Typesetting and Style

Despite the generic title, this page actually discusses typesetting with LaTeX. It is rather more difficult to get anywhere near LaTeX's standards of quality with any other package, especially when it comes to mathematical or technical documents, so we strongly recommend it for your thesis.

Getting LaTeX

The first part of a working LaTeX environment is a TeX distribution. Depending on your operating system, we recommend the following:

• Windows: use MikTeX.
• OS X: use MacTeX.
• Linux/*nix: your distribution's package management system should offer TeXlive (2008 is preferred as of this writing) for installation.

Yes, TeX is that big.  Most of it is actually font data.  You can in some cases get a stripped down distribution that omits some packages and fonts.

Getting an Editor

The second part is a good editor. While any text editor will do, you should find one that has special LaTeX support, such as syntax highlighting and macro completion. The choice again depends on your OS.

• TeXlipse (multiplatform)
• Windows: TeXnicCenter
• OS X: TeXShop or TextMate
• Linux/*nix: Kile (KDE), Bluefish (Gnome), or—if you're not afraid of them—Emacs (with AucTeX) or Vim (with LaTeX suite) [in no particular order].  Again, your package manager should have them.

Thesis Template

We recommend that you use our thesis template. It supplies most of the basic structure required for a thesis, includes a lot of comments about the packages used and should get you started very quickly.

Learning LaTeX

Finally, you'll have to learn the language. Tobias Oetiker et al., The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX, is a good starting point. Next, since you'll presumably use a lot of math, read the AMS documentation which describes some of the most used equation layouts.  The AMS packages are always distributed with LaTeX.
Between these two, you should be able to start writing your thesis. The following documents will prove useful as you proceed:

• Winston Chang's LaTeX cheat sheet is a very helpful reference for LaTeX commands.
• The Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List lists all sorts of weird, arcane, or mathematical symbols. The title is spot on; if it isn't in there, it most likely doesn't exist yet. Bookmark it.
• Bibliographies are usually handled with BibTeX, which is part of every TeX distribution.  Wikipedia has a nice overview of BibTeX. Your LaTeX environment of choice should handle the compilation side.
  To collect the entries with minimal fuss, browse to Google Scholar. Click "Scholar Preferences", select "Show links to import citations into: BibTeX" at the bottom, "Save Preferences".  Then try an arbitrary scholar search; it will show a link "Import into BibTeX" below the search hit.  Click it and copy the entry into your .bib file, voila.
• For graphics: there is a nice overview by Troy Henderson.

Style and Art

• There is a nice collection of Knuthian wisdom which covers most of the issues that involve mathematics at all.
• For the non-mathematical art side, consult the first part of the Memoir documentation. The document class itself is also very good, though usually overkill for a thesis.
• The Chicago Manual of Style is the preferred style guide for American English.
• We hand around a title page template, ask your supervisor. (If you ever write a paper or book, check if the target journal or publisher has a style guide of its own.)
  

Further reading

These may not have a direct relevance to your thesis, but it still good to know about them.

• Presentations: the beamer package (usually comes with LaTeX) makes slides in LaTeX.  See the comprehensive beamer documentation. (If you're on OS X, note that it is also possible to use LaTeX together with Keynote.  Your resident mac guru can tell you more.)
  
• It is actually possible to generate graphics—especially graphs, commutative diagrams, etc.—right in LaTeX. PGF/TikZ (usually packaged with LaTeX) is the tool of choice. See the PGF documentation or some examples.
• The comp.lang.tex FAQ covers some more difficult, yet frequent, questions.
  

Questions and Feedback

Please contact Thomas Rast (trast@inf.ethz.ch) if you have any questions, feedback or corrections.