The Black Latex Grimoire

Have you ever felt like required Latex commands to accomplish a very specific tasks are closer to magic than actual programming? If so, this is a list of spells that took me longer to get right than I'd like to acknowledge ...

EQUATIONS TIPS

Far from obvious ...

• Place an equation in several lines, with a single reference:

  • Place all lines inside a \begin{aligned} \end {aligned} environment

  • If you want them aligned on the left, put an & at the beginning of each line (first, included)

  • End each line, but the last, with \\

• How about spaces within the equation? Depending on how much space you need, use \, \: \; \quad \qquad. \! goes for negative space

More stuff in here.

RECORD CHANGES

Yep. Latex can do that too. Just include the TrackChanges package in your file. Now you can use the following new commands:

\note[editor]{The note}

\annote[editor]{Text to annotate}{The note}

\add[editor]{Text to add}

\remove[editor]{Text to remove}

\change[editor]{Text to remove}{Text to add}

If you are planning to use the [editor] field, you need to declare editors first:

\addeditor{editor one}

\addeditor{editor two}

GLOSSARIES

Pretty, but tricky!

• Add the packages to your main file and put them within your path

• Add new entries to your main file in this format: \newglossaryentry{woman}{name=woman, plural=women, description={Second greatest mistery of the universe, just after time itself} } (example gently provided by Manuel Fdez-Carmona :D)

• Include entries in your main text (any entry not referenced in your text will not appear in the glossary) as:

  • \Gls{woman} --> Woman

  • \gls{woman} ---> woman

  • \Glspl{woman} --> Women

  • \glspl{woman} ---> women

• Compile the whole thing: makeglossaries yourmainfile (the one where the newglossaryentry actually are)

SYMBOL LIST

You know you want one!

• Add the packages to your main file and put them within your path

• Include new symbols in your main file as \newglossary{simbolos}{sim}{sbl}{Listado de Simbolos}

• Add the symbols to your main file as \gls{$symbol$}. Very important!! For some arcane reason, if you use a predefined symbol here, you don't use the slash in gls, e.g. \gls{$eta$} works, \gls{$\eta$} won't!

• Compile your list makeindex -s mainfile.ist -t mainfile.sm -o mainfile.sim mainfile.sbl

PRESENTATIONS IN BEAMER

In the end, it's the easiest way ...

• The Beamer theme matrix

• Making slides ... and doing it with Beamer

• To embed a mp4 video in your PDF presentation:

  • \usepackage[final]{movie15}

  • \includemovie[poster,text={\includegraphics[width=6cm, height=5cm] {yourvideo.jpg}},controls=true,mouse=false]{6cm}{5cm}{yourvideo.mp4}