  2. Punctuation is important for screenreaders and text to speech.

You may use the description environment if default itemize or enumerate will not suit your purposes. You will need to specify by hand all the descriptions. They should have a full stop after them to ensure that there is a pause for the screenreader user. You should not leave the descriptions blank via \item[] as this can be quite confusing when transformed to speech.

first.: The marker is a description,
second.: in the description environment.
third.: It is optional but unhelpful to screenreaders to not include it.

Frames and rules

Frames, of any kind, cannot be used by several of the transformations. To break up text or to highlight an equation etc. it is appropriate to use a rule before and after instead. This could be encoded in a command if you wish. Only a 1pt height line is available in all formats so thicker rules will not be honoured.

 
\rule{\textwidth}{1pt}

$\rule{\textwidth }{1pt}$

Tables

You must use the tabular environment or the longtable environment and tables can be floated. Tabular must only be used for tables without column headings as tables may break across pages in large print. Left and right alignment within columns can be used, as can specified column widths however these will not be retained in other formats. Multicolumn, although possible is strongly advised against in most uses as the resultant table can be very confusing to read with a screenreader as the rows will have varying numbers of columns. Below and as table 1 is an example of a table that is possible but which a screenreader user would find very difficult to read.

\begin{table}[t]
\begin{tabular}{|l*{2}{c}l@{: }p{2cm}}
%Content must start on a newline
\cline{1-4}
a & b & c & d & a+b+c+d\\
\multicolumn{4}{|c}{empty} & ---\\
$\frac{1}{2}$ & $\frac{1}{3}$ & $\frac{1}{4}$ & $\frac{1}{5}$ 
& $\sum_{n=2}^5 \frac{1}{n}$ \\
\cline{1-4}
\end{tabular}
%All floats must have captions and labels and be referenced to 
%aid navigation
\caption{This is a table}
\label{table}
\end{table}

a	b	c	d	a+b+c+d
empty				—
$\frac{1}{2}$	$\frac{1}{3}$	$\frac{1}{4}$	$\frac{1}{5}$	$\sum _{n=2}^5 \frac{1}{n}$

Table 1: This is a table

Long table should be used for all tables which have column headings (and the headings should be defined), see above for comments about multicolumn however the below use of multicolumn is acceptable.

\begin{center}
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{2}
\begin{longtable}{*{3}{|l|}}%There must be a newline here
\hline
\textbf{First} & \textbf{Second} & \textbf{Third} \\
\hline
\endfirsthead
\multicolumn{3}{c}%
{\tablename\ \thetable\ -- \textit{Continued from previous page}} \\
\hline
\textbf{First} & \textbf{Second} & \textbf{Third} \\
\hline
\endhead
\hline \multicolumn{3}{r}{\textit{Continued on next page}} \\
\endfoot
\hline
\endlastfoot
\hline
This is the first line & & \\
\hline
This is the second line & $1 \times 2$ & \\
\hline
This is the third line & $1 \times 2 \times 3$ & $6$\\
\hline
This is the fourth line & $1 \times 2 \times 3 \times 4$ & $24$\\
\hline
This is the fifth line & $1 \times 2 \times 3 \times 4 \times 5$ 
& $120$\\
\hline
This is the sixth line & $1 \times 2 \times 3 \times 4 \times 5 
\times 6$ & $720$\\
\hline
This is the seventh line & $1 \times 2 \times 3 \times 4 \times 5 \times 6 
\times 7$ & $5040$\\
\hline
This is the eighth line & $1 \times 2 \times 3 \times 4 \times 5 \times 6 
\times 7 \times 8$ & $40320$\\
\hline
& The & End\\
\hline
\end{longtable}
\end{center}

First	Second	Third
This is the first line
This is the second line	$1 \times 2$
This is the third line	$1 \times 2 \times 3$	$6$
This is the fourth line	$1 \times 2 \times 3 \times 4$	$24$
This is the fifth line	$1 \times 2 \times 3 \times 4 \times 5$	$120$
This is the sixth line	$1 \times 2 \times 3 \times 4 \times 5 \times 6$	$720$
This is the seventh line	$1 \times 2 \times 3 \times 4 \times 5 \times 6 \times 7$	$5040$
This is the eighth line	$1 \times 2 \times 3 \times 4 \times 5 \times 6 \times 7 \times 8$	$40320$
	The	End

Verbatim

Only the standard “vertabim” environment can be used. In other formats the text may have additional linebreaks to ensure that text does not overrun the right hand margin but all other facets of the layout will be honoured.

This text should be printed verbatim with a linebreak here
  then two spaces at the start of this line which breaks here
> this line has a prompt at the start and now some braces {}

You can also use the \verb command for inline verbatim. This will also linebreak in other formats for instance:

\verb=This is a piece of verbatim text which will break in large 
print=.

This is a piece of verbatim text which will break in large print.

Theorems etc.

Theorem declarations etc. should be given within a structured environment using the AMS theorem packages, not those from standard L^aT_eX. Please load amsthm. The particular font and styling of these environments may be changed in the transformations. In some transformations the numbering is lost (fixing this problem is on the list of primary goals). Referencing a numbered theorem or similar should be done via use of \label and \ref but again, this won’t currently be retained in all transformations. This linking will also assist navigation.

Theorem [Title of the theorem] This is a numbered theorem (within the section) in the standard style and hence this text is in italics.

Corollary This is a numbered corollary (numbered with theorems) also in the standard style.

Proof. This is a proof of theorem . This is what a proof looks like!

Definition This is a numbered definition (numbered within section but not with theorems) and in the “definition” style. The title and number should be bold but the rest of the text should be normal font.

Note This is an unnumbered note and is in the “remark” style.