Probably the biggest list of Latex symbols known to man (the comprehensive list).
| Delimiter sizes | [top] |
The size of delimiters can be controlled with the following: \big, \Big, \bigg and \Bigg. There are also "directional" versions, eg. \Biggl, \Biggr. These sizes apply to delimiters where \left and \right can be used as well (which tailor the size of the delimiters to expressions contained within them).
| Text sizes | [top] |
| latex command | approx. (point) size |
| tiny | 5 |
| scriptsize | 7 |
| footnotesize | 8 |
| small | 9 |
| normalsize | 10 |
| large | 12 |
| Large | 14 |
| LARGE | 18 |
| huge | 20 |
| Huge | 24 |
| Spacing | [top] |
| latex spacing | space (1/18 x \quad) |
| \! | -3 |
| \, | 3 |
| \: | 4 |
| \; | 5 |
| \ | 6 |
| \quad | 18 = 'M' (approx \hspace{0.4cm}) |
| \qquad | 36 |
\hspace{amount} can also be used for (negative or positive) amount in eg. cm, in, pt.
| Latex procedure | [top] |
| latex myfile (.tex) | ← processes latex document | |
| bibtex myfile** | ← does bibliography (if needed) | |
| xdvi myfile.dvi | ← have a look at the .dvi document | |
| dvips myfile.dvi (-o newfile.ps) | ← convert dvi to .ps file (optional name change) | |
| ps2pdf myfile.ps | ← convert ps to pdf file |
I have heard that Jabref is a great way of managing Bibtex (central) bibliography files, though I have no experience of using it myself.
| Beamer/pdf creation | [top] |
Packages like beamer can be used to create nice Powerpoint-style pdf presentations. You have to have the line \documentclass{beamer} at the start of your latex document. Here is an example of a recent beamer presentation and the latex file which produced it (Please tell me if you use it!!). In the preamble I have a few comments about some of the options available with the beamer class (eg colours, layout, slide counter).
Notes on pdf creation procedures:
(Unix)
1. If you use .ps graphics files, then the procedure: latex - dvips - ps2pdf will work, but the menus won't be clickable.
2. pdflatex does not like .ps graphics files.
(WinEdt)
1. Neither pdftexify or pdflatex will work if there are .ps graphics files.
2. latex - dvips - ps2pdf seems to have clickable menu buttons.
3. dvi->pdf creates an empty pdf file (not good).
4. If you have .pdf image files, latex won't work, but pdftexify does.
| Latex2html | [top] |
Latex2html is a way of using LateX to produce webpages. You need to have \usepackage{html} in the preamble of your LateX document, write the document, and then process it with latex2html file.tex. There are additional options:
| latex2html | -info 0 | sets what processing information is shown at the end of the webpage |
| -nosubdir | doesn't create subdirectories to house section files | |
| -nonavigation | doesn't add navigation buttons at the head of the webpage | |
| -split 0 | doesn't split into multiple latex files |
There is online documentation about latex2html options and tips here.
| More info... | [top] |
There must be loads of latex guides out there, mainly because add-ons become available all the time. Here is a link to the latex organisers: link! Personally, I find the "standard" latex help pages a bit too simplistic.