I'm due to start writing my PhD thesis very soon, and am agonising over whether to use Word or LaTeX. What did you use to write your thesis, and did you come to regret your choice part way through? I would particularly like to hear answers from people who are not in one of the normal LaTeX-using disciplines (maths, computer science...), but all opinions are welcome! More info after the break.
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posted by lizabeth
on Sep 3, 2012 -
35 answers
Where can I find dissertations with excellent design? I would like to directly copy someone's LaTeX formatting for a hard-science thesis.
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posted by tintexas
on Jun 27, 2012 -
9 answers
O typesetters! Describe the principles of font management. Recommend essential font management software. Explain its best and most crucial features, and why I will find them helpful.
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posted by Nomyte
on Oct 21, 2011 -
5 answers
How did basic design work (say, for advertising posters) happen in the analog days? Can I still do it that way today?
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posted by bubukaba
on Jun 8, 2011 -
19 answers
I'm looking for best practices and recommended fonts for typesetting Somali, Farsi, Tamil, Pashto and Punjabi (not sure which script yet). Do you read these languages? Can you point me in the direction of some good-looking examples? Thanks in advance!
posted by avocet
on Mar 18, 2010 -
4 answers
I am looking for a math typesetting style guide. By this I don't mean the kind of stylesheet for journal submissions that says "Be sure to use the blah-blah-blah LaTeX package and the XYZ equation environment, and our army of editorial assistants will tie up the loose ends and knock off the rough edges." (Why not? Because my advisor is involved in starting a new journal, and suddenly my labmates and I
are that army of editorial assistants.)
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posted by nebulawindphone
on Nov 4, 2009 -
11 answers
Commonplace academic book fonts that have ascii slots mapped out for "dot-under" consonants?
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posted by yazi
on Jul 24, 2009 -
10 answers
Say I'm writing a story and I want to emulate the old practice of referring to proper nouns by initials: i.e. Dr. M— from the town of S—. Where and when did this start? Why did they do this? (It hides the person's name, but from the author's perspective, is it to give his story an air of veracity, as with Defoe and Cervantes's works?) Would some names remain hidden and others not? Do I hide the last name only? If a man came from Monte Cristo, would I write M— C— or simply M—? I want as much information on this as possible. The name of this practice, if there is one, might be useful.
posted by Busoni
on Apr 7, 2009 -
13 answers
I've been tasked (by myself and others) with compiling an extensive history of my extended family on one side. More than a family tree, we're compiling stories, photos, everything we can gather about my weirdo relatives. What tools should I use to compile it?
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posted by tmcw
on Mar 27, 2009 -
7 answers
What typographical knowledge from LaTeX can I apply in Word? My professional field insists upon Word documents, so LaTeX is not an option, and results from LaTeX to Word converters have not been satisfactory. So, what can I teach Word, to make it a better typesetter?
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posted by philosophygeek
on Dec 21, 2008 -
18 answers
Latex filter (not that sort). I'm using Latex (with TexShop and Bibdesk) and I need to format a bibliography in a particular way. Please help!
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posted by jonesor
on Oct 8, 2008 -
9 answers
Mac users who write LaTeX documents in Emacs (with or without AucTeX), please tell me about your workflow.
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posted by gleuschk
on Oct 4, 2008 -
10 answers
I am teaching myself typesetting with LaTeX. I learn best by example and so I'm looking for some great examples to follow — especially if they're based on the Memoir class. Ideally, I'd love to find some (public domain) classic literature that stands out as a great study in syntax, style and design. What do you recommend?
posted by tomwheeler
on Sep 18, 2008 -
9 answers
Who wants to share their favorite MS Word 2003 Style themes for writing academic papers?
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posted by billtron
on Apr 7, 2008 -
11 answers
I need to write a document with a lot of algebraic formulas. What word processor / page layout program would make this quickest and
easiest?
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posted by rolypolyman
on Jun 18, 2007 -
25 answers
Attention authors, typesetters, and publishers: Can anyone recommend a good online document-collaboration system?
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posted by EmuBite
on Mar 28, 2006 -
9 answers
Typesetting. I'm typesetting a children's book that'll be available to libraries. One of the components to the book is the "cataloging in publication" data (the frontmatter with the Dewey classification for the book and other pertinent info). Right now, the CIP data isn't much to look at. I'd like to make it a bit more attractive, while not modifying the content. Have any of you (librarians? publishers?) had any experience with this? I've looked for some sort of formatting standard, but I can't find anything that spells it out.
posted by Alt F4
on Dec 14, 2004 -
3 answers
What's the name of the typesetting technique where font size is scaled so that every line, regardless of word length, is made to fill the space horizontally? The result being a perfectly rectangular block of text with each line a slightly different font size.
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posted by Aaorn
on Sep 23, 2004 -
14 answers
